MACLEOD, MALCOLM

Peter Manuel's name still sends a shiver down the spine of a generation. Fifty years after he was hanged in Barlinnie prison, the memory of this American-born killer is still fresh in the minds of those who lived through the years of his murderous rampage in the suburbs of Glasgow. Branded the 'Beast of Birkenshaw', Manuel used skills he learned in prison to avoid detection and jeered at the police as they bungled their investigation, before finally being trapped by his own arrogance. Manuel was charged with eight murders but is reputed to have committed many more. His roller-coaster trial in Glasgow High Court, billed as the 'trial of the century', was headline news across the world and enthralled an astonished nation as evidence of his terrible crimes unfolded. He implicated major underworld figures in the murders and revealed Glasgow's sinister gangster subculture in the process. A sexual predator and psychopath, Manuel's crimes confronted the police and the public with the first modern-day serial killer. He was convicted of seven murders and sentenced to death, aged thirty-one. This is his chilling story.

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