He also confessed to many hit and runs, aiming for them and then speeding off without a trace. They handcuffed him immediately and he was in for some serious questioning. Cooke was the last person to be hanged in the state of Western Australia, on 26 October 1964. Cooke was beaten by his father when he tried to protect his mother from his father's violent outbursts of rage. As a teenager Cooke, rejected by his peers due to his disability, had no social life and spent his nights involved in petty crimes and vandalism. By 3am he was ready to go home.All police knew was that the bullets came from the same gun. In the 1960s people often left the keys in their cars ignition. Read, highlight, and take notes, across web, tablet, and phone. A memoir, The Shark Net by Robert Drewe – later made into a three-part TV series – provides one author's impressions the effect the murders had on the Perth of that era. Early life Eric Edgar Cooke born 25th February 1931 in Victoria park, a suburb of Perth and had 2 siblings Cooke's father, who had been forced into marriage, showed no affection towards him as a child, As his oldest child and only son, and he would often become a victim of his alcoholic father’s temper he sustained many beatings for no apparent reason. Cooke would later serve 18 months in jail for burning down a church after he was rejected in a choir audition. The father of Eric Edgar Cooke despised his baby son from the moment he saw him. John Button, who was jailed for ten years (served five years) for manslaughter in the death of his girlfriend, Rosemary Anderson, a conviction that was quashed in 2002 after evidence proved Cooke was the killer. This was an unusual serial killer whose methods seem as random as his choice of victims. had already been convicted and imprisoned. Two were shot while sleeping without their homes being disturbed. I need you to use at least 10 journal articles Make sure that you obtain information outlining the experience […] Cooke met Sally at work at the metropolitan markets, married her in 1953 and had a son six months later and another son, Tony, a year after that. A year later on the 14th of October 1953, Cooke aged 22 married Sarah (Sally) Lavin, a 19-year-old waitress, at the Methodist Church in Cannington.They were to have seven children. His wife was loving and honest, she never questioned his time on his own, she knew he was different and knew of his father and his past. One victim was shot dead after answering a knock on the door, several were killed after waking while Cooke was robbing their homes; two were shot while sleeping without their homes being disturbed; after stabbing one victim he got lemonade from the refrigerator and sat on the porch drinking it; another was strangled with the cord from her bedside lamp, her dead body was raped, dragged to a neighbor's lawn, then she was violated with an empty whisky bottle and it was left cradled in her arms.