SUSAN Swarbrick’s article about mass murderer Peter Manuel (“The invisible Madman”, Herald Magazine, December 3) brought back some almost forgotten memories. In my youth I had always had an interest in news reports of crimes and court cases, perhaps because my father had been a senior police officer in Glasgow CID. Later as a law student I sat mesmerised in the forensic medicine classes of Professor John Glaister, as he recounted the details of the many murder investigations in which he had been personally involved (especially those he had solved after the detectives investigating them had failed to do so!)
In the two-year period from 1956 to 1958, there was huge public interest in the running news stories about several horrific murder cases in and around Glasgow, finally culminating in the arrest of the known criminal Manuel and charging him with eight separate murders.
In May, 1958 I was at home on RAF leave, and was lucky enough to get a seat in the public gallery of the High Court for part of the subsequent trial. It chanced to be the two days immediately after Manuel had, to everyone’s astonishment, decided to sack his defence counsel, the eminent QC Harald Leslie, and take over his own defence.
Most of those present in court were amazed at how well he challenged in great detail the evidence already presented in great detail. Of course without a legal representative there was no question and answer process, so Manuel simply talked for several hours non-stop, going through in great detail and without any notes each item of evidence presented by the prosecution. Even when cross-examined he was never stuck for an answer, although by then it was already pretty clear that the final verdict would be guilty on all counts.
There is no doubt that Peter Manuel was a violent criminal without a shred of compassion for his innocent victims. Although I have always been an opponent of the death penalty, there was perhaps some justice that he finally suffered the same fate as his many innocent victims, rather than spend perhaps 40 or 50 years in prison at taxpayers’ expense.
Iain AD Mann,
7 Kelvin Court, Glasgow.
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