The Night Caller

2021-01-26 19:36:09 Written by Kashif wasli

Eric Edgar Cooke known as the night caller was born on 25 February 1931 in Perth, Australia. His father was an alcoholic providing him and his two younger siblings a dysfunctional, awful, and very sad home life throughout his childhood. Alongside usual beatings from his father, Eric Cooke was an uneasy kid with a habit of wounding himself, going to the hospital for head injuries on more than one occasion. A kid with suspected brain damage grew into a man who endured regular unconsciousness and crippling headaches.

Born with a hare lip and cleft palate, Cooke was noticeably odd from other kids in appearance, a reality that motivated taunting and bullying. His health troubles, home life, and problems socially ensured Eric Cooke fought with his confidence and self-esteem and was normally considered to be a very emotionally dangerous child.

 

As a teenager, he became involved in petty crime and destruction in and around his area. After an 18-month sentence in prison for arson, Eric Edgar Cooke escalated his criminal actions to house-breaking, sneaking into other people's residences looking for valuables with a preference to cause injury, where he could, to leave his mark.

At the age of 18, on 24 May 1949, Cooke was convicted to three years in jail after being charged for arson and vandalism. A new criminal he was easily arrested after leaving his fingerprints at the scene of his crimes. Upon his discharge, he was dismissed by the Army due to his minor criminal history but not before undergoing basic training including the use of guns.

 

Eric Edgar Cooke wedded aged 22 to 19-year-old Sarah Lavin and they had seven children. However, his criminal ways continued with usual arrests for theft, house-breaking, and voyeurism.

 

On Australia Day, 26 January 1963 the nation was stunned when a series of shootings started happening in and around the suburbs of Perth in the dead of night. In what seemed to be random attacks largely taking place at residential houses, no one knew who was behind these murders or why.

Originally aiming for a frightened couple in a parked car, they were injured with shot wounds to the neck and hand. Next, Brian Weir was shot in the skull as he lay sleeping with his front door left unlocked. Seriously injured, Mr. Weir hardly survived. Doorbells were rung and doors were smashed awakening unsuspecting inhabitants who were then killed at point-blank range when they opened their gates. The shootings resumed throughout the night with a total of five people being shot and three being murdered. An evening of fear which received this killer the nickname of The Night Caller.

Over the next few months, his unexpected murders continued while authority compelled the public to be sharp and to shut their doors at night. Jillian Macpherson Brewer, 22; Brian Weir, 29; John Sturkey, 19; George Walmsley, 54; Shirley Martha McLeod, 18; Constance Lucy Madrill, 24; Patricia Vinicioo Berkman, 33; and Rosemary Anderson, 17 were victims of the night caller. His crimes were opportunistic and used different strategies. Also, his victims shared no noticeable common characteristics making indicating where he would strike next and against who an almost unthinkable task.

Eric Edgar Cooke did not keep the same model of weapons across his serial killing duration. He used several weapons in various attacks, occasionally shooting his victims, sometimes injuring, he murdered inside houses and out in the open; a reality that made it tougher for police to relate the killings to one individual.

Two men stood trial and were sentenced to prison but the victims were murdered by Eric Edgar Cooke. These were wrongful convictions for the killings of Jillian Macpherson and Rosemary Anderson; the two homicides Cooke eventually admitted to before his execution. Despite Cooke’s 1963 confession, Darryl Beamish served 15 years, while John Button was sentenced to ten years with the government not believing Eric Edgar Cooke’s confessions.

 

Eric Edgar Cooke was arrested once again due to forensic information when his fingerprints were matched to a rifle discovered abandoned in bushes in Mount Pleasant. Throughout his younger years and his housebreaking career, Cooke discovered himself in the hands of the police due to leaving proof at the crime scene. Once ballistic tests had verified this rifle had been used in an unsolved killing, authority replaced it with a look-a-like and lay in wait for its owner to came back.

 

Their tolerance paid off when 17 days later, Eric Edgar Cooke came to claim his weapon. Once trapped, he stunned investigating officers with his confident confessions to eight homicides and 14 attempted murders along with hundreds of burglaries and a series of other more petty crimes. He recalled every detail and seemed to enjoy giving detectives his comprehensive statement and useful confessions, Eric Edgar Cooke pleaded not guilty on the grounds of insanity when he came to prosecution. His defense counsel submitted information of his childhood, the violence he suffered from his father and witnessed against his mother. The head wounds and suspected brain damage along with a claim that Cooke underwent from schizophrenia. A request shot down when Dr. AS Ellis, Director of Mental Health Services examined him and came to a new conclusion.

Announced sane, no further assessment of Cooke’s mental health was made and he was quickly convicted of killing at the Supreme Court of Western Australia in November 1963.

Eric Edgar Cooke was the last individual to be hanged in the state of Western Australia.