Eric Edgar Cooke
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Eric Edgar Cooke (25 February 1931–26 October 1964) was the last person to be hanged in Western Australia. In 1963 he indiscriminately attacked 20 people and killed eight[1] and was finally convicted of murder (for just one killing, that of John Lindsay Sturkey) and sentenced to death 28 November 1963, by the Perth Supreme Court. He was executed 26 October 1964, at Fremantle Prison.
Cooke had a cleft lip and was bullied as a child, although whether this contributed to his later crimes is unknown. As an adult, he married and had seven children, and was described as outwardly amenable.
He killed at random, running people over in the street or knocking on doors and shooting strangers. He was finally caught when the gun used for Sturkey's murder was found, and police waited for Cooke to collect it.
Two other Australians were convicted of crimes later attributed to Cooke: Darryl Beamish, a deaf mute convicted in 1959 for the murder of a wealthy woman from Melbourne, who served 15 years despite Cooke's 1963 confession to the crime; and John Button, who was sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter in the death of his girlfriend, a conviction that was quashed in 2002 after evidence proved Cooke was the actual murderer.
Cooke was nicknamed "The Nedlands Monster", after the Perth suburb in which he murdered John Lindsay Sturkey. He was also referred to as "The Night Caller".
A memoir — The Shark Net by Robert Drewe, which was later made into a movie — provide one author's impressions the effect the murders had on the Perth in that era. According to the book, more people bought dogs for security reasons and actually locked up back doors and garages which had never been secured before.
"The Nedlands Monster" also features in Tim Winton's 1998 novel Cloudstreet.
Cooke is buried at Fremantle Cemetery, on top of the remains of child killer Martha Rendell.
[edit] References
- ^ Christian, Brett. "Police decoy used in killer hunt sting", Post Newspapers. Retrieved on 2006-09-21.
