Morbid - Episode 583: Peter Manuel: The Beast of Birkenshaw (Part 1)

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

With a violent criminal history going back to his early teen years, Peter Manuel turned out to be one of Scotland’s worst serial killers. His tumultuous early teenage years were peppered with break-ins and destruction of property, but quickly escalated to horrific acts of brutality.Thank you to the incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research!ReferencesBirmingham Post and Gazette. 1958. "3 shot dead: no gun found." Birmingham Post and Gazette, January 7: 1.Coventry Evening Telegraph. 1956. "Three dead in bungalow beds." Coventry Evening Telegraph, September 17: 1.Daily Record. 1956. "Fifth tee murder." Daily Record, January 5: 1.—. 1956. "Fifth tee murder: dramatic appeal." Daily Record, January 6: 1.—. 1957. "Teenager vanishes." Daily Record, December 30: 1.—. 1958. "Two sensations as trial opens." Daily Record, May 13: 7.Daily Telegraph. 1958. "1958." Daily Telegraph, May 15: 15.Evening Sentinel. 1956. "Bloodstains found on bed sheets." Evening Sentinel, September 17: 1.—. 1957. "Tjhick snow hampers moors hunt." Evening Sentinel, December 11: 1.Hull Daily Mail. 1957. "Police seek fresh clues in murder mystery." Hull Daily Mail, December 10: 5.Lundy, Iain. 2007. "Psychopath who brought terror to the west." Evening Times, December 27.MacLeod, Hector. 2009. Peter Manuel, Serial Killer. Edinburgh, Scotland: Mainstream Books.Nottingham Evening News. 1956. "Bungalow riddle: two women and girl dead in bed." Nottingham Evening News, September 17: 4.Silvester, Norman. 2022. The story of Scotland's first known serial killer Peter Manuel. October 10. Accessed June 9, 2024. https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/23034356.story-scotlands-first-known-serial-killer-peter-manuel/.The Times. 1958. "Statement on 8 murders." The Times, May 22: 5.Western Mail. 1958. "Watt denies shooting his wife." Western Mail, May 16: 5.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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on the road, commuting, you name it. Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your everyday routine without needing to set aside extra time. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. I'm Dan Tuberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast. What's the answer? And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head? Hysterical, a new podcast from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios. Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid. This is Mormon. Forget what I was going to say. I had something to say at the beginning of this one. I was actually going to sing it and it was like a song about recording, but then I forgot it.

You know what happens? Yeah, sorry. It's windy out and maybe we're not outside, but maybe the wind just blew it right out of your brain. I didn't know where you were going with that. I don't know. I'm looking out the window. It's windy out and you know, we're not outside, but maybe the wind just blew it right out of your brain. I didn't know where you were going with it. I don't know. I'm looking out the window. It's windy out and you know, we're not outside. I was like, where are we going?

I was like, she is right over there. You're like, oh, we lost her. Oh, there she goes. Oh, the wind took her. But then I was like, ah, wind blowing mind. Even though we're not outside. No, but it was thundering earlier. I know only very quickly.

It just gave a little rumble rumble. Yeah. I didn't check the thundering earlier. I know only very quickly. It just gave a little rumble rumble. Yeah. I didn't check the, uh, the radar. So I don't know. I don't think anything's coming in. Don't say that. Well, I'd like to say that today because I'd like to have a fire. I want, I want thunder. Don't you want to drink? Oh, rain forecasted to start in 31 minutes. Okay. So maybe we'll get in the thunderstorm. It's a, it's a little scatter. A little scatter. No, not a lot. So we can still do our fire and have little, I got stuff to make, um, mocktail

pina coladas. I love that. So fancy. Fancy. Fancy. Exactly. I love that so much. I love it.

Well, today we're going to be doing, um, part one of a two-pata. A two that so much. I love it. Well, today we're going to be doing part one of a tupada. A tupada. A tupada because there's just a lot of information, you know? There's a lot of stuff going on in this one. Right, right. But when I tell you, it just, it really hits you over the, it just like, boom, gets you right from the get-go. It's like a hillbilly moment.

Hits you over the head with a palm up. There you go. Everybody remembers that, right? From the Amanda Show? It's time for hillbilly moment. Hits you over the head with a pineapple. There you go. It's a, everybody remembers that, right? From the Amanda Show? The Amanda Show. It's time for a hillbilly moment. And it, yeah. And she'd be like, I'm gonna hit you with a pineapple. Yeah.

Yeah, it was hilarious. Oh, I love that show. I want Amanda Bynes to do well. She's doing pretty well. I hope she thrives. I really do. I think she passed her nail test. And she's like, I think she's gonna open up her own space. I really do. I think she passed her nail test and she's like,

I think she's going to open up her own space. I just like, I'm starting to see, cause like she has like TikTok and everything and she comes across my feed. And every once in a while I'm like, I feel like I can see like a little bit of the light come back when she talks about stuff like that, that she's like excited about.

And I'm like, she's one of those people that you're just like, you know what? You're rooting for. I'm rooting for you. It's like excited about. And I'm like, I just, she's one of those people that you're just like, you know what? You're rooting for? I'm rooting for you. It's like Lindsay Lohan. She looks fucking incredible lately. She looks amazing. Like in a lightness way too. Like a light is coming, like a light is like back at her

that was there and then like turned off for a little while and now it's back. And she's here now. Yeah. And we're getting a freaky Friday pat too. Oh, I love it with Jamie Lee Curtis. Jamie. It's all happening again.

I'm like, let's go back to that time. I know. Let's do this. I know it. Let's have Amanda Bynes thriving. Let's have Lindsay Lohan right back at it again. Let's go back to the early aughts, but make it non-toxic. Exactly. I don't want any of that.

Let them thrive and just be who they is. I just want the fun stuff. I agree. Let's do this. So let's all root for them thrive and just be who they is. I just want the fun stuff. I agree. Let's do it. So let's all root for them. You know, why not? Nobody's rooting for anyone anymore. Let's root for people. Let's do it. I love rooting for people. I'm rooting for you. What's in part one? I'm rooting for you. Thanks. So today we're going to be talking about Peter Manuel, who is known as the Beast of Berkenshaw.

That sounds terrifying. Yes, he's terrifying. And he is one of Scotland's worst serial killers. Oh shit. Yeah, and he's one of Scotland's, he's known as one of Scotland's like very first, like known worst serial killers too. Okay. So we're gonna begin, this happened way back, we're going to start in like the 50s

here. 19 or 18? 1950s. Okay. Thank you for making me clarify. No problem. Could have been either with me. I was going to say, with you, you never know.

You never know. So on the evening of December 30th, 1955, 17 year old Ann Neelins and her sister Alice, so Ann and Alice. Oh, cute. I love alliteration. Right? They went to a dance at the Glenley Social Club in East Kilbride, which was a neighborhood

in East Lenarchshire. I looked up how to pronounce that. I love the idea of a dance at a social club in the 50s. Yes, sign me right the fuck up. Doesn't that just feel so wholesome? Give me a poodle skirt or else. Or else, yeah. Or bust.

Poodle skirts are bust. Dances at social clubs in the 50s are bust. And as we go, obviously this is going to turn out very tragic just so you know ahead of time. It's morbid. It's morbid. But the lead up to this, you're just like, oh, Ann was like having a quintessential

50s gal experience, you know what I mean? Like young gal, just like going out to a social club to dance, meeting a young soldier on leave kind of thing. Like it's one of those. So while she was there, Neelans, Anne Neelans met Andrew Mernin, who was a young soldier on leave. He was, and they hit it off immediately. They just really got along.

And after spending the whole night at the dance together, the two of them made a date to see each other again a few days later on January 2nd. Now their plan was that they were gonna meet together at the Capel Rig Farm bus terminal. And so the problem here, so they were gonna meet together at the Capitol rig farm bus terminal. And so the problem here, so they were all excited, they leave blah, everything's fine. The problem here though,

was that Andrew Mernin had been drinking heavily that night. Oh. He was very drunk. And later he said, he claimed that he actually had no recollection of making this date with Anne. Wow. He said like, it's not that I wouldn't have, I just didn't remember that I had done it,

which it's like, oh no. That just makes sense. Yeah, it's just like, oh man. So Anne, however, was unaware that Andrew had no recollection of making the date. So Anne went to the bus stop a little after 6 p.m. the day they had planned to meet up and waited for him to show up.

He hadn't shown up by 6.30 p.m. So she walked down the road a little bit and she went and visited some family friends, the Simpsons. She was like, whatever, I'll just go hang out with them. Yeah, let me do something. So they chatted, the Simpsons chatted with Anne for about 15, 20 minutes.

And then she caught the 6.45 p.m. bus back to East Kilbride. She was very frustrated that Andrew had stood her up. She assumed had stood her up. And you know, she was a little annoyed. Rightfully so. And actually later when the bus driver was questioned by police, the bus driver said that she remembered seeing Anne on the bus and she specifically remembered that she seemed

very irritated and put out. So she was just like, fuck this guy. Now Anne got off the bus at the Willow Cafe, which was a popular hangout for teenagers and Kill Bride. Like they would all just kind of like hang out, have a cup of coffee kind of thing. And when the bus driver passed the stop about a half hour later, she said she could have sworn she saw Anne in the crowd outside the cafe.

She just recognized her, but that was the last time anyone would ever be able to report seeing Anne Neelan's alive. Now at the time Anne was 17 years old. She was out of high school. She was working a full-time job. Like she was really, she had a whole life. So she did live at home with her parents, but her parents were trying to be like kind of respectful

of her autonomy at this point, because she was a good kid. Like she was responsible. She had it together. She had a full-time job. They believed, you know, they could give her a little bit of, I don't need to be on top of you. I don't need to know where you are at every given moment. I'm trying to let you be like an independent woman here. Yeah. It must be so hard. Exactly. Oh, I can't imagine. But that's why when Ann didn't return home that night, they thought maybe she just stayed with a friend. Maybe she was in, she would be back the following day. Yeah. She was reliable. Yeah. But she didn't come back the next day. And this is when they got worried and they reported her missing to the police.

Now that afternoon, as the local police were taking the report from Anne's parents, George Gribben, who was a laborer from East Kilbride, he was just having a leisure moment. He was just taking a nice little walk around the Calderwood golf course, which seems like it would be a lovely place to just take a quiet walk on a morning. You know, like it's quiet, no one's there yet. You're not going to run into many people. And he said he was just, you know, just having a nice casual day. And this is the beginning of his day. And he approaches like some trees that are near the fifth tee. And it was just like a collection of trees. And George said he looked over and he saw

what he immediately identified as a person laying face down at the base of one of the trees. And he said, at first he was like, oh my God, did someone like trip and fall or did someone like drink too much and come and pass out in front of a tree. So he moves in closer to kind of inspect things a little bit.

And that's when he realized that it was definitely a person lying on the ground. But he said, it was very clear that something bad had happened here. It was a young woman, he could clearly tell. And he said, immediately he knew that she had been dragged into the wooded area by her ankles. Oh God.

He said her skirt was pulled above her knees and her coat she was still wearing was disarranged, really rumbled, like clearly all of it had shifted while she was still wearing was disarranged, really rumbled. Like clearly all of it had shifted while she was being dragged. He said he couldn't identify the girl, but he said part of the reason that he couldn't identify the girl was how badly she had been beaten in the face and head. He said there was no doubt in his mind that she was dead. He didn't even need to check for a pulse.

He said there was no way. Ever finding somebody like that. I always think of the people who find these crime scenes and find these murder victims. And it's like, like what, how do you get past that? No, I don't think you do. I think that's gotta be something that just like sits with you.

Yeah, like this is, that's why I just made sure you knew like he was starting his day. He's just starting his day with a nice walk to kind of clear his head, start the day off, right? Yeah. That's, and this is what you never think you're going to be walking in a golf course and come across a beaten to death, 17 year old girl dumped in front of a tree. It's just tragic. So he immediately ran back to the work site and told the other contractors what he had found.

But assuming that, you know, he was playing a prank, they were like, maybe he's just trying to like start us all off like, you know, in a crazy way this morning, you know, a wild way to start your day. We're wild and kooky over here. So they were just like, shut up, George. And they just went back to work. Oh, sounds to me like George might be a little bit of start your day. Were wild and kooky over here. So they were just like, shut up, George. And they just went back to work. Oh. Sounds to me like George might be a little bit of a prankster considering they didn't

even come to look, but he was frustrated. So George ran to the nearest house. He was like, fuck you guys, if you won't listen to me. So we ran to the nearest house and he called the police from that house. Okay, good. So good for George. I was like, when did the police come into play? Yeah.

By the time he made it back to where the body was laying some of the other laborers Had decided to come check out what he had said and they had gathered around the body just as the first officers were arriving Oh, man. So the area had to be cordoned off obviously and investigators started assessing the entire scene It became pretty obvious to them like like right away what had happened, because footprints were leading from the golf course to where the body was laying. And it indicated that Anne had actually been chased by whoever had killed her.

Oh, I fucking hate that so much. And then she was dragged into the woods where she had been sexually assaulted. Oh no. Her shoes, other personal items were just scattered all around her. One shoe was actually embedded in the wall of a nearby ditch.

Like she had kicked somehow and it had stuck into the wall. Oh my God. And the other shoe was laying about 70 feet from her. So it obviously came off while she was dragged or in the struggle. Or when she was running. this is like a horror movie. It literally is a horror movie. Like he's a this person is a horrible person. To me, nothing says summer like a good outdoor movie night. You can have a little bit of watermelon on the back porch, lounge with your friends,

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Wayfair is the go-to destination for everything home, no matter your style or your budget. Find everything you need to summer your way at Wayfair. Visit wayfair.com or get the Wayfair A few feet away at the base of a tree, the pathologist Andrew Allison identified what he believed to be where the assault had started. Sure. He said the ground was absolutely saturated with blood. And Allison described that there were also human debris found there, fragments of bone, hair and tissue. What?

Yes. So I'll tell you how he killed her and it's awful. So given the state that the body was found in, her clothes had been torn, disarranged. The investigating officers naturally immediately assumed that Ann had been sexually assaulted. It was confirmed later during her autopsy because that was later that day.

But her attacker had also stolen her underwear before leaving. That's such a fucking creepy thing to do. Yeah, her cause of death was noted as repeated blows to the head with a blunt object. They said it was so vicious and so many hits to her skull that quote, the vault of her head had been destroyed. That means the skull cap. That means the thing containing your brain had been absolutely destroyed. That's a lot. And that's where

the fragments of bone and hair and tissue were happening. He had literally caved her head in. Oh my God. He's a vicious, when they say the beast of Birkinshaw, they are not kidding. He's a fucking monster. He's a monster. And we're going to get to it, don't worry. But somebody should have stopped him a long time

before this happened. I hate when that happens. He had every single indication that he was going to escalate to something. Yeah. It's really frustrating. There were also cuts and scrapes on Anne's hands that the pathologists thought could have been from the barbed wire on the golf course fence. Like she might've climbed over to try to get away. Oh God. Now police officers fanned out across the neighborhood and they canvas door to door, but there was really only one neighbor who reported hearing any kind of commotion 36 hours earlier. No one else really saw or heard anything suspicious.

And unfortunately, those who knew Anne were really not a lot of help either. According to her sister, Alice, and it's not because they intended to not be a lot of help. What were they going to say? Like they didn't have anything. It's not like Anne was doing things that they could have been like, well, she was hanging around this creep. She wasn't doing anything wrong. She was just living her life. So Anne or her sister Alice said Anne was a pretty girl with lots of boyfriends. She went dancing about once a week, but Anne did not tell me the name of the boy she was going to meet. And

I didn't inquire. Oh no. Because again, they didn't really have a reason to. Why would you think to? They weren't worried about her. Right. And it's because she was a good, responsible gal. Yeah. Jean Simpsons, who was one of the people who she was visiting, one of the family friends,

and it was the night she died that she visited her. She also said when she came into the house, she was very excited and nervous. She didn't talk much, but I can remember her saying she had been in the house over New Year and that she had missed the 15 bus. But otherwise, neither Jean Simpson nor her husband knew where Anne was headed after she left their house that night. Cause she just kind of was like, all right, I'm off.

I'm gonna head out, see you later. Yeah, and all we know is she stopped at the Willow Cafe. Now within 24 hours, investigators had found Andrew Mernin, the young soldier who she was supposed to meet that night. And Mernin said, yeah, I was like super drunk the night that we met. I didn't remember making plans with her. He felt bad that he had unintentionally stood her up. Right. Well, I'm sure now he feels way worse. But he offered up an alibi.

And so he was quickly ruled out because they can confirm the alibi. Many of the other boys and men who hung out at the Willow Cafe were also questioned. A lot of locals were questioned, especially locals with any history of sexual offenses, but they all had alibis and they were all crossed off the list. They could not find a lead anywhere. Then on January 4th, a patrol officer stopped by a work site near the crime scene and he stopped there because he wanted to question a gang of day laborers working for the gas board.

So he asked them all, like, have you know, do you remember that day? Do you remember seeing anything? Do you remember hearing anything? Do you know anybody who has been acting strange? They all denied knowing anything about the murder of Ann Neillens. But one man, Peter Manuel, appeared to have fresh scratches on his face. And they were very noticeable. And Manuel claimed that he got the scratches

when he was in a fight in Glasgow on New Year's Eve. But the officer was like, huh. They look fresher than that. I don't know about that. And he was just like, I don't know, those look like pretty deep, pretty like brutal scratches. And to this officer, they just thought that seems like somebody who was fighting for their life.

So later this officer couldn't put this away. So he went to the home of Peter Manuel and Peter Manuel lived with his father and he talked to both of them and Peter Manuel's father confirmed his alibi for the night of the murder. But the officer said, I don't buy it. I just don't buy it. Something just rang. And he was like, I'm not letting it go.

So he went back and he was able to secure a warrant to go back to that house. Cause he said those scratches, something is matching here and that alibi doesn't make sense. And the only person that can confirm it is his own father who he lives with. We have a bit of a bias going on here. Like something's a little off here. And he said something about this guy just doesn't sit right with me. So they returned to the house on January 12th with a warrant.

And with this warrant, they were able to remove a bunch of items, a bunch of clothing from the house. And they also brought Peter to the local precinct to question him. And by that time, a foreman at the work site that Peter Manuel had been the previous week, they found what they described as a sawed-off pickaxe handle buried beneath one of the temporary buildings on the site.

And they turned it over to police because they said maybe this is a potential weapon. Now, detectives questioned Peter for more than four hours, but he stuck to his story and his father further said, nope, I'm verifying his alibi. So I'm like, do you feel good about that? Also, despite their best efforts to connect Peter to Ann Neelans, they just couldn't connect him. There wasn't a connection that they could find and they couldn't put him at the crime

scene like definitively. So they had to let him go. They didn't have anything to hold them with. They were like that close. Now without any evidence or new leads and now with this whole thing drying up, the Neelans case just went cold and the detective shifted their attention to other stuff going on. Now investigators in Lanarkshire continued investigate, even though it was like going cold, they didn't like shelve it. You know, they were still doing their best.

They continued investigating in Neelan's murder, but they weren't getting anything and they really little progress was being made. And to make matters worse in September of that year, another horrific crime was committed that ended up kind of distracting them from the Neelans case. On September 9th, 1956, William Watt packed up his fishing gear and his dog and left for a nice solo fishing trip in the Highlands. And when he left, he was leaving his wife, Marion, who I believe was 40 at the time, and their 16 year old daughter Vivian at home in Burnside, Lanarkshire. So because her husband was going to be gone, Marion Watt invited her sister, Margaret Brown, to stay with her and Vivian while William was away.

On the morning of September 17th, 1956, the Watts housekeeper, Helen Coleson, she came to work a little before 9 a.m. and she went to open the back door and it was locked, which was strange because she had worked for the Watts family for many years. So she knew them very well and they had a very fixed arrangement that was if Vivian's mom was still asleep when she left for school in the morning,

Vivian would leave the back door unlocked for Helen, the housekeeper. Yeah, that makes sense. And she's like, so she never didn't do that. And like, and then she was like, Oh, no, what are they sick? Like did something happen? So Helen walked around the house, the outside of the house, looking in, knocking on the windows. And she went along to the side of the house and she found that a glass panel on the front door

had been smashed in. Oh, that's terrifying. So immediately she's like, fuck. Like, what is this? So she flags down a passing mailman named Peter Collier, who immediately helped. And he put his hand through the glass and unlocked the door. Damn. which I was

like, Peter to the rescue. This is good Peter. Good Peter. So once inside he, Peter went to the first Peter Collier, he went to the first PC, not PM. He went to the first bedroom he found and he came across a horrific site. He found the bodies of Marion and Margaret, the sisters, the mom and the aunt on the bed. And again, an alliteration, Marian and Margaret. Yeah, you're right. They were very obviously dead. He said, in the bed were two bodies

and the bed clothes were covered with blood. Oh man. They were laying side by side in the bed. It looked like they were sleeping, like on their sides. And each had a very large gunshot to their head. What the fuck? Yeah.

So Peter Collier immediately called the police from the house phone and while he was waiting for them to come, they kind of told him like, you know, don't leave. But they were also like, if you see anything else, like, you know, tell us. So he continued looking around. He knew some by Helen telling him that there was a daughter that should be in the house. So she was like, you need to find her. So he continued looking and he found Vivian in her bed with a similar wound to that of her mother and aunt.

She was still breathing. Why? She was shot in the head and you'll find out she had various other injuries to her and her story is very, it's chilling. Oh God. So she was still alive, she was still breathing, but before emergency services came, she passed away. Oh, I thought you were gonna say she lived.

No, yeah. From their initial evaluation of the whole scene, detectives thought that the killer probably broke into the house in the middle of the night by smashing through that window and unlocking the front door, like reaching it. That's fucking so scary. And the fact that the dad just happened to be away, you have to wonder like, was the killer watching the house? I think he was watching. Oh, I hate

that. That's even more horrifying. It's so scary to think back and to like, to think that family was just going about their business and somebody was watching and waiting. Prowling. I hate that. It's so chilling. It's like a horror movie. Now they believed once inside the killer moved quietly to the first bedroom they found. They found Marion and Margaret sharing the bed.

Both women had been shot to the right side of their heads as though they were asleep when the whole thing happened. But Margaret had also been shot in the face just below the right eye. Oh, wow. I wonder if she like woke up if she had been the second person killed. Yeah, they they're not sure because there were powder burns on the skin of both women as well. So that would indicate that the barrel of the gun was pretty close to their head or against their skin. And later the coroner confirmed that both head wounds would have been immediately fatal. So it's likely that either woman knew what was happening

or felt what was happening or woke up. Maybe he just shot twice. But the investigators also noted that the nightclothes of both women were definitely like rumpled and rearranged likely after death though. There were no signs of sexual assault here, but Marion's dress had been hiked up to expose her lower half and Margaret's pajama bottoms had been pulled down.

So he's doing this as a shame. Like, let me humiliate their dead bodies. Which like you have to be so fucking far fucked to be like messing with dead bodies that you have just killed. Yeah. So from the looks of what happened, they believe that the gunshots must have woken Vivian. Right. Um, she was obviously asleep in the other room, but she was still in bed with the covers pulled up to her chin when they found her. But the room was in disarray. They said there was obvious

signs of a struggle here. There were clothes, other items strewn around the room. The furniture was knocked over like a fight had happened and the killer had stubbed out his cigarettes on the carpet. What? Yeah. So just the fact that he hung out and smoked for a while and stubbed them out on the carpet. She, Vivian had also been shot in the head at close range, but she had additional injuries, including bruising to her face and her pubic

area. Oh God. Um, her arm had also been wrenched very violently behind her back. Her bra and underwear had been torn away from her body, but she had not been sexually assaulted that they could find. In the source by McCloud that we'll link in the show notes, they say there was a possibility that she had been tormented and tortured by her attacker before being shot. So they believe she was like tortured and that he was like stuffing up the cigarettes as he was doing this. It seems like there was like a sexual element to that torture if her pubic area was bruised.

It feels like there was always a sexual element and it's somewhere or another. Yeah, unfortunately. Like she wasn't sexually assaulted by a criminal definition, but she pretty much was. Now the press came to the scene almost before the investigators did. They were immediately on it. And this got sensationalistic coverage. I mean, yeah. Yeah.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondries Podcast American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history, events that have shaped who we are as a country and continue to define the American experience. We go behind the scenes looking at devastating financial crimes, like the fraud committed at Enron and Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. American Scandal also tells marquee stories about American politics. In our latest season, we retrace the greatest corruption scheme in U.S our latest season, we retrace the greatest corruption scheme in U.S. history as we bring to life the bribes and backroom deals that spawned

the Teapot Dome scandal, resulting in the first presidential cabinet member going to prison. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge this season American Scandal Teapot D, Early, and ad free right now on Wondery+. And after you listen to American Scandal, go deeper and get more to the story with Wondery's other top history podcasts, including American History Tellers, Legacy, and even the Royals. I'm Dan Tuberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York. I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

I'm like, stop f***ing around. She's like, I can't. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast. It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls. With a diagnosis the state tried to keep on the down low. Everybody thought I was holding something back. Well, you were holding something back intentionally.

Yeah, yeah, well, yeah. No, it's hysteria. It's all in your head. It's not physical. You're oh my gosh, you're exaggerating Is this the largest mass hysteria since the witches of Salem or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here. Something's not right. Leroy was the new dateline and everyone was trying to solve the murder a new limited series from wonder and pineapple street studios hysterical A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical. Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Hysterical early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

Vivian's friend and next door neighbor, Deanna, wasted no time telling the press how they had been together the previous evening and she had just narrowly avoided being the fourth victim. And she said, as I was leaving her at the front door, she jokingly suggested that I spent the night with her. Her mother and aunt were still up at the time. And it's like, yeah, that's really scary. Yeah, that is scary.

So for the most part, the neighbors really spoke highly of this entire family. They called them very nice people, very friendly. One neighbor told a reporter, I'd spoken to the girl once or twice. She was very attractive. Okay. And kind. Yeah. And a good person.

Yeah. Now, while detectives were combing over the scene at the Watt house, a neighbor approached them to report that a few doors down at another house, it seemed like they had also been broken into while the occupants were away though. But they said they saw something happen. You imagine coming back to your house to see that and then to know what happens a few doors down. Yeah. And it looked like the intruder had gotten into the house by smashing the glass panel

on the front door. Oh my God. I'm not going to look at my glass panels. I know a patrol officer was sent to check this out and found a scene that was eerily similar to the wad house, except no one had died. But did they do the whole cigarette on the carpet? I know someone had broken in. They had trashed the house.

This time they had dumped canned soup and canned spaghetti all over the floor. Oh, mother fucker. Like fuck that. Who does that? And they had tracked mud all throughout the house, like seemingly on purpose. I'm so pissed right now.

Imagine coming home to this. I would be through the roof. And then there were a bunch of cigarettes stamped out in the carpets. It's like a thing. And it's like, does he know these people that he's attacking and doing this to? Cause that's such a big disrespect. It almost feels personal. He has no respect for anyone. He's just an asshole. He's been an asshole since he was a little. Fantastic. But also one of the beds looked like it had been slept in recently, but the homeowners had been away. Oh!

Yeah. I'd be like, well, we're selling the house. Yeah, I'd burn the house down, I think. I'd be like, bye, can't look at this ever again. Oh God. But investigators initially assumed that the motive for the break-in was robbery, but once the owners had been contacted and came back,

they confirmed that the only items that were missing were two gold rings, and they weren't worth a lot of money. And they said the more expensive items are right out in the open, and this person obviously spent considerable time in this house. Possibly even slept here. And they didn't take them, so.

So they were just doing this to be a fucking creep? Yeah, so what they thought was, did the killer of the Watt family stay in this house while these people were gone to watch the Watt family and wait for the right moment to strike? Oh, that's on another fucking level, dude. Because it was within eye shot, like they could see the Watt family house and they would be able

to see their comings and goings. What the fuck? That's disturbing. Yes. And to like, even just like the break in, it's like, how do you ever gain a sense of privacy back? Oh, I always wonder that. Like, it must be so hard to just, how do you go to sleep? How vulnerable you must feel. Like you hear about stories like this and you're like, oh, I'm like afraid to go to sleep tonight. You live something like that and then you just have to like, yeah, you gotta get. You gotta get through this. Right.

You gotta get through this. You gotta make it, gotta make it, gotta make it through. Like that's how do you like you, it would take therapy, I feel. Definitely. Like it would take therapy to be able to like work through that. Definitely. I don't know how I would work through that. God.

Now this case received a ton of widespread coverage and it set off like a pretty sizable panic among young women and girls in Lanarkshire. I'd be freaking out. So there was intense pressure to make progress in this case, which is not always great. Yeah. It can work in our favor a little bit, but sometimes you get that West Memphis three

style. How confident are you in this case? 11. Yikes. So, you don't want that. So investigators turned to the most likely suspect in most murder cases and started looking at the dad, the husband, William Watt. So they looked at his alibi. They looked at his background.

Like I was literally on a body of water. And he's like, of course I was on a solo fishing trip. Oh, and that looks so sketchy. So neighbors and around, and you know, like residents in Lanarkshire spoke very highly of this family, like I said, but they couldn't say something nice about the remaining member of the Watt family. While Mary and Vivian were considered very nice people. And again, I don't think this is William Watt's fault. William Watt was criticized for being absent on a fishing trip on the Lord's day. That was where his downfall went.

What an asshole, huh? And it's like, guys, that doesn't make him a murderer. The fact that people are sanctimonious even when somebody's entire fucking family is brutally murdered and their home is broken into. Yeah. And in fact, and they were criticizing him because he was on this solo fishing trip. So they, he had to be tracked down by the press at the lodge that he was staying at to be informed that his entire family had been murdered in his house. That's how he found out. That's horrific.

And in the weeks after this, William Watt would temporarily become the prime suspect because multiple witnesses picked him out of a lineup as well. And he was like, I live here. Yeah, like what? So he was held at Barlinnie prison, but after several weeks, he was released because the

case against him was so questionable. There was nothing there. And there was nothing there. They had nothing that showed that he would murder his entire family. And they were looking at this other house down the street and they were like, so you're telling me that William Watt, the father and husband, booped down a couple of doors. That's the other thing. doors stayed at this house. But like that doesn't even make sense. Like it's like, cause he wasn't gone for that much time

to be even doing that. So it's like, how do you explain that? Was he a smoker? That's the thing. And it's like, how do you explain that there was this like lookout clearly like somebody who staked out here and obviously he wouldn't have needed to do that. He wouldn't need to. So it's like, that doesn't make a lot of sense. So none of it made sense. Like they knew they had to, I understand why they went to him first

because absolutely 90% of the time that- Right, usually it's the case. Statistics talk. But according to Hector McLeod, to some he was a pathetic victim of outrageous misfortune. To others he was a scheming villain who was fortunate not to be convicted of murder. Okay.

Now, as in the case of the Neil and of and Neil and his murder, when it came to alternative suspects, Peter Manuel's name was at the top of the detective's list. Hey, imagine that. Yeah. Manuel had a long criminal history of sexual assault among other things. And many still believe that he was absolutely the guy that was responsible for Anne Nealon's murder. So he seemed a strong suspect here too,

because he got away with it. But when they questioned Peter about his whereabouts, he presented another strong alibi, which his father said, yes, absolutely. Daddy-o, we need to talk. And they searched his home and they couldn't find anything related to the Watt family murders. So they said, okay, I don't know what to talk. And they searched his home and they couldn't find anything related to the Watt family murders.

So they said, okay, I don't know what to do. Now Peter Manuel's connection to the Watt case could have just ended then and there. He had an alibi. They searched his home. Nothing. Nothing. No connection. They got to let it go.

And they did. They said, all right. But then, but he just couldn't help involve himself. He could have been scot-free, but he couldn't let it go. While William Watt was still being held at Barlinnie on suspicion of murder, Manuel, Peter Manuel also became incarcerated at the time for another robbery. And they were literally serving time next to each other. Wait, what?

So Peter Manuel was serving time next to William Watt, whose family spoiler alert, brutally murder. Peter Manuel is responsible for murder. Holy shit. Yeah. And so apparently Peter Manuel at that time wrote a letter to William Watts's lawyer saying that he knew that William Watts was innocent. And he said, I know the man who did it. According to Peter,

a day before the murders, he said he'd been asked to participate in a robbery at the Watt home, but he declined the invitation. Oh, what a good man. He said, no, thank you. A day after the murders, the same man he said had come back to see him. And he said, having been afflicted by the horrors he'd committed against the Watt women, he asked Manuel to get rid of the gun he'd used. Okay. And Peter Manuel said this was the same man who'd stolen the two rings from the home near the Watt's house.

Sorry. Which is like, you seem to have a whole lot of information, huh? That's the thing. He seemed to know a lot about these two crimes and a lot about these two crime scenes. Sure did. And although he was skeptical about what Peter Manuel had told him, the lawyer, William Watts's lawyer felt it was, who knows, stranger shit has happened. So he reported it to the authorities.

In time, it became clear that Peter Manuel was angling for an early release on this robbery conviction and was trying to use this supposed information as a bargaining chip. It was me, but I know everything. And it was true that he seemed to know a lot about the murders, including several little details that hadn't really been reported heavily in the press. But they said it was possible though, that he had learned them from maybe some of the papers. They weren't heavily reported on these details, but he said they were like, it's not impossible

that he didn't see it somewhere. And because after all, in addition to his criminal history, Peter Manuel was known to police in Lanarkshire as an actual, like a fantastic liar. Oh man. So they were understandably very skeptical about the report of some unnamed man being the real killer of the Watt family. Yeah.

But still, if what he said was true, they didn't want to be remiss and not just like do their due diligence and follow it up, which I'm glad they did. The police work here. Yeah, so several officers began investigating his claims and they started with a full scale raid on Peter's home that he shared with his father.

Damn, his dad's probably like, can you get your shit together? And it's also like, I bet you didn't see that coming. Definitely not. I think he thought it was gonna lead them further away. Yeah, but not so much. It brought them closer. Oh no.

He was definitely trying to get that early release by being like look over there. It's some guy go find him But they were like no, I think it's you actually and in addition to William Watts his lawyer Peter seemed to speak openly with anyone about several crimes Including and Neil and murder where he wasn't saying he did it. he speculated very heavily on the killer's identity. In an interview, Peter told reporters, I wish to state emphatically that I did not kill any of these unfortunate people. He also publicly demanded that Lanarkshire police

go on record to state that investigators recent actions, quote, had no bearing on any murder case whatsoever. He wanted them to literally go on record and say, yeah, I know we're doing a full on raid on Peter Manuel's home, but it has nothing to do with murder. Not at all, nothing. No, it's like that would be a lie, Peter.

Now, although some members of the police force suspected Peter Manuel of definitely being involved in the Neelins and Watt cases, it appears that at least at the time, he wasn't considered the most serious suspect. Really? To them, they said, so McLeod wrote, to them he was just a troublesome liar

with an annoying tendency to claim he was involved in major crimes, because he had done this before. Right, it was kind of his MO. Yeah, and he would claim he was involved in an outside way. He never did the crime. He just got rid of something for somebody. Somebody wanted me to be involved, but I said no. No, I would never.

So it's likely for that reason that when William Watt was finally released and ruled out as a suspect, no one really decided to take a closer look at Peter Manuel. And after Watt's release from custody, Peter Manuel kept writing these letters to law enforcement from prison, making increasingly fantastic claims about knowing some information about the recent murders, but he wouldn't say what, and he was very cryptic and very, and it got

more and more fantastical what he was claiming. He's intense. Yeah. And the more fantastic these claims became, the less serious anyone was taking him. Because it's very like, hey, hey, look at me behavior. And everybody's like, why would he do that? No one would do that if they actually did it. Well.

Yeah. I'm Afua Hirsch. I'm Peter Frankipan. And in our series Legacy, we look at the lives of some of the most famous people to have ever lived and ask if they have the reputation they deserve. In this series, we look at J Edgar Hoover. He was the director of the FBI for half a century. An immensely powerful political figure, he was said to know everything about everyone.

He held the ear of eight presidents and terrified them all. When asked why he didn't fire Hoover, JFK replied, you don't fire God. From chasing gangsters to pursuing communists to relentlessly persecuting Dr. Martin Luther King and civil rights activists, Hoover's dirty tricks tactics have been endlessly echoed in the years since his death.

And his political playbook still shapes American politics today. Follow Legacy Now wherever you listen to podcasts. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] So in November 1957, Peter Manuel was released from Barlinnie and was back on the streets. Oh God. Now, when Anne Neelans was murdered, Peter Manuel's name immediately came to the minds of several of the detectives working on the case. But like we said, it appeared he had that strong alibi, there was really nothing connecting him to it. And when the Watt murders occurred, his name was again

up on that possible suspect list, but again, no evidence to really tie him to it. But these suspicions were growing stronger and stronger after he had written that first letter to William Watts' lawyer claiming knowledge. And the thing is, it's like when you look at that series of events, that journey that we just took where your name comes up as a suspect and a murder. Because you have a history of being fucked up, of being involved in sexual assaults and robberies and violent things that we will talk about. You came up, you were cleared. You came up again. you were cleared. And then you insert

yourself into multiple homicide cases when you were cleared. That's so risky. But it's like, I feel like as soon as they started looking away from him, it probably pissed him off. Wait a second. Because he likes the attention, it sounds like. It's so wild. He likes the attention but doesn't want to go in with both feet. Yep. But as soon as they start looking away, he's like, wait a second. Wait, but me.

It's like he wants credit for it without... The punishment. The punishment. Yeah, he doesn't want the punishment, he wants the credit for doing it. But it's just so wild and it makes you say, who the fuck is Peter Manuel? It sure does. Who is this guy? And why the fuck is he going out of his way

to be associated with two horrific crimes? What the fuck? Tell me. So Peter Manuel was born in Manhattan, actually, on March 13th, 1927. He was born to Samuel and Bridget Manuel, Scottish immigrants who'd come to the US to build a better life for their family.

I love that. At the time, they already had one child named James who they had to leave behind in Scotland. And this was very common for this time. They planned to send for him once they became established. I've said this in many other cases before that would happen. They would come over, try to build that better life and send for the child later.

Unfortunately, the market crash of 1929 and the depression that followed really dashed any hope of that American dream or economic prosperity. Yeah. So by 1932, the family had to move back to Scotland and they settled in Motherwell, which is a village in Lanarkshire. According to his brother, James, Peter struggled to adjust to his new life in Scotland. He had spent the first five years of his life as an only child also.

Oh yeah. The nurse has a brother. Now he has a brother. And he was put into school with older, more advanced children. And he got teased a lot for not really, for being like very different and being unfamiliar with Scottish culture and like just being different. It's a culture shock. So Peter's criminal career started very early. Really? Age 10. Wow. Age 10, he broke into a local chapel in Coventry where the family was living at the time and he stole the church collection box. What a little shit. Which is fucked up for anybody to do, but a 10 year old, damn. Yeah, the fuck? Now around this time, he had also been acting out in school. He was getting into trouble on a near regular basis.

Like you said, there were warnings. Yeah. And on one occasion, his teacher actually found an unspeakably filthy is how she described it drawing that one of the students had left on her desk and they traced it right back to Peter. Oh, no. So all right, that's you got to look at that. Yeah, that's freaky. Especially with like how he's going to treat women later. Now when she confronted him about it,

she said he showed no sign of remorse. And that was a character trait that would go throughout his life. People would immediately recognize that he showed zero remorse for his actions, Never. The break-ins and petty thefts kept on going. They started and kept on going into his teen years and he would get more and more brazen with each one that he committed. Cause he's getting away with it.

And when he would get caught, again, not one shred of remorse. And he was really smart. He did well in school, but he didn't really apply that whole thing to his criminal career because he was caught a lot. He was caught a lot, he was punished a lot. Eventually the authorities grew really impatient and they were like, you know what, we gotta stop doing probation and verbal reprimands with this kid. So they started giving him juvenile detention sentences.

Yeah, they're like, he's not learning. So during one of those sentences, he was evaluated by a psychiatrist and they made the following observations. The school report of the probationer is anything but satisfactory. I bet. Out of school, he is said to be always in trouble.

At school, he is said to be cunning and puts on an air of innocence and is very deep. He is deceitful, difficult to believe, and appears to be the ringleader on most occasions. He has led younger boys into trouble, and he consorts with those suspected of theft. I am not at all surprised that the boy has appeared again at court. There is no doubt whatever that the magistrates adopted a correct attitude and committed him to an approved school." So they were like, he belongs here. Yeah.

Although most of his offenses up to this point were non-violent during this period, they still included details at this moment that had implications that things could escalate. When he was 14, Peter ran away from that school and broke into a nearby house and he stole the homeowner's purse. The woman returned home unexpectedly

and found that he was carrying an axe, like a large axe. Oh, okay. He ran out, but she was there with a weapon. That's so fucking scary. And a year later, Peter ran into a school or ran away from school again and broke into a home with the intention of robbing it. But when he discovered that the female homeowner, always a woman, the female homeowner was asleep in bed, he beat her in the head with a

hammer. And how old was he? 14. Or excuse me, at this point, 15. He beat her in the head with a hammer. She lived. Yeah, the attack caused a concussion and hemorrhaging and resulted in hospitalization. I bet. And when he was arrested, he pleaded guilty to the charge and they said, but would not or could not explain why he attacked her. He just did it. Oh fuck. And he showed again, no remorse for it.

And again, she's just sleeping in bed so it's not even like she was gonna catch him. Yeah, he just beat her in the head with a hammer. Oh my God. That should have been it. Yeah. But just a few months after the hammer attack, Peter escaped from the school again and went to the home of a school staff member.

The staff member wasn't at home, but his wife was. Oh no. And Peter beat her in the head with a large piece of wood. Once she was incapacitated, he dragged the woman to a wooded area behind the house, ripped off her clothes, and intended to rape her. Oh yeah. But stopped at the last minute for unknown reasons. Just stopped. What the fuck?

She suffered a broken nose and a broken shoulder bone. It was deeply traumatized, obviously. She was literally dragged out of her home. But now he is at, there's one where he brings the axe, but he doesn't use it. The second one is he beats a woman in the head with a hammer while she's asleep. The third one, he beats a woman so she's incapacitated. And then he ups, he's upping at one every time. This time he drags her out to a wooded area and he attempts to rape her and stops at the last second.

And this kid is literally like 14, 15, 16. And no one's sitting here going, the next thing he's going to do is murder someone. Now it was during this time that another odd behavior came, emerged in Peter, which could also be significant later in his life. At some point in his mid teens, the break-ins, which like we said, were motivated by robbery, increased the violence against people. Now he has apt it again where he started causing massive amounts of damage and destruction to the homes themselves. Okay.

Like we talked about how that one house was found with canned soup and spaghetti everywhere, mud everywhere, stubbing the cigarettes out. That started early. Really? He would frequently rip up clothing and furniture, dump food on the floors, vandalize the walls, stub cigarettes out on the carpets.

This started in his teens. The fuck is he so angry about? I don't know. And according to one newspaper report at the walls, stub cigarettes out on the carpets, this started in his teens. What the fuck is he so angry about? I don't know. And according to one newspaper report at the time, the damage left was of such enormity that words could not adequately describe it. Wow. Now, Peter's violent behavior continued to escalate as he grew older, and in 1946, he was arrested when he hidden the walls of a home he was robbing while waiting for the police to leave. Oh, they couldn't find him. He was in the

fucking wall. How did he get in the walls? No idea. But he was caught trying to escape the scene later. There's too many stories where people are in the walls. I don't love that. Dislike it greatly. Everyone stopped having walls walls. Yeah, I don't love that. And they dislike it greatly. Everyone stop having walls, I think, I don't know. What else do you do? But while he was out on bail for that, he committed three sexual assaults. Jesus, on bail?

Yep, on bail. And he was quickly re-arrested and sentenced finally to eight years in prison. Yeah, what the fuck? But it was during this time that KePeter had gained a reputation among law enforcement and other criminals for being a very big narcissist and a compulsive pathological liar. And a cuckoo nut man.

By most accounts, he would lie about literally everything and anything, including one frequently told story that he would use where he said his father had been executed in the electric chair. Nah, he's here. Just vouching for your ass. But he also continued his habit of blaming others for his behavior and the consequences of those behaviors. In this case, for example, he blamed his incarceration on William Muncie,

who was the detective constable who arrested him at the scene of the robbery. And he was like, no, I just caught you. You did it. Like I did not make you do this. I'm literally a detective constable, so fuck off. Peter's time in prison was also not, he was not a model prisoner.

Lots of rules and fractions, violations, violent outbursts involving other inmates. And he would receive all the inevitable punishments that followed. But nothing worked. And eventually, his continued outbursts mates, and he would receive all the inevitable punishments that followed. But nothing worked. And eventually, eventually his continued outbursts and his unwillingness to be even slightly easy to deal with got him sent to the prison psychiatrist who included the following in

his assessment of Peter. His record from the age of 12 makes it clear he is an aggressive psychopath. Oh. He has all the benefits of the juvenile court treatment and borstal treatment. And it is doubtful whether even at the beginning of his sentence, any constructive work could have been done with him. There is nothing I can suggest now. So this psychiatrist said he is an aggressive psychopath and I cannot do anything for him. You cannot do anything for him. And I don't think anyone ever could do anything for him. You cannot do anything for him.

And I don't think anyone ever could do anything for him. And they were like, let's let him out. Huh. But the guard and the guards and the staff at the prison shared the psychiatrist's opinion. They were like, yeah, no, he's, he's bad. And one officer summed Peter up as one of the worst types we have at Peterhead. His police and prison record proves that it is utterly impossible to manage this man other than when he is locked up on his own. So, you know, there are

special cases where that just fucking happens. Yeah. And let me remind you, he was just labeled a very dangerous, aggressive psychopath with absolutely no hope of recovery. But there was nothing that authorities could do to keep him locked up after his sentence. And Peter was released from HM prison, Peter's head in October of 1952. Everybody must have been just shaking their heads. Like, we're really letting this one go. And that's where I'm going to end for part one. Motherfucker because Peter manual continues. Oh, one. You motherfucker. Because Peter Manuel continues. Oh no.

He does not change. She does not shift. He continues in a very horrific way, which we will get into in part two. But don't you worry. He will get caught in part two. Okay, good. We love to hear that. But we are going to take a break for that one so I can do a little extra research on

this one. All right. Well, in the meantime, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But that's really breaking into somebody's house and disrespect their entire home by throwing SpaghettiOs everywhere and putting out your lit cigarettes, douchebag. Asshole. Keep it that weird.

You're a piece of shit, Peter Manuel. Spaghetti on the carpet. I would fucking lose it. I'm sorry. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. From Wondery, I'm Indra Varma and this is The Spy Who. This season, we open the file on Oleg Penkovsky,

the spy who defused the missile crisis. It's 1960 and the world's on the brink of nuclear war. However, one man in Moscow is about to emerge from the shadows with an offer for the CIA. His name is Oleg Penkovsky. As a Cold War double agent, Penkovsky wants to supply the US with the Soviet Union's greatest nuclear secrets. But is this man putting his life on the line to save the world? Or is he part of an elaborate trap? Follow the Spy Who on the Wondry app or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Or you can binge the full season of the Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis early and ad free with Wondry+.