Over a span of five years, Cooke claimed the lives of at least eight individuals in random acts of violence, with no discernible patterns connecting the victims.
Initially, authorities did not suspect that these murders were related, resulting in the wrongful conviction of innocent men for two of the killings.
A fortunate turn of events eventually provided the police with a significant lead in the investigation.
In August 1963, a rifle was discovered hidden in the bushes along a residential street in Mount Pleasant.
Ballistic tests linked this rifle to two of the murder cases, providing crucial evidence.
To further the investigation, police set a trap by replacing the rifle with a dummy one, rigged with a fishing line.
When Cooke returned to get the rifle, he was arrested.
After being arrested, Cooke claimed responsibility for eight murders and 14 attempted murders.
He also claimed to have killed Jillian Macpherson Brewer and Rosemary Anderson, for whom two innocent men were already in jail.
Before being walked to the gallows on October 26, 1963, Eric Edgar Cooke took a Bible from the chaplain and swore he killed Brewer and Anderson.
Darryl Beamish served 15 years for the murder of Brewer and John Button served five years for the manslaughter of Anderson.
It was decades before those convictions were quashed.
