Chris Little - Northern Gangster

In the annals of northern crime there are plenty of individuals who have never been given widespread publicity unlike various individuals and gangs in both Manchester & Salford.  In Stockport, one man tried to claim that he controlled the town.  This was a hulk of a man called Chris Little and he had the extreme violence to intimidate the townspeople, and tried it with the Police.  As usually happens with these people who think they are "Untouchable" and also walk on water, is they end up crossing up the wrong people and they wind up dead.

    Little was born in 1963 and his criminal path started whilst at school, selling drugs to other pupils.  After leaving school, he graduated to boxing, start ing as an amateur then turning professional under the tutelage of well known promoter Jack Trickett, a close friend of the so-called Quality Street Gang.  Littles` pro career did not add up to much and his best oponent was Johhny Nelson, a Sheffield fighter who ent on to win one of the World Cruiserweight titles.  He turned to running doormen and one night he gathered a contingent of them to invade a club in Mancheter.  In the club, they attacked doormen then escaped as Police arrived.  They were all arrested and taken to court, but only Little was jailed.  He received 18 months.  Whilst inside he worked constantly on the weights, and then once released, went back to violence and crime.  Anybody who crossed him met with extreme violence.  A man was thrown off a bridge by Little and some of his henchmen, on to the M63 motorway, but it was a csase of mistaken identity.  The victim was in a coma for ten weeks.  Another man was thrown from a block of flats.  One man received a ferocious beating at the hands of Little who had it filmed so it could be shown to people in order to intimidate them.

    One day, Little went abroad on vacation but before he left, he arranged for a number of street scallies to firebomb a number of buildings.  This was his attempt to intimidate the Police and also to tell them that Stockport "Belonged to him".  Local journalists and magstrates received threatening phonecalls.  The trouble was, Police could not find anybody willing to testify against him.  But one day, he assaulted a head of a door firm, and a squad of heavies went looking for Little.  He was either going to be very seriously injured or killed.  Luckily for him, the Police got wind of it and stopped the posse on route, charging them all with conspiracy.  Little gave evidence on their behalf, in order to cool the situation down, knowing that it was his only chance of avoiding maimimg or death.

    He returned to his ways of intimidation and violence.  Nobody, young or old, was safe from him.  Finally, somebody had decided "Enough was enough" and on July 22nd 1994, whilst out in his expensive Mercedes, he was going through the Cheshire village of Marple when a car dew alongside and a shotgun exploded, killing Little.  Three men were later put on trial but were acquitted.  "Live by the sword, die by the sword".  Appropriate isn`t it?