The Trial
31-year-old Peter Manuel was put on trial, charged with eight murders and faced the death penalty. The crowd ,which had queued around the block for a seat in the public gallery, expected a spectacle, and they were not disappointed. Manuel sacked his lawyers and conducted his own defence. He revelled in being the centre of attention and believed himself to be clever enough to make the jury believe in his innocence.
Having confessed to the murders both to the police and in letters, in court the unpredictable Manuel retracted his statements, saying that he only confessed so that the police would leave his family alone. The judge rejected his efforts to have them withdrawn and ruled they could be admitted into evidence. The court heard evidence from the police about the banknotes belonging to Peter Smart which Manuel had spent in a Glasgow bar in the days after the murders took place. The jury also heard about Manuel’s damning confessions and previous criminal convictions.
In his defence, Manuel claimed that he had known the Smart family for years and that Peter Smart had asked him to get him a gun. He said he had found the bodies and thought it looked like a case of murder suicide. And as far as the murder of Isabelle Cooke was concerned, he had claimed to have been at the cinema that night.
The jury were not taken in by Manuel’s defence and after a trial lasting twelve days it took less than two and a half hours for them to return with guilty verdicts on seven murder charges. Disappointingly for Anne Kneilands’ family, the judge ruled that the jury should not find Manuel guilty in her case, due to lack of evidence. Manuel was sentenced to death.
During the days leading up to his execution, the arrogant man who conducted his own defence was replaced by a shambling mess, who hardly spoke to his guards. In one last attempt to escape the hangman’s noose, Manuel tried to convince the authorities that he was not sane, a diagnosis he had previously vehemently denied. But Manuel's mother saw through his pretence. She lost her temper and slapped him across the face during a visit, shouting "You can't fool me!"
On 11th July 1958, Manuel was hanged. His last words are reported as: "Turn up the radio and I’ll go quietly”. He is buried in an unmarked grave within the grounds of Barlinnie prison.