Murder was Just A Game To Him…
Seems he wanted to star in his own courtroom drama
in 1956 a 17-year-old girl was raped and battered to death in Birkenshaw, Scotland.
The Press dubbed her murderer the ‘Beast of Birkenshaw’ – and he’d go on to kill seven more.
One of his victims included Isabelle Cooke,17, who went missing on her way to a dance.
She was raped, strangled and buried in a field.
And, on New Year’s Day 1958, Peter Smart, 45, his wife Doris, 42, and 10-year-old son Michael were all shot in the head as they lay in bed.
The Beast stayed in the Smart’s house for a week after the killings – eating leftovers, feeding the family cat. However, shortly after murdering them, the Beast slipped up. He’d stolen some bank notes from the family and was caught using them to buy drinks in town.
The man was Peter Manuel, 31.
He confessed to eight murders and even led police to where he’d buried the body of Isabelle Cooke.
In a shocking move, though, he sacked his lawyers and defended himself in court, pleading not guilty. Many believed this was a sick move to star in his own courtroom drama and brag about his crimes, in order to establish lasting infamy. Manuel was found guilty of seven murders and sentenced to death. He was hanged in July 1958. Since then, a TV drama series about his crimes, In Plain Sight, was made. It would seem that the serial killer who craved notoriety got his wish.