Eric Edgar Cooke

Eric Edgar Cooke (25 February 1931 – 26 October 1964), nicknamed the Night Caller and later the Nedlands Monster, was an Australian serial killer who terrorised the city of Perth, Western Australia, from September 1958 to August 1963.

Cooke committed at least 20 violent crimes, eight of which resulted in deaths.

Eric Edgar Cooke was born on 25 February 1931 in Victoria Park, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, and was the eldest of three children.

He was born into an unhappy, violent family; his parents married solely because his mother, Christine Edgar, was pregnant with him.

His alcoholic father, Vivian Cooke, beat the boy frequently, especially when the boy tried to protect his mother.

Christine would sleep in the staff room at her job in the Como Hotel to avoid going home and being beaten by Vivian.

Cooke was born with a cleft lip and palate, for which he had one surgical operation when he was three months old and another when he was 3 1⁄2.

The operations were not totally successful and left him with a slight facial deformity and speech impairment.

These disabilities made him the target of bullying at school.

The constant mistreatment caused Cooke to feel ashamed and shy, and he subsequently became emotionally unstable.

Though very good at subjects that required retentive memory and manual dexterity, Cooke was expelled from Subiaco State School for stealing money from a teacher's purse at the age of six.

Once he was transferred to Newcastle Street Infants' School, he was again the target of bullying.

He continued to be bullied at every school he attended, including Highgate Primary School, Forrest Street Primary School, and Newcastle Street Junior Technical School.

Cooke was also placed in orphanages or foster homes on occasion.

Much like his mother, he would hide underneath the house or roam neighbouring streets just to escape a night of his father's violence.

He was frequently hospitalised for head injuries and had suspected brain damage because of his accident-proneness.

Later it was questioned whether these 'accidents' were due to repressed Suicidal Tendencies.

Cooke also had recurrent headaches and was once admitted to an asylum.

His reported blackouts later stopped after an operation in 1949.

Cooke left school at age 14 to work as a delivery boy for Central Provision Stores in order to support the family.

He would give his weekly wages to his mother, who could not fully support the family with the money she earned from cooking and cleaning.

Many of Cooke's jobs put him in hospital due to his accident-proneness.

At a job in the factory of Harris, Scarfe and Sandover, he was hospitalised after being struck on the nose by a winch.

At the age of 16, he worked as a hammer boy in the blacksmith section of the workshop at Midland Junction, where he always signed his lunch bag "Al Capone".

At the same job he suffered second-degree burns to his face from steam, jarred his right hand and injured his left thumb.

Starting at age 17, Cooke spent his nights involved in petty crimes, vandalism and arson; he would later serve eighteen months in jail for burning down a church after he was rejected in a choir audition.

During his later teenage years, Cooke would sneak into houses and steal whatever he found valuable.

These crimes escalated to damaging clothing and furniture in acts of vengeance.

He would cut out newspaper accounts of his crimes to impress his acquaintances in an attempt to gain friends.

On 12 March 1949, police finally caught up with Cooke and found evidence at his grandmother's house, where he was living.

Cooke's fingerprints were matched to those found in other open cases.

On 24 May 1949, Cooke was sentenced to three years in prison after being arrested for arson and vandalism; he was convicted on two charges of stealing, seven of breaking and entering and four of arson.

He left many fingerprints and easy clues for detectives which would teach him to be more careful in his future crimes.

Cooke was described as "a short, slight man with dark, wavy hair and a twisted mouth".

At the age of 21, Cooke joined the regular Australian Army, but was discharged three months later after it was discovered that, before enlistment, he had had a juvenile criminal record.

During his training, he was quickly promoted to lance corporal and was taught to handle firearms.

During the 1950s and early 1960s, people in Australia frequently left cars unlocked and often with the keys in the ignition.

Cooke found it easy to steal cars at night and sometimes returned stolen vehicles without the owners becoming aware of the theft.

On 14 November 1953, Cooke, then aged 22, married Sarah (Sall) Lavin, a 19-year-old waitress, at the Cannington Methodist Church (demolished 1995).

They ultimately had a large family of seven children, four boys and three girls.