Peter Manuel
By: Jake Challenger Period 2 Dec 4th
Background
Manuel was born in 1927 to Scottish parents. Peters family moved to Detroit Michigan before moving back to Britain in 1932, this. During his childhood he was bullied a lot for being different. Even when he was only 10 years old, he was known to the local police as a petty thief. At the age of sixteen, he committed a number of different sexual attacks that resulted in his serving nine years in the local prison. He had a lot of bad childhood characteristics like a bad attitude, beating up on other people, and threating people on a daily basis.
Motives
Peter had a number if motives for his killings. When he was a child he was bullied everyday for being different from everybody else. All of the bullying made Peter go to a dark place. It made him really mad where he had to go to anger management classes and he would threaten people as early as the age of 8.
Some of his victims. 8 victims in total these are big ones
Anne Kneilands
On 2 January 1956, Anne Kneilands was stalked at a golf course, where she was raped and bludgeoned to death with a length of iron. When the police questioned him about the murder he wouldn't confess to it until two years later, Manuel escaped arrest when his father gave him an alibi. He was charged with this murder in 1958, but the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Marion Watt, Vivienne Watt and Margaret Brown
45, 17 and 41. Marion, her daughter Vivienne, and her sister Margaret were shot dead in their home on 17 September 17th, 1956. At the time of the murders, Manuel was out on bail for a burglary and officers in charge of the manhunt for the Watts’ killer suspected him. The main suspect was Marion’s husband, William, who had been on a fishing holiday , but was suspected of driving around 90 miles through the night, faking a break-in to his own house, murdering his family, and driving back. The ferryman claimed to have seen him on the ferry during the night and a motorist claimed to have passed him. That only left one man to be the suspect and Peter Manuel was later convicted for these murders.
Peter, Doris and Michael Smart
This was another family of three that Peter decided to kill.The Smarts were shot dead on January 1st, 1958. After the murders, Manuel stayed in their household for a week, eating leftovers from a meal and even feeding the family cat, before stealing some things of the family's for Christmas, and later taking the family car and dumping it.
Arrest trial and execution
Arrest, trial and execution
The police new in most of these deaths that Manuel was their number one suspect. Manuel was tried for murder in a sensational trial. In a weird turn of events, Manuel got rid of his lawyers and went on in the trial by himself which was probably not a good idea. He was later charged for all 8 of his murders. He was sentenced to the death penalty where he was hanged on July 11th, 1958 in England. His last words were "Turn up the radio and I’ll go quietly". This is just one example of his sick personality. This got a lot of news coverage in England and in Scotland. He was on the front page of most of the newspapers and one newspaper actually made a claim that they think that Manuel committed even more murders than he was convicted for.
Sources
"Peter Manuel - Glasgow Serial Killer - Murder UK - The UK's Leading Murder Database." Peter Manuel - Glasgow Serial Killer - Murder UK - The UK's Leading Murder Database. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.
"Peter Manuel - Scotland’s Worst Serial Killer." Peter Manuel - Scotland’s Worst Serial Killer. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.