FIENDISH KILLERS (True Crime) by Anne Williams, Vivian Head, Amy Williams Page A
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forty-one, and Watt’s sixteen-year-old daughter Vivienne, who were all found shot at point blank range in their home at High Burnside, Glasgow. At the time, Watt’s husband, William, a baker who owned a chain of shops, was away on a fishing trip. Suspicion fell on Manuel and he was taken in to the police station for questioning, but once again he managed to persuade the police that he was innocent. Despite the fact that Manuel had been in the area at the time, and had been out on bail for a burglary at a local colliery, the police were unable to find concrete evidence that he was the culprit.
Two weeks after the incident, Manuel was convicted of the colliery burglary and received a jail sentence of eighteen months. In a pattern that was to become familiar, the murders ceased while he was in jail and started again when he was released. By December 1957, Manuel was at large again, and this time went to Newcastle-upon-Tyne where he shot dead a taxi driver named Sydney Dunn. He then returned to Scotland, where the senseless killings continued, instilling terror into the local population. What puzzled police, and the media, was that unlike most serial killers there appeared to be no pattern to his murders and no motive for his crimes. In most cases, he appeared to shoot or beat to death people who were simply in his way, as if he was killing just for the pleasure of it.
F AMILY KILLING
His next victim, in 1957, was a seventeen-year-old girl named Isabelle Cooke, who set off from her home in Mount Vernon, a district of Glasgow, to attend a dance at a local school, Uddingston Grammar. Her family were alerted when she failed to return, and later her body was found buried in a field nearby. A year later, Manuel struck again. This time the victims were a family – forty-five-year-old Peter Smart, his wife Doris, and their son, ten-year-old Michael, whom he shot at point blank range in their home in Uddingston on New Year’s Day 1958. It was impossible to understand what had led Manuel to pick on this innocent family, but one fact was beginning to become clear: that a violent, remorseless murderer was on the loose, who apparently killed at random. The local population were, understandably, terrified and pressure began to build to find the killer and put him behind bars as soon as possible.
After shooting the Smart family, Manuel had stolen a number of new banknotes from their home and used them to buy drinks at a local bar. It was this that led to his downfall. A sharp-eyed bartender became suspicious when Manuel produced the wad of notes and alerted the police, who managed to trace the notes back to Peter Smart’s possession. It emerged that the serial numbers of the banknotes matched those paid to Smart before the New Year holiday. The police now had some firm evidence linking Manuel to the murders, and accordingly he was arrested and questioned. Eventually, he was charged with seven murders, although it was believed that he had committed as many as fifteen in all.
B LACK CLOUD OF TERROR
Arrogant as ever, Manuel decided to conduct his own defence, adopting a plea of insanity. However, the jury refused to believe that he was insane, and after a highly publicised trial, he was convicted of all seven of the murders. He received the death penalty, and on July 11, 1958, he was hanged at Barlinnie prison in Glasgow. He was thirty-one years old. He was the second to last person to be hanged at the prison, and the third last to be hanged in the whole of Scotland. It was said that when his body swung from the gallows, the whole of the Scottish nation breathed a sigh of relief and a black cloud of terror was lifted from the land.
The case of Peter Manuel continues to fascinate commentators, since it is still somewhat of a mystery as to why he killed in such a random fashion. Even in the rough world of Glasgow during the 1950s, where gangland violence was common, Manuel was an unusually callous and psychopathic
Two weeks after the incident, Manuel was convicted of the colliery burglary and received a jail sentence of eighteen months. In a pattern that was to become familiar, the murders ceased while he was in jail and started again when he was released. By December 1957, Manuel was at large again, and this time went to Newcastle-upon-Tyne where he shot dead a taxi driver named Sydney Dunn. He then returned to Scotland, where the senseless killings continued, instilling terror into the local population. What puzzled police, and the media, was that unlike most serial killers there appeared to be no pattern to his murders and no motive for his crimes. In most cases, he appeared to shoot or beat to death people who were simply in his way, as if he was killing just for the pleasure of it.
F AMILY KILLING
His next victim, in 1957, was a seventeen-year-old girl named Isabelle Cooke, who set off from her home in Mount Vernon, a district of Glasgow, to attend a dance at a local school, Uddingston Grammar. Her family were alerted when she failed to return, and later her body was found buried in a field nearby. A year later, Manuel struck again. This time the victims were a family – forty-five-year-old Peter Smart, his wife Doris, and their son, ten-year-old Michael, whom he shot at point blank range in their home in Uddingston on New Year’s Day 1958. It was impossible to understand what had led Manuel to pick on this innocent family, but one fact was beginning to become clear: that a violent, remorseless murderer was on the loose, who apparently killed at random. The local population were, understandably, terrified and pressure began to build to find the killer and put him behind bars as soon as possible.
After shooting the Smart family, Manuel had stolen a number of new banknotes from their home and used them to buy drinks at a local bar. It was this that led to his downfall. A sharp-eyed bartender became suspicious when Manuel produced the wad of notes and alerted the police, who managed to trace the notes back to Peter Smart’s possession. It emerged that the serial numbers of the banknotes matched those paid to Smart before the New Year holiday. The police now had some firm evidence linking Manuel to the murders, and accordingly he was arrested and questioned. Eventually, he was charged with seven murders, although it was believed that he had committed as many as fifteen in all.
B LACK CLOUD OF TERROR
Arrogant as ever, Manuel decided to conduct his own defence, adopting a plea of insanity. However, the jury refused to believe that he was insane, and after a highly publicised trial, he was convicted of all seven of the murders. He received the death penalty, and on July 11, 1958, he was hanged at Barlinnie prison in Glasgow. He was thirty-one years old. He was the second to last person to be hanged at the prison, and the third last to be hanged in the whole of Scotland. It was said that when his body swung from the gallows, the whole of the Scottish nation breathed a sigh of relief and a black cloud of terror was lifted from the land.
The case of Peter Manuel continues to fascinate commentators, since it is still somewhat of a mystery as to why he killed in such a random fashion. Even in the rough world of Glasgow during the 1950s, where gangland violence was common, Manuel was an unusually callous and psychopathic
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