Eric Edgar Cooke was also known by the name Night Caller. From September 1958 to August 1963, committed at least 22 violent crimes, eight of which resulted in deaths. He was an Australian serial killer who terrorised the city of Perth, Western Australia
He father was very cruel and often beats his mother. He was born into an unhappy, violent family. His mother, Christine Edgar, was pregnant with him and his alcoholic father, Vivian Cooke, beat the boy frequently, especially when the boy tried to protect his mother.
Moreover, Christine would sleep in the staff room at her job in the Como Hotel to avoid going home and being beaten by Vivian.
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Eric Edgar Cooke Wife
Eric Edgar Cooke was married with his wife named, Sarah Lavin. Couple tied knot in 1953. Duo had seven children in total. Eric Edgar Cooke was also known by the name, “The Nedlands Monster”.
Eric Edgar Cooke Murders
Cooke’s four-year killing spree involved a series of seemingly unrelated hit-and-runs, stabbings, strangulations, and shootings.
He shots victims with different rifles, stabbed with knives and scissors, hit with cars, and beaten with an axe.
Several people were killed after Cooke woke them up while robbing their homes; two were shot while sleeping without their homes being disturbed, and one was shot dead after answering a ringing doorbell. After stabbing one victim, Cooke got lemonade from the refrigerator and sat the verandah drinking it.
One victim was strangled to death with the cord from a bedside lamp, after which Cooke raped the corpse, disrobed and dragged it to a neighbour’s lawn, then sexually penetrated it with an empty whisky bottle, which he then left cradled in the victim’s arms.
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Eric EdgarCooke’s Murder Victims Were:
- Pnena (Penny) Berkman,
- Jillian McPherson Brewer,
- John Lindsay Sturkey,
- George Ormond Walmsley,
- Rosemary Anderson,
- Constance Lucy Madrill, and
- Shirley Martha McLeod.
Moreover, Brian Weir, ultimately died as a result of permanent injury three years after having been shot by Cooke.
The fact that Cooke’s victims had no obvious traits in common and that the murders were opportunistic and used various tactics made it difficult to understand that all of these incidents were being carried out by a single murderer.
In reality, two of Cooke’s homicides—the deaths of Jillian Brewer and Rosemary Anderson—were wrongly attributed to other persons who were subsequently imprisoned for them.
Eric Edgar Cooke Death
Eric Edgar Cooke died on 26 October 1964 at the age of 33, in Fremantle Prison, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia.
He was died by execution by hanging in which a person “specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck”, though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain “hanging”.
It is a common method of suicide in which a person applies a ligature to the neck and brings about unconsciousness and then death by suspension or partial suspension.
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