Archive Crime Drugs Vice Gangster's boast over gun hoard
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Stabbed days before a documentary about him was due to be aired, hundreds of people attended the 45-year-old's funeral in south Manchester in April. His body arrived at the Chorlton church in a horse-drawn hearse, as a kilted pipe band played on. To an ordinary onlooker, it could have been the funeral of a celebrity or prominent local dignitary. His brother, Dominic, said he would have loved all the attention. Derek McDuffus, 41, of Merseybank Avenue in Chorlton, Manchester, was convicted of the murder of Noonan on Monday.
But it was aired on 22 March, after police attempts to halt the screening were overturned in the High Court. In the programme, Mr Noonan, known as Dessie, said he had killed more than 20 people. He told Mr MacIntyre: "We have a lot of strong loyal people around us. We will always have that. If they think they can take one of us out, they are silly people. Very silly people." Originally from Dublin, he had a string of convictions and was once described in court as a "psycho". Police officers stepped up patrols after his body was dumped in Merseybank Avenue, Chorlton, early in the morning of 19 March. In the months before his death Mr Noonan became a crack addict and regularly used his criminal reputation to get free drugs from local dealers. Many dealers refused to deal with him and he sent others to buy his drugs On his last night alive he was described as extremely drunk when he left the Park pub in Northern Moor and knocked on several peoples' doors to get them to buy drugs for him. No-one could help so he went directly to McDuffus, who had once vowed to kill Mr Noonan. Life of crime Police said what happened next was unclear but the gangster was found bleeding on the pavement after phoning his wife for help. Mr Noonan revelled in his notoriety but it was left to Det Ch Insp Shaun Donnellan, who led the investigation, to provide his epitaph. "This case also has several very strong messages that I want people who wish to live a criminal lifestyle to pay heed to. Desmond Noonan lived a violent and often illegal life," he said. "He considered himself to be a powerful person within the criminal world, even declaring himself untouchable to television cameras. Yet he died addicted to drugs and laying on the pavement having had an argument with a drug dealer. "His life and even his death may appear glamorous to some, but I can assure you it was not."
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Desmond Noonan was a self-confessed gangster who bragged about having "more guns than the police". 
Greater Manchester Police tried to stop a channel Five documentary about Noonan's life, called MacIntyre's Underworld, being broadcast.