Eric Cooke
Eric Edgar Cooke nicknamed The Night Caller (25 February 1931 – 26 October 1964) was an Australian serial killer. From 1959 to 1963, he terrorised the city of Perth, Western Australia by committing 22 violent crimes, eight of which resulted in deaths.
Cooke's strange killing spree involved a series of seemingly unrelated hit and runs, stabbings, stranglings and shootings which had Perth completely terrorised. This was an unusual serial killer whose methods seemed as random as his choice of victims.
His behaviour was inconsistent and bizarre. The various shootings had been carried out with several different rifles. Victims had been stabbed with knives and scissors, and hit with an axe.
One victim was shot dead after answering a knock on the door, several were killed after waking while Cooke was robbing their homes; two were shot while sleeping without their homes being disturbed; after stabbing one victim, he got lemonade from the refrigerator and sat on the verandah drinking it; another victim was strangled with the cord from her bedside lamp, her dead body raped, then dragged to a neighbor's lawn, where she was violated with an empty whisky bottle which was left cradled in her arms.
In the 1960s, people often left the keys in their cars' ignition overnight, and Cooke would steal a car almost every night, returning it before the owner awoke. It was later discovered that the cars involved in several hit and runs had been returned without the owners realising they had been stolen. Cooke was to later claim he just wanted to hurt people.
Cooke was caught when a rifle was found hidden in a bush. Ballistic tests proved the gun had been used to murder Shirley McLeod. Police returned to the location and tied the now unloaded rifle to the bush with fishing line, constructing a hide in which police waited for the owner to collect it, which Cooke did two weeks later. When captured, Cooke confessed to numerous crimes, including 22 violent crimes - 8 murders, and 14 attempted murders.
He was convicted on the specimen charge of murdering John Lindsay Sturkey, one of Cooke's five Australia Day (1963) shooting victims.
In his confessions, Cooke demonstrated an exceptionally good memory for the details of his crimes irrespective of how long ago he had committed the offences. For example, he confessed to more than 250 burglaries and was able to detail exactly what he took, including the number and denominations of the coins he had stolen from each location.
The other murder confessions included those of Jillian Brewer and Rosemary Anderson for which Darryl Beamish and John Button had already been convicted and imprisoned. Cooke's confessions were referred to in appeals by Beamish and Button but, in Button's case which was heard first, although Cooke had given details withheld by police that only the killer would have known, little credence was given to Cooke's testimony as the vehicle Cooke claimed he had used had an external steel sunvisor, the appeal judges did not believe a body could be thrown "over the roof" as Cooke claimed without ripping the visor off.
Beamish's appeal was dismissed after the judges cross-referenced Cooke’s evidence with that of the Button appeal. West Australia Chief Justice Sir Albert Wolff called him a "villainous unscrupulous liar" and the prosecution claimed that both confessions were an attempt to prolong his own trial.
Cooke was convicted of willful murder on 28 November 1963 after a three-day trial by jury in the Supreme Court of Western Australia before Justice Virtue. He was sentenced to death and despite having grounds to appeal ordered his lawyers not to apply claiming that he had killed and deserved to pay for what he had done.
Ten minutes before the sentence was carried out Cooke swore on the Bible renewing his rejected claim that he had been the killer of Jillian Brewer and Rosemary Anderson. Cooke was the last person to be hanged in the state of Western Australia, on 26 October 1964.
Cooke is buried in Fremantle Cemetery, above the remains of the child-killer, Martha Rendell, who was hanged in Fremantle Prison in 1909 and was the last woman to be hanged in Western Australia.
In 1959 the carefree culture of Perth changed forever when a plague of crime hit the city. By early 1963 the crime wave had escalated to serial murder. A couple was shot at as they sat in their car. In separate incidents two men were shot and killed at point blank range as they slept. Another was shot between the eyes as he opened his front door. A young woman was strangled to death and raped. An 18-year-old babysitter was executed as she studied and listened to music in front of the fire. All this was the work of one man Eric Edgar Cooke.
Eric Edgar Cooke nicknamed The Night Caller (25 February 1931 – 26 October 1964) was an Australian serial killer. From 1959 to 1963, he terrorised the city of Perth, Western Australia by committing 22 violent crimes, eight of which resulted in deaths.
Cooke's strange killing spree involved a series of seemingly unrelated hit and runs, stabbings, stranglings and shootings which had Perth completely terrorised. This was an unusual serial killer whose methods seemed as random as his choice of victims.
His behaviour was inconsistent and bizarre. The various shootings had been carried out with several different rifles. Victims had been stabbed with knives and scissors, and hit with an axe.
One victim was shot dead after answering a knock on the door, several were killed after waking while Cooke was robbing their homes; two were shot while sleeping without their homes being disturbed; after stabbing one victim, he got lemonade from the refrigerator and sat on the verandah drinking it; another victim was strangled with the cord from her bedside lamp, her dead body raped, then dragged to a neighbor's lawn, where she was violated with an empty whisky bottle which was left cradled in her arms.
In the 1960s, people often left the keys in their cars' ignition overnight, and Cooke would steal a car almost every night, returning it before the owner awoke. It was later discovered that the cars involved in several hit and runs had been returned without the owners realising they had been stolen. Cooke was to later claim he just wanted to hurt people.
Cooke was caught when a rifle was found hidden in a bush. Ballistic tests proved the gun had been used to murder Shirley McLeod. Police returned to the location and tied the now unloaded rifle to the bush with fishing line, constructing a hide in which police waited for the owner to collect it, which Cooke did two weeks later. When captured, Cooke confessed to numerous crimes, including 22 violent crimes - 8 murders, and 14 attempted murders.
He was convicted on the specimen charge of murdering John Lindsay Sturkey, one of Cooke's five Australia Day (1963) shooting victims.
In his confessions, Cooke demonstrated an exceptionally good memory for the details of his crimes irrespective of how long ago he had committed the offences. For example, he confessed to more than 250 burglaries and was able to detail exactly what he took, including the number and denominations of the coins he had stolen from each location.
The other murder confessions included those of Jillian Brewer and Rosemary Anderson for which Darryl Beamish and John Button had already been convicted and imprisoned. Cooke's confessions were referred to in appeals by Beamish and Button but, in Button's case which was heard first, although Cooke had given details withheld by police that only the killer would have known, little credence was given to Cooke's testimony as the vehicle Cooke claimed he had used had an external steel sunvisor, the appeal judges did not believe a body could be thrown "over the roof" as Cooke claimed without ripping the visor off.
Beamish's appeal was dismissed after the judges cross-referenced Cooke’s evidence with that of the Button appeal. West Australia Chief Justice Sir Albert Wolff called him a "villainous unscrupulous liar" and the prosecution claimed that both confessions were an attempt to prolong his own trial.
Cooke was convicted of willful murder on 28 November 1963 after a three-day trial by jury in the Supreme Court of Western Australia before Justice Virtue. He was sentenced to death and despite having grounds to appeal ordered his lawyers not to apply claiming that he had killed and deserved to pay for what he had done.
Ten minutes before the sentence was carried out Cooke swore on the Bible renewing his rejected claim that he had been the killer of Jillian Brewer and Rosemary Anderson. Cooke was the last person to be hanged in the state of Western Australia, on 26 October 1964.
Cooke is buried in Fremantle Cemetery, above the remains of the child-killer, Martha Rendell, who was hanged in Fremantle Prison in 1909 and was the last woman to be hanged in Western Australia.