Who is Anthony Hardy? Camden Ripper who murdered three prostitutes dies in prison after contracting sepsis
A 69-year-old serial killer who killed three prostitutes has died in prison after contracting sepsis at Durham's top security Frankland Prison.
Born on May 31, 1951, Anthony John Hardy was a serial killer who is also known as the Camden Ripper for dismembering some of his victims. In November 2003, he was sentenced to three life terms for three murders, but he may have killed up to nine people. His case was also called the famous "bin ban" murder case.
While looking for food, a homeless man looked inside a garbage bin where he found the bodies of two women, badly dismembered, on 30 December 2002, after which he reported it to the police. During a search on the suspected grounds, Hardy was found hiding behind one of the bins.
After that when the police went to fetch him, he started fighting with them, at which he knocked down one cop who became unconscious and another officer was stabbed through the hand and his eye dislocated from its socket. Despite this, the officers held him until backup officers arrived, after which he was arrested. The Department of Police raided his flat and found some very strong evidence, including old bloodstains, indicating the two women had been murdered and dismembered there.
Both had died over the Christmas holidays. Later, the victims were identified as 34-year-old Bridgette Maclennan and 29-year-old Elizabeth Valad. Hardy was arrested a week after the incident.
It was later revealed that he cut his two young victims with an electric saw. Even though the police discovered their bodies, their hands and heads were never found by the police. An unemployed mechanical engineer, Hardy was a father of four children who lived in Camden, North London. A jail insider told The Sun: “He was in poor health. His death makes it two rippers gone in as many weeks. He’s no doubt joined Peter Sutcliffe in Hell. Good riddance.”
An episode of 'Evil Up Close' on the Crime and Investigation Network was based on Hardy and the crimes he committed along with the 2010 decision of punishing him with life imprisonment. The film was directed by Robert Murray and written and produced by Will Hanrahan.
After Hardy was imprisoned in 2003, British rapper Plan B released a song about Hardy, where he dubbed the killer as the 'Camden Ripper', the song broadcasted in 2004.