The Murder of Sydney Dunn - 1957

[Sherlock]

A case which has recently intrigued me is the murder of Newcastle taxi driver Sydney Dunn, who was found dead in his cab near the village of Edmondbyers in County Durham on 7th December 1957. He had died from a gunshot wound and his throat had also been cut.

It is usually assumed that Scottish serial killer Peter Thomas Anthony Manuel was responsible for this murder, as he was reported to have been seeking work in the Newcastle area at the time. He was later identified as the man who had been seen getting into Dunn's cab at Newcastle railway station at an identity parade at Hamilton police station, and after his execution a coroner's jury named him as the murderer.

After reading the two recent books on the Manuel case I am not entirely convinced that Manuel was responsible for this particular crime, as there appear to be significant differences in modus operandi between this murder and Manuel's other known killings.

I will post more on this case later. In the meantime, do any other contributors have any thoughts?

[DarkPassenger]

After reading the two recent books on the Manuel case I am not entirely convinced that Manuel was responsible for this particular crime, as there appear to be significant differences in modus operandi between this murder and Manuel's other known killings.

I will post more on this case later. In the meantime, do any other contributors have any thoughts?

He wasn't a serial killer in the conventional sense. Besides, serial killers change MO like prostitutes change clients - MO is not signature.

[ianincleveland]

Manuel was one evil man,before his murder spree hed done time for a series of rapes and sexual assaults,and also got a Not Proven verdict over the abduction of a teenage girl,which he later boasted hed done.

Im somewhat undecided on the Death Penalty,innocent people(Bentley,Evans for two) have wrongly hung.But if one case deserved it,that was the evil of Peter Manuel.

[Sherlock]

Manuel and Sydney Dunn

According to Manuel; Scotland's first Serial Killer by A.M. Nicol (2008), the evidence which caused the coroner's jury to name Manuel as the killer of Sydney Dunn was as follows;-

1) Another taxi driver named Thomas Green had firstly been approached by Dunn's passenger at Newcastle Central Station to take him to Edmondbyers; Green picked out Manuel as this man at an identification parade at Hamilton police station in January
1958. Manuel was also picked out by another driver named Albert Younger who had also seen the man in question.

2) Grass found in the turn-ups of a pair of Manuel's trousers was similar to that found near Edmondbyers.

3) A button with thread attached recovered from the running board of Dunn's taxi could have come from a coat belonging to Manuel.

4) Two red fibres entwined in the button could have come a maroon jumper belonging to Manuel.

5) A yellow thread entwined in the button could have come from a brown suit belonging to Manuel.


Even more importantly, Manuel had apparently been in the Newcastle area at the time of the murder in order to attend a job interview on Friday 6th December 1957. Dunn had been seen picking up his passenger in the early morning of Sunday 8th December 1957.

At the same time, there are also several factors which could possibly point away from Manuel as the killer:-


1) The so-called "Paddy Train" which often contained a number of Irishmen on their way to seek work in England had previously arrived at Newcastle Central at 4.05am; this led the local press to speculate (perhaps wildly) on some kind of IRA involvement with the killing. Trains from London and Bristol had also arrived at 4.29am and 4.38am respectively on which the killer might have arrived.

2) Thomas Green had originally stated that the man who had asked him to take him to Edmondbyers had spoken with a local "North Country" accent and had not mentioned a Scottish accent. When the IRA theory emerged Green then said that the man might have had an Irish accent after all! It seems unlikely that Green would have confused a local "Geordie" (or even a Durham or Wearside) accent with a Scottish or Irish accent, although this is not impossible.

3) The passenger who got into Dunn's taxi was described as male, aged 24, five feet eight inches tall, swarthy, with greased-back hair, medium build, dark single-breasted suit, no hat, light shirt, dark tie and dark loose grey overcoat.
Manuel could have been described as swarthy and had a similar hairstyle, but on the other hand his height was documented as five feet four rather than five feet eight inches, his build was said to be "stocky" rather than medium, and he was then 31 rather than 24, although it is possible that he could have been thought to have been younger.

4) It is unclear why Manuel would have asked to have been taken to Edmondbyers at all, as he had no known connections with the village. One suggestion was that Dunn had mistaken Edmondbyers for Edinburgh due to Manuel's accent and had been killed by Manuel in a fit of rage, but it seems rather unlikely that Manuel could have counted on a taxi driver taking him such a long distance without an arrangement being made in advance and a fare agreed.
Moreover, if Dunn had indeed taken Manuel to Edmondbyers it is unknown how he made his escape after the murder. As far as is known he had no local knowledge of the area (most of his known murders were committed within easy access to his home in Birkenshaw, Lanarkshire), and the taxi was found in a very isolated spot well away from any railway lines. This could suggest that the killer was either local or made his getaway in another vehicle, and police enquiries failed to obtain any sightings of a stranger walking along the side of the moors or reports of anyone giving a lift to such a man.
At the same time it is not impossible that some motorist did indeed convey Manuel away from the scene of the crime but for some reason failed to come forward; for example, could this have been due to threats by Manuel?

Manuel himself denied having committed that particular murder, although he confessed to others with which he was never charged, including one in London.

It is obvious that Manuel was more than capable of a murder of this kind, and may indeed have been in the area at the time, but the real truth of the matter will probably never be known.

I personally do not favour the death penalty, but can perfectly understand why some may consider it the only appropriate way to deal with an evil and cunning indvidual such as Manuel for the protection of the public.

[Guest]

Sidney Dunn Murder - a little more information.

As it may be some time since entries were made on this thread, I think its worth mentioning that in an article written by Andrew White, assistant news editor of the Daily Record newspaper, on 21 July 2011 (yes, 3 years ago to the day), he refers to a poem written by Manuel in prison whilst awaiting execution, in which he says "& Sidney Dunn I slew". White goes on to say this amounts to a confession & that "we now know who killed Dunn but we will never know why". The poem appeared in a previous article in The Record on April 11, 2009.

Now I know confessions are a very grey area & are not conclusive proof of a crime and that Manuel liked nothing better than to play games with his hated enemies, the police but he had made an original confession when in custody shortly after the discovery of the murdered Smart family, listing the 8 murders for which he was tried but not including Sidney Dunn. He later retracted this confession but, honestly, his explanation that it was a conspiracy by the Police was thrown out at the trial and the confession was made immediately after he had said to his mother that he wanted to clear up the "terrible things I have done". He probably omitted Sidney Dunn from this as he was talking to the Lanarkshire Police and only referred to the murders committed within their jurisdiction.

Speaking purely from a personal point of view, when I review the points for and against the conclusion reached at the hearing 2 weeks after his execution, that Manuel was responsible for this murder, I find the reasons "for" outweighing those "against".

Yes, the forensic evidence is given as "could have come from articles of clothing belonging to Manuel" but

1. Its an awful coincidence that exactly the same colour & type of button, from a coat, thread etc were found.

2. The taxi driver, Green, mentioned a loose overcoat amongst the clothing worn by the person who got into Dunn's taxi.

3. There is definite proof that Manuel attended a job interview 2 days before & the witness description suggests that the man was formally dressed. suit, collar & tie etc., as would be for an interview - again, its not conclusive but an awful coincidence that he's in the very area, at the time.

4. The witness description, 5'8 as against 5'4, 24 as against 30 - minor differences in detail but the sleek, combed dark hair - exactly Manuel's.

5. The Irish boat speculation, that's all it is, not even remotely convincing. To a Tynesider, there might not be much difference between an Irish & West of Scotland accent, I say might as there are many who would be familiar with a Scottish accent. Its likely, though, that there was very little said.

6. The Serial Killer "pattern" doubts? Manuel doesn't fall into any category, he never had a logical reason for murder but he did have a quick temper, could fly into a rage & the brutality again, slitting his throat, dragging the body yards away from the taxi - remember the very similar treatment of Anne Kneilands? I know it sounds ridiculous to believe that he asked Dunn to take him to Edinburgh, not Edmundbyers but perhaps either that or he saw this as another opportunity to kill someone. What happened in the following 2/3 weeks shows he had an appetite for murder, no doubt whipped up by his release from Prison shortly before.

Yes, can't explain how he got away from the area, how either no-one, even later, after his execution, came forward to say they had been flagged down or forced at knifepoint to drive him back to Newcastle, or to have picked him up as a hitch hiker. But the matter was supposedly resolved at the hearing soon after his death & they may have thought it was not necessary.

As to his execution & the death penalty, even many who were against this at the time breathed a sigh of relief and felt that, given the terror he had caused in Lanarkshire & the fact that his guilt was so utterly clear & that he had no remorse whatsoever, here was someone who deserved his fate - he was even resigned to it - "turn the radio up & I'll go quietly". Certainly, even if he had been imprisoned for life meaning life, no one around him, especially prison officers, could feel safe.

Yes, I know you can argue against this but for me, Manuel would NEVER have reformed, he was like the terrorists, insurgents etc. who indiscriminately maim & kill completely innocent people & will keep on doing so, even prepared to give their lives for "the cause". Dunblane school massacre Thomas Hamilton also comes to mind in this context.

Please, I am not arguing for the complete return of the death penalty - I realize there are many reasons for its abolition. I'm only thinking now, more than half a decade after these terrible events about this particular person - Peter Thomas Anthony Manuel.

As a postscript, he supposedly confessed to at least 3 more murders, including Annie Steele, battered to death in her flat in Aberfoyle Street, Glasgow only a week or so after the brutal killing of Anne Kneilands in January 1956. Manuel was not in prison then & it took place not that far from his usual haunts, anyway, he was often in the city. The police suspected that it was committed by a housebreaker whom this poor lady disturbed. She was brutally beaten with a poker - shades of the iron bar used on Anne Kneilands only days before? Some children, I think, saw a person shinning down the ronepipe & someone saw a "youth aged about 17" running along Cumbernauld Road at the time. Probably for a brief moment from a distance and completely by surprise - Manuel was wiry and athletic. As with so much else, we'll likely never know for sure.