THE TRIAL OF PETER MANUEL The Man Who Talked Too Much

Hardback. The trial of Peter Manuel in 1958 in Glasgow for 8 murders had many unusual and dramatic features. First came his dismissal of counsel in the course of the trial. Most dramatic was his 'special defence' of impeachment which brought face to face, one questioning from the dock and the other answering from a wheelchair, two men each accusing the other of the same 3 murders, two men with hate in their eyes. What makes the case of particular interest and importance is the way it gathers into one trial features which have made many other trials famous. This account of the trial, by a Scottish lawyer who attended it, both vividly conveys the atmosphere and drama of the courtroom and makes clear the various legal points involved. The story which emerges is one of patient police investigation into a series of cold-blooded crimes. It takes us into a sinister underworld where crime was regarded as normal business, where guns passed casually from hand to hand in pubs and where there was no honour among thieves. And as central character in the story there is Peter Manuel, habitual criminal and typical psychopathic murderer. For it was just because Manuel was so typical of one kind of murderer that his case posed so sharply and so challengingly the problems which it did and which the author discusses in his final chapter. With Frontis. and Map. 239pp. 8vo. h/back. Light foxing to the first few pp. o/w Nr. F. in Vg+ protected dw. which is chipped at head/tail of v. sl. sunned sp. Becoming scarce.