Broken Lives

Eric Edgar Cooke was the last man to hang in Western Australia. Between 1958 and his capture in September 1963, Cooke committed 22 murders and attempted murders that forever changed the face of Perth from a friendly big country town to a city of suspicion and fear. His fantasies and delusions led him to commit a series of sexual perversions and crimes, including theft, deliberate hit-and-runs, vicious attacks on women in their beds and murder - by shooting, stabbing and strangling. When two innocent men were convicted and jailed for crimes committed by Cooke, journalist Estelle Blackburn began an exhaustive investigation which lasted six years. 'Broken Lives' is the award-winning, compelling and thought-provoking result of her relentless search for the truth. Blackburn reveals the life of a social misfit with a desire to hurt others, and the stories of the people whose lives he intruded upon. She examines and appraises the police investigation and uncovers the workings of the judicial system of the day. Through her investigations and the new evidence Blackburn presented in 'Broken Lives', new appeals were gained before Western Australia's Court of Criminal Appeal for John Button and Darryl Beamish, leading to Button being exonerated of manslaughter in 2002 and (as this updated edition reveals), Beamish being exonerated of wilful murder in 2005. The father of Eric Edgar Cooke despised his baby son from the moment he saw him. Bashings and a hate-filled childhood followed for the boy with the crooked mouth, launching a personality unique among serial killers. He stalked the city of Perth for months, shooting strangers in the dead of night and using a sickening variety of weapons to steal the lives of strangers. Unknown to the terror-stricken citizens of this trusting, emerging metropolis, the young father of seven children who pulled the trigger had for years been doing other sinister night work. In a remarkable twist of fate, the kille