4 episodes · 13th January 2019
Peter Manuel was a Scottish serial killer who killed at least eight people between 1956 - 1958 around the Greater Glasgow area in Scotland. Manuel had prison for a string of sexual attacks but on his release it didn't take long for his psychopathic behaviour to escalate. He fell under the police's radar several times but each time was let go, free to kill further. Manuel's parents would always give their son an alibi. His father especially would go to great lengths to protect him from justice. When he was finally tracked down and arrested for the murder of a family, who he shot dead in their own home, Manuel sensationally defended himself in court. But it would be his mother's testimony which would prove to be crucial to the outcome.
Born in 1832 the story of the Black Widow is a tale of classic Victorian murder. Cotton travelled around the north east of England marrying lonely men getting them to take out life insurance and then murdering them. Arsenic was her preferred means of killing. Once dead she would cash in their life insurance. It was not only her husbands who were the victims, she is also thought to have murdered 11 of her children/step children too. Thanks to the endeavour of a man called Thomas Riley, Mary Ann Cotton was finally brought to justice and hanged for the murder of her final victim, 10 year old Charles Edward Cotton.
Dr Ruxton was an Indian born physician. He lived a quiet, respectable life in Lancaster but had a violent jealous streak. He had accused his wife of infidelity for years but in September 1935 Ruxton's jealousy got the better of him. He beat, strangled and stabbed her to death then did the same to the housemaid who witnessed the killing. Ruxton dismembered the bodies to remove identification marks and dumped them across the border in Scotland. Local police were dumbfounded as to who the bodies were, the press had a field day but still no one could identify the two bodies. It was a scrap of newsprint used to wrap the body parts in that was identified as a publication only available in Lancaster. The police soon honed in on Ruxton.
Three police officers were murdered in Shepherds Bush on Friday 12th August 1966 by Harry Roberts and two others. After the killing they went on the run and a huge manhunt ensued. One assailant was captured within hours, the second was found 4 days later in Glasgow but Roberts hid in Thorley Wood near Bishop Stortford and used his army training to survive for three months until he was finally arrested. The notion that someone had killed several policemen shocked the public and attracted a lot of press attention. As the act of murder happened six months after the death penalty had been suspended, many people called for it's return. Two of the assailants died in prison but the gunman, Harry Roberts was released after spending 48 years behind bars.
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