The Manuel Murders – 1956-58 – Glasgow Police Museum (2024)

The Manuel Murders – 1956-58 – Glasgow Police Museum (1)

Perhaps the series ofcrimes most remembered and discussed by visitors to our GlasgowPolice Museum, are the murders committed by Peter Manuel in theperiod 1956-57. Women, now in their sixties, vividly remember thefear they experienced during this time. Fathers or elder brothersmet young women from evening buses and young people returning from anight out would band together to make sure they got home safely. This was the effect that Peter Manuel had on the people ofLanarkshire and eastern Glasgow during his two year reign of terror.

Peter Manuel was thesecond of three children to be born to Samuel and Bridget Manuel. Surprisingly, he was born in the Misere Cordia Hosptial in Manhattan,New York on 15 March 1927. His parents had emigrated to America toseek a better life during the Depression of the 1920’s. They triedto settle in Detroit, Michigan, with Samuel working in a car factoryand Bridget working as a domestic servant, but Samuel became ill andpoverty drove them back to Scotland in 1932. They were unsettled ontheir return and moved from Motherwell to Coventry in 1937. Peterwas ten years of age and had an American accent. He did not settleinto English school life.

Peter’s first brushwith the law was in 1938 when he broke into a chapel and stole theoffertory box. He was never out of trouble over the next few yearsand was a regular inmate of the borstals and approved schools. Whenhe was 15 he committed his first act of violence when he attacked asleeping woman with a hammer during one of his housebreakingventures. For this he went to Leeds Prison. About this time hisparents moved back to Lanarkshire after they lost their home to thebombing of Coventry, and Peter followed after he was released fromborstal.

On 16 February 1946, Peter Manuel broke into a bungalow in the Sandyhills area of Lanarkshire. Detective Constable William Muncie (later ACC in Strathclyde Police) and a local sergeant searched the house and found a bedroom in the loft. Having satisfied themselves it was empty, they gathered the productions together and took them away for fingerprint examination.

The Manuel Murders – 1956-58 – Glasgow Police Museum (2)

Later that day, realising he had forgotten a cup in the kitchen of the house that appeared to have a fingerprint on it, D.C. Muncie returned to the house in time to see Manuel emerge from the garden. He apprehended him. He established that Manuel had been living in the house and had hidden behind wood panelling in the loft when the house was searched. While on bail for this offence, he committed three assaults on women, including a rape on an expectant mother. He got eight years imprisonment in Peterhead Prison and also won the praise of the judge for the skill with which he conducted his own defence! He was released in the summer of 1953, aged 26.

The afternoon ofWednesday 4 January 1956, was to mark the beginning of one of thelargest police investigations Scotland has ever seen which would lastfor exactly two years. It was a cold, dry afternoon and GeorgeGribbon was taking a walk on a golf course in East Kilbride when hefound the body of a young woman in a wooded area known as CapelrigCopse. Sickened by the sight, Gribbon ran towards the road and sawsome Gas Board engineers. His frantic description was taken as ajoke by the workers and he ran off towards Calderglen Farm, fromwhere he called the police.

The first officers at the scene found that the dead woman’s head had been smashed in. They also saw the marks of running feet in the mud which indicated that the woman had run for her life for over 400 yards. She had also been indecently assaulted.

The Manuel Murders – 1956-58 – Glasgow Police Museum (3)

The woman was identified as Anne Kneilands, a 17 year old who had lived with her parents on the Calderwood Estate. She had gone dancing during the Hogmanay holiday on 2 January but had not returned. Her parents, thinking she was staying at a friend’s home, did not report her missing until the morning of 4 January.

The large investigationteam was lead by Detective Chief Superintendent James Hendry ofLanarkshire CID and, from its early stages, Peter Manuel’s name wasmentioned frequently. One instance of this was when Constable JamesMarr, on speaking to the foreman of the Gas Board gang, who had beenworking near where the body had been found, remarked that one of hisworkers, Peter Manuel, had been to prison for rape and had scratcheson his face that were not there before 2 January. He was interviewedby Detective Chief Supt. Hendry but his father provided an alibi andfurther attempts to find evidence proved negative.

On 15 September 1956,police were called to a break-in at a home in Bothwell which bore allof Manuel’s hallmarks. Tins of food had been thrown onto thecarpet and muddy boot marks were on the bedding. The next evening,there was a similar break-in at 18 Fennsbank Avenue, Burnside, and aquantity of cash and jewellery was taken. Again food tins wereemptied onto the carpet and footprints were left on the bedding.

The next morning, 17 September, police were called to 5 Fennsbank Avenue, the house of the Watt family. William Watt was on a fishing holiday in Argyll, and left at home was his wife, Marion, his daughter Vivienne (aged 16) and his wife’s sister Margaret Brown.

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The daily help, Helen Collinson, had arrived at the house to find the curtains pulled and a glass panel on the front door broken. When the police entered the house they found Marion Watt, Margaret Brown and Vivienne Watt shot dead in their beds. It was later established that a Webley service revolver had been the murder weapon.

The policeinvestigation again included Peter Manuel and they obtained a searchwarrant for his parent’s house at 32 Fourth Street, Uddingston, butto no avail. Manuel also refused to speak to them and his fathercomplained that the family were being victimised by the police.

The police alsosuspected that William Watt, a former War Reserve Policeman, may havebeen involved in the deaths. Extensive tests were carried out toverify if Watt had driven back to Glasgow overnight, murdered thewomen, then returned to Lochgilphead to complete his alibi. Whilstthe results of most of the tests were inconclusive, a ferry masterand another motorist identified Watt as having made the journey andboth identified him in an identification parade. William Watt wasarrested, charged with the three murders and held in BarlinniePrison.

Whilst William Watt wasin Barlinnie Prison, Manuel was also held there. Manuel sought outWatt and told him he knew who the real killer was. LawrenceDowdall, Watt’s solicitor, also interviewed Manuel and wasconvinced that Manuel was the killer. Manuel was also interviewed bydetectives, but refused to speak to them. After 67 days in custody,the case against William Watt had collapsed and he was released.

On Sunday 29 December1957, William Cooke of Mount Vernon, Lanarkshire, reported his 17year old daughter Isabelle missing to the police. She had gone to adance the night before, but had not returned starting a franticsearch by members of the family.

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As part of theinvestigation, the police searched the River Calder and found one ofIsabelle’s shoes and her handbag as well as other personal effects. Detective Inspector John Rae and Chief Inspector Muncie were amongthe senior officers investigating the girl’s disappearance. Detective Chief Supt. Hendry had retired on the very day IsabelleCooke was reported missing.

On Monday 6 January,1958, while Chief Inspector Muncie was leading a search of the areaaround a colliery air-shaft, he looked up to see Chief Constable JohnWilson of Lanarkshire standing beside him. To his horror, Mr. Wilsontold him that three people had been found shot in a bungalow inUddingston.

At this point, theChief Constable of Lanarkshire requested the assistance of two seniordetectives from the City of Glasgow Police and DetectiveSuperintendent Alex Brown and Detective Inspector Tom Goodall wereseconded to the enquiry.

The house at 38 Sheepburn Road, Uddingston, belonged to the Smart family. Peter Smart (45), his wife Doris and their 11 year old son Michael lived in the house and their bodies were found after Mr. Smart had failed to turn up to work that Monday morning.

The Manuel Murders – 1956-58 – Glasgow Police Museum (6)

All three had been shot through the head with a Beretta pistol at point blank range while they were sleeping. Enquiries with friends and unopened mail indicated that they had been dead for several days. There was also evidence from neighbours that during that time, curtains had been opened and closed and lights switched on and off. This indicated that the killer had remained in the house with the bodies or returned several times without being seen. Mr. Smart’s car had also been stolen and it was later established that Manuel, whilst driving the car, had offered a lift to a policeman.

Detective Chief Inspector Muncie was intrigued by these circumstances and remembered his arrest of Manuel in 1946 when he had slept in the loft of a house after breaking into it. Other evidence was accumulating against Manuel, but the final piece of the ‘jig-saw’ was that banknotes from the Smart household were found to have been spent by Manuel in local public houses. On 14 January 1958, Manuel was arrested and charged with the murder of the Smart family.

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A search of Manuel’sparent’s home produced items stolen from a housebreaking in MountVernon and, as the items had been in Samuel Manuel’s room, he wasarrested for reset of the items.

When Manuel heard ofhis father’s arrest he immediately asked for a meeting withInspector Robert McNeill of the enquiry team. At 3pm on 15 January1958, Inspector McNeill and Detective Inspector Tom Goodall enteredManuel’s cell and he offered the officers a deal. If his fatherwas released, he would make a clean breast of the crimes and take theofficers to where Isabelle Cooke was buried and the place where hethrew the guns in the River Clyde. This began a long series ofconfessions by Manuel to the murder of Anne Knielands, the Watt andSmart families and Isabelle Cooke. Eight murders which would makehim Scotland’s most prolific mass murderer. He was also the primesuspect in the murder of a Newcastle taxi driver, Sydney Dunn, on 8December 1957, while in the town for a job interview.

The trial of PeterManuel which opened at Glasgow High Court on Monday 12 May 1958, wasto last fourteen days and is one of the most documented trials in thehistory of the Scottish Criminal Justice system. Not only was thetrial surprisingly short by modern standards, but it took the juryonly two hours and twenty-one minutes of deliberations to convicthim. He was sentenced to death at 4.45pm on 26 May 1958 which,after a failed appeal, was carried out at 8am on 11 July 1958.

There were few membersof the public who mourned the death of Peter Manuel. Certainly,many families slept easier in their beds and young people relaxed ontheir evenings out, particularly in the Lanarkshire area, afterManuel was arrested.

The Manuel Murders – 1956-58 – Glasgow Police Museum (8)

The Lanarkshire andGlasgow detectives who had banded together to solve these horrificmurders could be justly proud of their work.

© GPHS 2005

The Manuel Murders – 1956-58 – Glasgow Police Museum (2024)
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