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The
Peter Manuel
educational web-site.
This site is not designed as a shrine to Scotland's most brutal murderer, but to give an educational insight into the background of this sadistic psychopath...............
My sincere condolences to all of the families concerned.
You will also be provided with a chance of reading the indictment which was passed to the Jury who convicted Manuel, sending him to swing from the gallows at Glasgow's Barlinnie Prison.
A popular misconception in Scotland is that Manuel was the last person to hang in Scotland.............WRONG.........this attribute goes to twenty-one year old Henry Burnett who was hanged on 15 August 1963 at Aberdeen, having been convicted of murder.
Manuel was hanged on Friday 11 July 1958, being the second last person to hang at Barlinnie Prison.
Detective Superintendent James Henry of the then Lanarkshire Constabulary (now Strathclyde Police ) launched a murder enquiry when on 2 January 1956, the body of seventeen year old Anne Kneilands was found at East Kilbride Golf Course. She had been brutally murdered.
Manuel was already a known sexual offender, The Procurator Fiscal's Office were no strangers to him, he had amassed a string of housebreaking (burglary) convictions and they were in possession of a dossier from the police that Manuel had sexually assaulted or raped 3 women.
Born Peter Thomas Anthony Manuel in Manhattan New York in 1927, his family moved to the U.K. when he was five years old. They moved to Motherwell, Scotland then the Coventry area of England before settling in Birkinshaw, Scotland in the outskirts of Glasgow .
It was from here Manuel manifest his love of guns which gave him a feeling of elation and power.
Manuel broke into the dwelling house of a Mr. Platt at 14, Douglas Drive, Bothwell, where he not only stole personal possessions, he discharged his Webley mark iv pistol into the unoccupied bed, damaging the mattress.
His housebreaking spree continued until a more sinister side of him emerged that when on forcing entry to the dwelling house of Mr. Watt, the local baker, 5, Fennsbank Avenue, High Burnside, Rutherglen, he shot dead the three female occupiers. Mr. Watt's wife, her sister and his daughter aged only sixteen were all shot in the head while lying on their beds. Mr. Watt was absent at the time. Suspicion fell upon Mr. Watt and he was wrongly arrested and held at Barlinnie Prison. He was released on 3 December 1957 a broken man.
It was also alleged that Manuel shot dead a taxi driver on 8 December that year, when the body of a Mr. Dunn was found 150 metres away from his vandalized vehicle in Edmondbyers, County Durham, England.
On Christmas day 1957, Manuel broke into to the Reverend Alexander Houston's house at 66, Wester Road, Mount Vernon, where he stole some personal effects. Luckily both the reverend and his wife were visiting friends. Three days later Manuel murdered Isabelle Wallace Cook aged seventeen on the footpath between Mount Vernon Avenue and North Carrick Drive. He buried her behind the site of Garrowhill brickworks. On this very day, Superintendent Hendry retired and his understudy Detective Chief Inspector Muncie was promoted to Detective Superintendent and led the enquiry.
The final act of this mad-man was orchestrated on New Year's day 1958 only 4 days after his last killing. Manuel broke into the dwelling house of Mr. Peter Smart 38, Sheepburn Road, Uddingston, where he shot Mr. Smart, his wife Doris and their ten year old son Michael. Again all three persons were shot in the head. Manuel made regular visits to the house right up until the day of the discovery, he also stole the family car and was driving around the area in it and even had the sheer audacity to provide a police officer in uniform, a lift to his office. The officer was involved in the search for the body of Isabelle Cook, and Manuel as he dropped the officer off at Chester Street (Shettleston) Police Office, commented to him that he thought the police were looking in the wrong place.
On 14 January 1958, Manuel was arrested and formally charged with murder.
This site was born on: 15/3/03 and last updated on: 11/06/2008