Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
KEEPSAKES OF A TWISTED KILLER
Bullseye murderer’s 500 sets of keys from houses he burgled
He prowled the fields at night, looking for victims STEVE WILKINS ON SICK COOPER’S GRIM METHOD
SERIAL killer John Cooper hid 500 sets of house keys in the cesspit at his home as mementoes, the Mirror can reveal.
The 76-year-old monster is serving life for four murders in Pembrokeshire, west Wales.
Cooper shot siblings Helen and Richard Thomas at their manor house near Milford Haven in 1985.
Four years later, he murdered husband and wife Peter and Gwenda Dixon on a coastal path near Pembroke.
Footage from his appearance on Bullseye in 1990 helped cold-case review officers nail him 21 years on, by matching his look on the gameshow to a sketch of the suspect.
And former Det Supt Steve Wilkins, who brought Cooper to justice, told The Mirror how he went from Peeping Tom and burglar to savage killer.
He added Cooper had a huge ego and kept trophies from victims to “re-live that control” he had over them.
The retired Dyfed-powys officer, now 61, said: “Here is a guy that started off as a prolific dwelling house burglar and his MO was always the same.
“He lived in a rural area surrounded by fields and used to prowl those fields at night.
“He was a planner. He knew the hedgerows, the nighttime landmarks… he used to cut fences in a way that helped him if he had to escape.
“He started out as a Peeping
Tom – he would always attack females in houses backing on to fields. After that, he progresses to burglary realising he can steal items and cash he can use to fund his addictive gambling.
“He starts to get confronted by homeowners so progresses to robbery and that control and the disproportionate violence would sexually arouse him.
“Then we get to the sexual element of his crimes.” Cooper
was already serving 14 years in prison for a string of violent raids when Mr Wilkins began his investigations in 2006.
Much of what Cooper had stolen was “worthless”, Mr Wilkins said, but that did not stop him keeping “trophies” at his Haverfordwest home.
“When they searched his house, they found 500 sets of keys hidden in the cesspit,” Mr Wilkins said. “The shorts which
had DNA which led to his conviction, he stole from Gwenda Dixon when he murdered her.”
Giving an insight into the killer’s psyche, Mr Wilkins said Cooper had “a very inflated opinion of himself ”.
“He thought of himself as a businessman after winning £98,000 in a spot-the-ball competition – about £300,000 in today’s money.
“He suddenly decides, ‘We’re going to be turkey farmers’, and it fails straight away.
“He then buys a race horse for £2,000 but brings it back on the motorway in a cheap horsebox with a rotten floor, so the poor horse falls through the floor on the motorway and breaks its legs.
“He frittered away his winnings but when asked about it, it was always somebody else’s fault.”
The probe into the Cooper was turned into a book and a three-part ITV drama starring Luke Evans and Keith Allen.
It was watched by millions earlier this week.