The discovery of a handless corpse in a flooded quarry near Chorley was clearly going to be front page news.
Two diving enthusiasts had uncovered the battered and butchered body, trapped on a ledge 25ft below the surface.
His insides had been gutted and his legs tied with weights, intended to sink him without a trace to the murky bottom of Eccleston Delph.
The grim discovery shocked the community – and caused waves around the globe.
For what the divers had uncovered was not just a mutilated man's body but the key to unlocking a worldwide drugs ring which stretched all the way to New Zealand.
Peter Richardson was the Evening Post's Chorley district reporter at the time and recalls racing to the scene on a crisp October day in 1979.
"The story had everything," Peter recalls. "As a journalist, you couldn't fail.
"People nowadays have got a bit blase about crime and violence in general.
"Back then, a murder would automatically get big coverage and a pack of reporters descended on the town."
It was a tip-off from a policeman in a pub that ignited the story and grabbed the interest of newspapers and TV stations across the world.
For the full feature see Monday's Lancashire Evening Post.
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