Thirty-year-old Joe Gallagher was beloved by his family, an Army veteran and former St. Bede’s College student who became a free spirit in the counterculture whirlwind of the 1970s. He toured with bands, rode motorcycles, hung out with the Hell’s Angels, and was known to use and occasionally sell marijuana. He worked as a taxi driver in Hyde, Greater Manchester, England.
His twenty-year-old girlfriend Frieda Hunter seemed his perfect match: she was originally from Scotland but had moved to the area to attend art school, and was intelligent, well-read, and outdoorsy. She eventually dropped out of school but got a job as a barmaid at the Queens Hotel in Hyde. She and Joe lived together in a house on Hallbottom Street.
In mid-February of 1979, Joe visited his mother Eileen, who later told the media that something appeared to be troubling him. He was much quieter than usual and seemed to want to tell her something. What this was, though, was never determined.
At around midnight on Saturday, February 24th, Joe dropped by the Queens Hotel to pick up Frieda from work. This was the last time the couple was seen alive.
Four days later, a friend became worried after not hearing from Joe, and broke into the house on Hallbottom Street. Inside, he found the lifeless bodies of Joe and Frieda, clutching each other in bed; they had both been beaten savagely in the head and face more than a dozen times with a large hammer.
Because of the pair’s association with rock bands, bikers, and pot smokers, investigators had a hard time gleaning information from friends, who tried to avoid contact with the authorities whenever possible. In addition, because marijuana was still very much criminalized at the time, the public and the media were somewhat judgmental toward the victims, blaming them for their “degenerate” lifestyle.
Detectives were able to determine that whoever killed Joe and Frieda had broken into their home through the kitchen window and had attacked them while they slept. From the position of the bodies on the bed, it looked as though Joe had been attempting to shield Frieda from the blows.
Although Joe’s pay packet was stolen from the home, it was theorized that the motive was likely personal and far more than a simple robbery.
Several suspects were interviewed, but all were eliminated from the inquiry, and the reason behind the vicious crime is still a mystery, nearly half a century later.
Crime Immemorial 