UK Hallbottom Street Murders Hyde Manchester UK

[Oriana]

This cold case from the late 1970's remains unresolved, and I'm pretty certain that someone somewhere knows what happened to this couple. Along with the Angel Meadows unsolved murder, also in Manchester, this one needles me. Who knows, the cases may even be related.

February 1979 Joe Gallagher and Frieda Hunter Hyde, Greater Manchester. Joe Gallagher and Frieda Hunter were a young couple bludgeoned to death in the bedroom of their home on Hallbottom Street. The pair were last seen after 20-year-old Frieda was picked up from her Saturday evening shift as a barmaid at a local pub (The Queens in Hyde town centre) by Joe, her 30-year-old boyfriend, four days before their bodies were found. Joe was known to both use cannabis (apparently for medicinal reasons, due to a minor facial disfigurement) and deal in the drug, and had told family members that he had received threats, though no definitive motive for them or for the killings has been established. The killer or killers had broken into the house through the kitchen window, and the bodies of the pair were found when Joe (a taxi driver) had failed to turn up for work. His pay-packet from work appeared to have been stolen, and the couple had been battered to death with a blunt instrument while in bed together, suggesting a late night or early morning break-in.

Who Was The HallBottom Street Hammer Killer?

 

[sportstergirl]

I knew Joe and Frieda from the bike and rock music scene in the late 70s. The Boarded Barn murderers Philip Jenkins, Stephen Anderson and Paul Hebel have been suggested by a former Policeman now a true crime author. Also suggested for the unsolved murder of Leslie Guntrip

 

[Oriana]

I knew Joe and Frieda from the bike and rock music scene in the late 70s. The Boarded Barn murderers Philip Jenkins, Stephen Anderson and Paul Hebel have been suggested by a former Policeman now a true crime author. Also suggested for the unsolved murder of Leslie Guntrip

Hi sportstergirl. Joe and Frieda were bludgeoned to death by someone who broke into their house through the kitchen window as they slept. The motive is unknown, but unlikely in my opinion to have been robbery. The Boarded Barn murders were motivated by robbery and the victims were raped and shot. How did the retired policeman link these two crimes?

 

[sportstergirl]

Proximity and extreme violence. A huge amount of overkill the robbery could have been an attempt to cover the real reason

 

[Oriana]

Proximity and extreme violence. A huge amount of overkill the robbery could have been an attempt to cover the real reason

I think the 40 miles apart distance isn't a particularly close proximity, and the Hyde couple weren't in any way wealthy enough to suggest a robbery. IMO. The overkill of the Hyde couple suggests a personal motive for sure. Do you have a link to the former police officer who is now the crime writer? I'm interested in his theory. I lived in the area at the time of the murder and have heard some interesting theories.

 

[sportstergirl]

Join UK True Crime Facebook & type in the cases in the search part

 

[Grouse]

I just listened to this podcast Joe Gallagher and Frieda Hunter

It didn't add much to what I had found from looking on the net except for a mention that Joe's sister said her mum seemed worried about him after he had paid her a visit, and wondered if he was in trouble/been threatened.

 

[Grouse]

I think the 40 miles apart distance isn't a particularly close proximity, and the Hyde couple weren't in any way wealthy enough to suggest a robbery. IMO. The overkill of the Hyde couple suggests a personal motive for sure. Do you have a link to the former police officer who is now the crime writer? I'm interested in his theory. I lived in the area at the time of the murder and have heard some interesting theories.

BBM - wondering if it may be Bob Bridgestock who now writes with his wife Carol. He was involved on the Boarded Barn case and he and his wife featured in this documentary about it, along with crime writer Simon Toyne.

https://www.itv.com/watch/written-in-blood/10a3278/10a3278a0007

It is mentiones in some podcasts that the Boarded Barn murders were possibly a bungled attempt to recreate a Lesley Whittle type kidnapping (and possibly inspired by that) that went massively wrong. They apparently believed someone else lived there and were going to kidnap his son.