[Anderson]. At the time I struck her, I was doing about 40 miles per hour... She was scooped up onto the hood for a couple of seconds and then thrown over the bonnet.' As authorities did not believe Cooke's confession for these two murders, someone would have to take the fall.
True to form for serial killers, Cooke had also led up to his murderous spree with hundreds of smaller offences, including peeping through women's windows at night, burglary and theft. Seven women who lived in similar areas were attacked in identical ways; five survived, two did not. After breaking into their flats and stealing the door key, Cooke later returned, watched them while they slept and then made his move. In the Brewster and Anderson murders alone, Cooke's modus operandi was identical to 14 other crimes he had committed. He was finally caught when police found the gun he used for his last murder. They waited until he returned for it and arrested him.
Faced with the police not accepting his first confession, Cooke retracted it, but stood steadfastly by his second. As Peter Ryan, former editor of Melbourne University Press who published The Beamish Case , wrote of Cooke's hanging, 'His second confession was made at the very step onto the gallows, and was sworn on the Bible in the presence of a clergyman. No matter; he was turned off, and carried his confession with him into the drop.' Cooke, the last man hanged in Western Australia, was buried at the Fremantle prison cemetery on top of child killer Martha Rendell. But if Cooke had gone, his legacy lingered. It would return to haunt authorities years later in ways they could never imagine.
21
The Macro taskforce officers do a quick mental check. Sarah abducted in summer, Jane in winter, Ciara in autumn. Is there some pattern in this? All disappeared on long weekend holidays. Sarah on Australia Day; Jane, the Queen's birthday (not celebrated in WA) and Ciara, Canberra Day in the ACT. There is five months between Sarah and Jane. Nine months between Jane and Ciara. Nine between Jane and Ciara .Why has the killer's cooling-off period become longer, instead of shorter as is their usual pattern? Has the police heat kept him lying low? Or has he, God forbid, acted somewhere else in the meantime, moving back to Claremont out of a desperate, uncontrollable urge to return?
The Commissioner, too, is highly visible. A hush descends on the normally rowdy crowd at a night football game at Subiaco Oval, near Claremont, when Bob Falconer makes an unscheduled, emotional address for them to help police solve the Claremont mystery. He also makes a plea through the press. Alarmed at the 'panic, paranoia, fear and mistrust' that have gripped the city, he urges the community 'not to self-destruct'.
The taskforce implements a location register to identify persons who were present in the Claremont area on the night Ciara went missing. Through extensive media coverage, potential witnesses are asked to register if they had been in Claremont, the time they were there, their movements within the area, their observations and a description of themselves with the clothing they had worn on the night. While it allows the taskforce to build a picture of Claremont on that night, it also eliminates suspects from witness accounts by referencing the register. 'If, for example, a witness had contacted the taskforce and advised they were at a particular location at a set time and were wearing a red dress,' Tony Potts says, 'and another witness had already mentioned they had seen a woman in a red dress, we could then cross-reference that information to identify and eliminate persons from the inquiry.'
Within days of Ciara's disappearance, a new fundraising arm takes shape: the Secure Community Foundation (SCF). Denis Glennon has clout – serious clout. If he rings the police commissioner, Falconer takes Glennon's call. And if he wants to start a fundraiser, the heavyweights will come on board. They need no persuasion. Terry
True to form for serial killers, Cooke had also led up to his murderous spree with hundreds of smaller offences, including peeping through women's windows at night, burglary and theft. Seven women who lived in similar areas were attacked in identical ways; five survived, two did not. After breaking into their flats and stealing the door key, Cooke later returned, watched them while they slept and then made his move. In the Brewster and Anderson murders alone, Cooke's modus operandi was identical to 14 other crimes he had committed. He was finally caught when police found the gun he used for his last murder. They waited until he returned for it and arrested him.
Faced with the police not accepting his first confession, Cooke retracted it, but stood steadfastly by his second. As Peter Ryan, former editor of Melbourne University Press who published The Beamish Case , wrote of Cooke's hanging, 'His second confession was made at the very step onto the gallows, and was sworn on the Bible in the presence of a clergyman. No matter; he was turned off, and carried his confession with him into the drop.' Cooke, the last man hanged in Western Australia, was buried at the Fremantle prison cemetery on top of child killer Martha Rendell. But if Cooke had gone, his legacy lingered. It would return to haunt authorities years later in ways they could never imagine.
21
The Macro taskforce officers do a quick mental check. Sarah abducted in summer, Jane in winter, Ciara in autumn. Is there some pattern in this? All disappeared on long weekend holidays. Sarah on Australia Day; Jane, the Queen's birthday (not celebrated in WA) and Ciara, Canberra Day in the ACT. There is five months between Sarah and Jane. Nine months between Jane and Ciara. Nine between Jane and Ciara .Why has the killer's cooling-off period become longer, instead of shorter as is their usual pattern? Has the police heat kept him lying low? Or has he, God forbid, acted somewhere else in the meantime, moving back to Claremont out of a desperate, uncontrollable urge to return?
The Commissioner, too, is highly visible. A hush descends on the normally rowdy crowd at a night football game at Subiaco Oval, near Claremont, when Bob Falconer makes an unscheduled, emotional address for them to help police solve the Claremont mystery. He also makes a plea through the press. Alarmed at the 'panic, paranoia, fear and mistrust' that have gripped the city, he urges the community 'not to self-destruct'.
The taskforce implements a location register to identify persons who were present in the Claremont area on the night Ciara went missing. Through extensive media coverage, potential witnesses are asked to register if they had been in Claremont, the time they were there, their movements within the area, their observations and a description of themselves with the clothing they had worn on the night. While it allows the taskforce to build a picture of Claremont on that night, it also eliminates suspects from witness accounts by referencing the register. 'If, for example, a witness had contacted the taskforce and advised they were at a particular location at a set time and were wearing a red dress,' Tony Potts says, 'and another witness had already mentioned they had seen a woman in a red dress, we could then cross-reference that information to identify and eliminate persons from the inquiry.'
Within days of Ciara's disappearance, a new fundraising arm takes shape: the Secure Community Foundation (SCF). Denis Glennon has clout – serious clout. If he rings the police commissioner, Falconer takes Glennon's call. And if he wants to start a fundraiser, the heavyweights will come on board. They need no persuasion. Terry
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