Tommy Pitt was a brutal gangster who wanted to be the most feared in Manchester – but his reign of terror was brought to an end, and he will now stay behind bars for the next decade
Even by the gritty standards of Manchester’s gangland scene at the turn of the century, Tommy Pitt’s savage brutality and penchant for violence set him apart. Labelled by a judge as an “infinitely cruel” man who was “obsessed with his own importance”, kidnap, torture and murder were his preferred methods of operation.
Having been groomed in south Manchester’s gangs from a tender age, crime was the only life he knew. He’d done time in a young offenders institution, wielded a gun while barely out of junior school and as a young teen in the early 1990s, he’d plied his trade in the notorious open-air drugs market on the Alexandra Park estate.
On the surface, his background made him a classic gangbanger. But the merciless Pitt possessed something most of his criminal contemporaries lacked – a thirst for revenge and power.
His ambition was nothing less than to become the city’s most feared gangster. In 1997, shortly after his release from a young offenders institution, Pitt established the Longsight-based Pitt Bull Crew or PBC.
He dedicated it to the memory of his late brother Ray, reports the Manchester Evening News. A former leader of the Moss Side-based Doddington gang, “Pit Bull”, as he was known, was gunned down in 1995, aged just 20.
Doddington had amassed wealth through drug dealing in the city – it was rumoured that the Alexandra Park territory alone brought the gang up to £1m annually – and Pitt wanted a piece of the action. His strategy involved recruiting lads as young as 14, who would pedal around south Manchester on mountain bikes peddling heroin and crack.
Studies at the time revealed that the PBC was significantly younger than the other main gangs in south Manchester, with one in four members reportedly under 16. Despite their youth, they were not to be trifled with.
These young dealers, donning bulletproof vests, operated in pairs – and at least one would always be armed. They utilised police scanners to dodge arrest and wore a single golf glove on their shooting hand to prevent leaving fingerprints.
Before long, Pitt was carving out a substantial chunk of the city’s profitable drug trade. However, his success irked rival gang, the Longsight Crew.
When they introduced their own dealers onto Pitt’s territory, he declared war. South Manchester erupted into a frenzy of violence.
In the ensuing weeks, two individuals were killed and four injured during 17 gunfights in what a judge would later label a “fortnight of terror”. The violence kicked off on September 3, 2000, when Longsight Crew member Devon Bell, 22, was fatally shot on Langport Avenue, Moss Side.
A week later, a shoot-out ensued between the two gangs, although no injuries were reported. On the evening of 9 September 2000, Pitt, armed with a MAC-10, encountered two members of the Longsight Crew seated in a car on Fernbrook Close.
His attempt to shoot them was thwarted when his gun jammed, allowing them to escape. He then prowled for other potential victims.
Just around the corner and mere minutes later, he stumbled upon Marcus Greenidge, 21, a drug courier affiliated with the Longsight crew. Despite being armed, Greenidge didn’t have the chance to draw the loaded pistol from his pocket.
He was fatally gunned down in a barrage of machine gun fire. Pitt later bragged: “I’ve just whacked one of the Longsight crew boys.
“I struck with five bullets out of seven.” Fast forward to 19 September, Pitt’s 16 year old accomplice Thomas Ramsey met a violent end, shot twice in the neck with the MAC-10. It was a sorrowful conclusion to a life steeped in firearms and narcotics.
Earlier that year in July, Ramsey, known as “Little Tommy”, had shot a man in the legs with a sawn-off shotgun. He was also suspected of murdering innocent father Judah Dewar in 1999, when he was merely 15, simply because he was behind the wheel of a BMW 3 Series coupe.
Police suspected Pitt orchestrated Ramsey’s murder. Days before his death, the young lad had been instructed by Pitt to relocate a hidden firearm in a Longsight flat.
However, he forgot and on 15 September, police raided the flat, discovering the gun bearing Pitt’s DNA – pivotal evidence that would later contribute to his downfall. Three days later, members of the Pitt Bull gang broke into the flat and discovered the search warrant.
Just 24 hours later, Ramsey was found dead with a copy of the warrant under his outstretched hand. Less than a week after Ramsey’s demise, Pitt himself was shot in the thigh by a hooded man on a mountain bike.
He survived but was soon arrested when one of his gang mates turned police informant. However, even with the ruthless gang leader sidelined, the tit-for-tat gang warfare persisted.
Mohammed Ahmed, a taxi driver moonlighting as a courier for the Longsight Crew, was ambushed by two PBS members and shot four times in the head while sitting in his cab. They then shoved his passenger into a stolen car and drove him to an abandoned railway line in Longsight.
There, he was shot with a sawn-off shotgun, doused in petrol and set ablaze. Miraculously, he survived, albeit with horrific burns.
In early 2002, Pitt, then aged 24, stood trial at Preston Crown Court. He denied all charges against him, but the forensic evidence and the informant’s testimony were compelling.
Although acquitted of Ramsey’s murder, Pitt received a life sentence for the murder of Marcus Greenidge and the attempted murders of three other men. He was also handed a 15-year sentence for conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life, and another 15 years for conspiracy to supply drugs.
James Pickup QC, prosecuting, said Pitt, who he described as “instrumental” in everything the PBC did, seemed to relish the turf war. “He gathered around him young males from the Longsight and West Gorton areas of Manchester, young men who would carry out his criminal bidding whether it was the supply of controlled drugs or the use of violence,” he said.
He continued: “He was comfortable with violence; indeed he seems to have enjoyed involvement in the inter-gang rivalry. He was ruthless in his dealings not only with the Longsight Crew, which he hated, but also with members of his own gang.
“He was not one to be crossed.” Four years later the High Court ruled Pitt must serve at least 30 years in prison before being eligible for parole.
Arguing for his sentence to be increased the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith QC, said Pitt exemplified the “worst excesses of gangsterism”. The ruling means Pitt will not be released until at least 2031.
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