Even by the standards of turn of the century gangland Manchester, Tommy Pitt's brutality and propensity for violence set him apart.

Described by a judge as an 'infinitely cruel' man who was 'obsessed with his own importance', kidnap, torture and murder was his preferred way of doing business. But having been schooled in south Manchester's gangs from an early age, crime was the only life he knew.

He'd served time in a young offenders institution, been a gunman while barely out of junior school and as a young teen in the early 90s, he'd worked the notorious open-air drugs bazaar on the Alexandra Park estate. On the face of it his background made him textbook gangbanger material.

But the ruthless Pitt had something most of his criminal peers didn't - a lust for vengeance and power. He wanted nothing less than to become the city's most feared gangster.

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In 1997, soon after his release from a young offenders institution, Pitt founded the Longsight-based Pitt Bull Crew or PBC. He dedicated it to the memory of his late brother Ray. A one-time leader of the Moss Side-based Doddington gang, 'Pit Bull', as he was known, was shot dead in 1995, aged just 20.

Doddington had made fortunes selling drugs in the city - the Alexandra Park patch alone was said to have earnt the gang up to £1m a year - and Pitt wanted his slice of the pie. His method was to recruit boys as a young as 14, who would ride around south Manchester on mountain bikes selling heroin and crack.

Research at the time found the PBC was by far the youngest of south Manchester's then four main gangs, with one in four of its members said to be under 16. But despite their tender years, they were not to be messed with.

The young bullet proof vest-wearing dealers worked in pairs - and at least one would always be armed.

They used police scanners to evade capture and and wore a single golf glove on their shooting hand to avoid fingerprints. And soon Pitt was carving out a sizeable piece of the city's lucrative drugs trade

But his success riled rival gang the Longsight Crew And when they put their own dealers on Pitt's turf he declared war. South Manchester exploded in an orgy of violence.

Over the next few weeks two people were killed and four injured during 17 gun battles in what a judge would later describe as a 'fortnight of terror'.

It began on September 3, 2000 when Longsight Crew member Devon Bell, 22, was shot dead on Langport Avenue, Moss Side. A week later a shoot-out took place between the two gangs, although no-one was injured.

On the night of September 9, 2000, Pitt, armed with the MAC-10 came across two Longsight Crew members sat in a car on Fernbrook Close. He tried to shoot them, but the gun jammed and they drove off.

He began searching for other targets. A few minutes later and just around the corner he found Marcus Greenidge, 21, a drugs courier with the Longsight crew.

Greenidge was armed, but didn't have time to reach the loaded pistol in his pocket. He died in a hail of machine gun fire. Pitt later boasted: 'I've just whacked one of the Longsight crew boys. I struck with five bullets out of seven.'

Then on September 19, Pitt's 16-year-old henchman Thomas Ramsey was murdered, shot twice in the neck with the MAC-10. It was a tragic end to a life lived under a cloud of guns and drugs.

In July of that year Ramsey, who was known as 'Little Tommy', had shot a man in the legs with a sawn-off shotgun, and he was suspected of having murdered innocent father Judah Dewar, in 1999, when he was just 15, simply because he was driving a BMW 3 Series coupe. Police suspected Pitt was behind Ramsey's killing.

A few days before his death the youngster had been ordered by Pitt to move a gun which was hidden in a flat in Longsight. But he forgot and on September 15, police had raided the flat and found the gun with Pitt's DNA on it - crucial evidence which would later help seal his downfall.

Three days later Pitt Bull members broke into the flat and found the search warrant. Some 24 hours later Ramsey was found dead - a copy of the warrant was found underneath his outstretched hand.

Less than a week after Ramsey's death, Pitt was himself shot, hit in the thigh by a hooded man on a mountain bike. He survived, but was arrested soon afterwards when one of his fellow gang members turned police informer.

But even with the ruthless gang boss out of the picture the tit-for-tat gang war continued. Mohammed Ahmed, a taxi driver who was working as a courier for the Longsight Crew, was ambushed by two PBS members and shot four times in the head as he sat in his cab.

They then bundled his passenger into a stolen car and took him to a disused railway line in Longsight. He was shot with a sawn-off shotgun, doused with petrol and set alight. Remarkably he survived, although he suffered horrific burns.

In early 2002, Pitt, then aged 24, went on trial at Preston Crown Court. He denied all the charges against him, but the forensic evidence against him and testimony by the informer was strong.

Though he was cleared of Ramsey's murder, Pitt was jailed for life for the murder of Marcus Greenidge and the attempted murders of three other men. He was also given a 15 year sentence for conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life, and a further 15 years for conspiracy to supply drugs.

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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 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.