Back in the early 1990s, the city of Manchester in the northwest of England was a place with big ambitions.
City Council put together an effort for a second Olympic bid, and in many areas, there were large-scale projects to resurrect the city’s industrial reputation.
At that time, Manchester had changed over the decades toward betterment, but improvements happened at a much slower pace in some districts.
Some even said the 1990s Manchester was a city of superficial growth marked by a striking contrast between burgeoning trendy establishments and inland waterways.
Not far away was an endemic of poverty, street violence, and drug culture. The houses at Langworthy Road in the district of Moston were a testament to such a contrast.
In those houses in late 1992 was one of the most extreme cases of violent crime across England.
Suzanne Capper, a 16-year-old girl from Bewley Walk, also in Moston, was kidnapped and kept prisoner in a house at Langworthy for seven days, during which the captors subjected her to brutal physical violence over a dispute of misplaced duffel jacket and pubic lice before eventually taking her to a secluded area in the outskirts of Stockport and burning her alive.
10 /10 Searching For Home
Suzanne was 14 years old when her parents divorced. After the divorce, Suzanne lived with her stepfather at Bewley Walk, but she never felt home there.
Instead, she found what she thought was comfort in the company of Clifford Pook, a boy of the same age whom she met by a chance encounter by the side of the road.
Soon after this initial encounter, Suzanne frequently visited Langworthy Road No. 97, where Clifford’s sister Jane Powell (26) lived.
Suzanne would often stay the night, and instead of going to school the next day, she would spend time with Jean.
9 /10 Neighbors And Acquaintances
Three doors away at house No. 91 was Bernadette McNeilly (23), a new neighbor who eventually ended up moving into house #97 as well. Jean and Bernadette had three children each.
Bernadette was often seen together with her boyfriend, Anthony Dudson (16). Another frequent visitor was Jeffrey Leigh (26), a former prison inmate, mostly to get his dose of amphetamines.
Glyn Powell (28), the estranged husband of Jean’s, was also there now and then. This group that Suzanne at first saw as friends was a bunch of drug users and dealers.