You're listening to the Men's Ray podcast, and this is the story of the Beast of Birkenshaw. Oh, First off, I want to thank you listeners for sticking with me through the audio problems that we had with our last episode.

Hopefully there won't be a repeat of that again, if I'm honest I still I'm not sure

where that feedback came from. This week is going to be a little bit different for

mens rea as the case we're looking at will be covered in a three-part series.

This first episode will be covered in a three-part series. This first episode will be followed by two more later this week, so look out for them.

Today we look at a series of murders that happened over a two-year span in the late 1950s just outside of Glasgow

and the man who committed these hard acts, Peter Manuel, who later became known as the Beast of

Birkenshaw.

Peter Manuel's family came from the Lanarkshire area of Scotland. It was an area of heavy industry and was dominated by the nearby coal mines. Manuel's father and grandfather both spent their days down the mines.

His parents, Samuel and Bridget, were married quickly and quietly when Peter's mother became pregnant with their first child.

Before his older brother, James was born,

his father left and went to the United States.

He was joined by Bridget when she had given birth,

leaving James behind with his grandmother. His father Samuel worked first in New York and then after

the crash of 1929 in Detroit. Peter was born while the two were living and working in New York.

But things didn't work out as planned for the born while the two were living and working in New York.

But things didn't work out as planned for the manuals,

and in 1932, the three of them moved back to Lanarkshire near Motherwell.

Not only was Peter in a new country at the age of five, he was also no longer the only child in the family.

He met his brother James for the first time.

In 1937, the family had another child, a girl called Theresa.

They moved to Coventry, the center of British car manufacturing.

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