Anthony John Hardy was an English serial killer who was known as the Camden Ripper for dismembering some of his victims.
24 Facts About Anthony Hardy
1.
2.
Anthony Hardy earned an engineer's degree from Imperial College London and subsequently became the manager of a large company.
3.
Anthony Hardy married and fathered three sons and one daughter; in 1982, he was arrested in Tasmania for trying to drown his wife, but the charges were later dropped.
4.
Anthony Hardy was treated in psychiatric hospitals across London for depression, drug-induced psychosis and alcohol abuse.
5.
Anthony Hardy lived in various hostels in London, picking up convictions for theft and being drunk and disorderly.
6.
Anthony Hardy was arrested in 1998 when a prostitute accused him of raping her, but the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
7.
In January 2002, police were called to the block of flats where Anthony Hardy lived by a neighbour complaining that someone had vandalised her front door and that she strongly suspected Anthony Hardy.
8.
Anthony Hardy was identified as Sally White, 38, a woman who had been living in London.
9.
Anthony Hardy pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal damage and claimed he had no knowledge of how White came to be in his flat due to his drinking problem.
10.
Whilst in custody Anthony Hardy was transferred to a psychiatric hospital, under section 37 of the Mental Health Act 1983, remaining there until November 2002.
11.
The investigation led to Anthony Hardy, who was arrested a week later.
12.
Anthony Hardy had gone on the run but was spotted by an off-duty policeman when he went to University College Hospital to collect his prescription for insulin.
13.
Under arrest, Anthony Hardy replied "no comment" to every question put to him by police.
14.
Anthony Hardy was charged with the murders of both MacClennan and Valad, and of White, the woman whose death had originally been put down to natural causes.
15.
Anthony Hardy died of pneumonia at HM Prison Frankland, County Durham, on 25 November 2020, aged 69.
16.
One of the murders Anthony Hardy was originally linked to, that of Paula Fields whose body was dumped in the Regents Canal in 2001, was solved in 2011 when John Sweeney was convicted of her murder.
17.
Possible links between Anthony Hardy and the Parker case were noted in the press as soon as he was apprehended in January 2003, with detectives saying that "he is a suspect for the unsolved murders of any women whose bodies have been cut up and dumped".
18.
Anthony Hardy was 24 years old and was known as Cathy Dennis.
19.
Anthony Hardy travelled around west London seeking clients, moving between Isleworth, Feltham, Hounslow and sometimes the West End, and on the night she disappeared she was in Hounslow.
20.
Anthony Hardy was said to have often started up conversations with strangers.
21.
Two of the murders linked to Anthony Hardy occurred in Nottinghamshire, near to where Anthony Hardy grew up in Burton-on-Trent.
22.
Anthony Hardy was the subject of an episode of Evil Up Close on the Crime and Investigation Network, focusing on the 2010 decision to keep Anthony Hardy in prison for the rest of his life.
23.
Anthony Hardy is mentioned, and his flat pointed out, in the music video "Guided Tour of Camden" by Charlie Sloth.
24.
Anthony Hardy was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary, The Hunt for the Camden Ripper, broadcast in 2004.