Wndyri Plus subscribers can listen to Morbid early and ad-free. Join WNDYRI Plus in the WNDYRI app or on Apple podcasts.

I'm Dan Tabersky. In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast. What's the answer? And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head? Hysterical, a new podcast from WNDYRI and Pineapple Street studios. Follow Hysterical on the WNDYRI app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash.

And I'm Elaina. And this is Morbid. This is more, man.

I forget what I was going to say. I had something to say at the beginning of this one. I was actually going to sing it, and it was like a song about recording, but then I forgot it.

You know it happens. Yeah. Sorry. It's windy out, and maybe it We're not outside, but maybe the wind just blew it right out of your brain. I didn't know where you were going. I don't know.

I'm looking at the window. It's windy out. And we're not outside. I was like, Where are we going? I was like, Is she right over there? You're like, Oh, we lost found there, fragments of bone, hair, and tissue.What?Yes. So I'll tell you how he killed her, and it's awful. So given the state that the body was found in, her clothes had been torn, disarranged, the investigating officers naturally immediately assumed that Anne had been sexually assaulted. It was confirmed later during her autopsy because that was later that day. But her attacker had also stolen her underwear before leaving.That's such a fucking creepy thing to do.Yeah. Her cause of death was noted as repeated blows to the head with a blunt object. They said it was so vicious and so many hits to her skull that, the vault of her head had been destroyed. That means the skullcap. That means the thing containing your brain had been absolutely destroyed. That's a lot. And that's where the fragments of bone and hair and tissue were happening. He had literally caved her head in. Oh, my God. He's a vicious monster. When they say the beast of Berkinshaw, they are not kidding. He's a fucking monster. He's a monster. And we're going to get to it. Don't worry. But somebody should have stopped him a long time before this happened. I hate when that happens. He had every single indication that he was going to escalate to something. It's really frustrating. There were also cuts and scrapes on Anne's hands that the pathologist thought could have been from the barbed wire on the golf course fence.Like she might have climbed over to try to get away.Oh, God. Now, police officers fanned out across the neighborhood, and they canvas door to door. But there was really only one neighbor who reported hearing any commotion 36 hours earlier. No one really saw or heard anything suspicious. Unfortunately, those who knew Anne were really not a lot of help either. According to her sister, Alice, and it's not because they intended to not a day before the murders, he said he'd been asked to participate in a robbery at the Watt home, but he declined the invitation. Oh, what a good man. He said, No, thank you. A day after the murders, the same man, he said, had come back to see him, and he said, Having been afflicted by the horrors he'd committed against the Watt women, he asked Manuel to get rid of the gun he'd used.Okay.And Peter Manuel said this was the same man who'd stolen the two rings from the home near the Watts house.Sorry. Which is like, you seem to have a whole lot of information, huh? That's the thing.He seemed to know a lot about these two crimes and a lot about these two crime scenes. Sure did. And although he was skeptical about what Peter Manuel had told him, the lawyer, William Watts's lawyer, felt it was, who knows, stranger shit has happened. So he reported it to the authorities. Nice. In time, it became clear Peter Manuel was angling for an early release on this robbery conviction and was trying to use this supposed information as a bargaining chip, being like, It was me, but I know so much about it. But I know everything. And it was true that he seemed to know a lot about the murders, including several little details that hadn't really been reported heavily in the press. But they said it was possible, though, that he had learned them from maybe some of the papers. They weren't heavily reported on these details, but he said they were like, It's not impossible that he didn't see it somewhere. Okay. And because after all, in addition to his criminal history, Peter Manuel was known to police in Lanarkshire as a fantastic liar. Oh, man. So they were understandably very skeptical about the report of some unnamed man being the real killer of the Watt family.Yeah. But still, if what he said was true, they didn't want to be remiss and not just do their due diligence and follow it up, which I'm glad they did. Good police work here. Yeah. So several officers began investigating his claims, and they started with a full scale raid on Peter's home that he shared with his father.Damn, his dad's probably like, Can you get your shit together?And it's also like, I bet you didn't see that coming. Definitely not. I think he thought it was going to lead them further away.Yeah, but not so much.It brought them closer. Oh, no. He was definitely trying to get that early release by being like, Look over there. It's some guy. Go find him. But they were like, No, I think it's you, actually. Let's look more at you. And in addition to William Watts's lawyer, Peter seemed to speak openly with anyone about several crimes, including Anne Neillon's murder, where he wasn't saying he did it. He speculated very heavily on the killer's identity. In an interview, Peter told reporters, I wish to state emphatically that I did not kill any of these unfortunate people. He also publicly demanded that Lanarkshire police go on record to state that investigators's recent actions, had no bearing on any murder case whatsoever. He wanted them to literally go on record and say, Yeah, I know we're doing a full-on raid on Peter Manuel's home, but it has nothing to do with murder. Not at all. No. It's like that would be a lie, Peter. Now, although some members of the police force suspected Peter Manuel of definitely being involved in the Neillins and Watt cases. It appears that at least at the time, he wasn't considered the most serious suspect.Really? To them, they said... So McLeod wrote, To them, he was just a troublesome liar with an annoying tendency to claim he was involved in major crimes because he had done this before. Right.It was his MO.Yeah. And he would claim he was involved in an outside way. He never did the crime.He just got rid of something for somebody.Somebody wanted me to be involved, but I said no.No, I would Never.It's likely for that reason that when William Watt was finally released and ruled out as a suspect, no one really decided to take a closer look at Peter Manuel. After Watt's release from custody, Peter Manuel kept writing these letters to law enforcement from prison, making increasingly fantastic claims about knowing some information about the recent murders. But he wouldn't say what. He was very cryptic, and it got more and more fantastical what he was claiming. He's intense. Yeah. The more fantastic these claims became, the less serious anyone was taking him. Because it's very like, Hey, hey, look at me behavior. Yeah. So he's like, no.And everybody's like, why would he do that?No one would do that if they actually did it. Well.From WNDYRI, I'm Indra Vaama, and this is the Spy Who. This season, we open the file on Oleg Penkowski, the spy who diffused the missile crisis. It's 1960, and the world's on the brink of nuclear war. However, one man in Moscow is about to emerge from the shadows with an offer for the CIA. His name is Oleg Penkowski. As a Cold War double agent, Penkowski wants to supply the US with the Soviet Union's greatest nuclear secrets. But is this man putting his life on the line to save the world, or is he part of an elaborate trap? Follow the Spy Who on the WNDYRI app or wherever you listen to podcasts, or you can binge the full season of the Spy Who diffused the Missile Crisis early and ad-free with WNDYRI Plus.In November 1957, Peter Manuel was released from Barlinnie and was back on the streets. Oh, God. Now, when Anne Neillens was murdered, Peter Manuel's name immediately came to the minds of several of the detectives working on the case. But like we said, it appeared he had that strong alibi. There was really nothing connecting him to it. When the Watt murders occurred, his name was again up on that possible suspect list. But again, no evidence to really tie him to it. But these suspicions were growing stronger and stronger after he had written that first letter to William Mwatz's lawyer claiming knowledge. The thing is, it's like when you look at that series of events, that journey that we just took, where your name comes up as a suspect in a murder. Over and over and over. Because you have a history of being fucked up, of being involved in sexual assaults and robberies and violent things that we will talk about. You came up, you were cleared. You came up Again. You were cleared. Again. And then you insert yourself into multiple homicide cases when you were cleared.It's so interesting though. That's so risky. But it's like, I feel like as soon as they started looking away from him, it probably pissed him off.He was like, wait a second.Because he likes the attention, it sounds like. He likes the attention but doesn't want to go in with both feet. But as soon as they start looking away, he's like, wait a second. Wait, but me. It's like he wants credit for it So the punishment.The punishment. Yeah, he doesn't want the punishment. He wants the credit for doing it. But it's just so wild. And it makes you say, who the fuck is Peter Manuel? Who is this guy? And why the fuck is he going out of his way to be associated with two Terrific crimes. What the fuck?Tell me.So Peter Manuel was born in Manhattan, actually, on March 13th, 1927. He was born to Samuel and Bridget Manuel, Scottish immigrants who'd come to the US to build a better life for their family. I love that. At the time, they already had one child named James, who they had to leave behind in Scotland. And this was very common for this time. They planned to send for him once they became established. I've said this in many other cases before So that would happen? Yeah. They would come over, try to build that better life and send for the child later. Unfortunately, the market crash of 1929 and the depression that followed really dashed any hope of that American dream or economic prosperity. We talked about how that one house was found with canned soup and spaghetti everywhere, mud everywhere, stopping the cigarettes out. That started early. Really? He would frequently rip up clothing and furniture, dump food on the floors, vandalize the walls, stub cigarettes out on the carpets. This started in his teens. What the fuck is he so angry about? I don't know. And according to one newspaper report at the time, the damage left was of such a normity that words could not adequately describe it.Wow.Now, Peter's violent behavior continued to escalate as he grew older. And in 1946, he was arrested when he hid in the walls of a home he was robbing while waiting for the police to leave.Oh.They couldn't find him. He was in the fucking walls.How did he get in the walls?No idea. But he was caught trying to escape the scene later.The There's too many stories where people are in the walls.Yeah, I love that. And they dislike it greatly. Everyone stopped having walls, I think. I don't know. What else do you do? But while he was out on bail for that, he committed three sexual assaults. Jesus. And you In bail? Yeah, on bail. And he was quickly rearrested and sentenced finally to eight years in prison. Yeah, what the fuck? But it was during this time that Peter had gained a reputation among law enforcement and other criminals for being a very big a compulsive pathological liar. And a cuckoo nut man. By most accounts, he would lie about literally everything and anything, including one frequently told story that he would use where he said his father had been executed in the electric chair. No, he's here. His dad was like, No, I'm still here. Just vouching for your ass. But he also continued his habit of blaming others for his behavior and the consequences of those behaviors. In this case, for example, he blamed his incarceration on William Munsey, who who was the Detective Constable who arrested him at the scene of the robbery. And he was like, No, I just caught you. You did it. I did not make you do this.I'm literally a Detective Constable, so fuck off.Peter's time in prison was also not... He was not a model prisoner. Lots of rules infractions, violations, violent outbursts involving other inmates, and he would receive all the inevitable punishments that followed. But nothing worked. Eventually, his continued outbursts and his unwillingness to be even slightly easy to deal with got him sent to the prison psychiatrist who included the following in his assessment of Peter. His record from the age of 12 makes it clear he is an aggressive psychopath. Oh. He has all the benefits of the juvenile court treatment and Borstel treatment, and it is doubtful whether even at the beginning of his sentence, any constructive war could have been done with him. There is nothing I can suggest now. Nothing. So this psychiatrist said, he is an aggressive psychopath, and I cannot do anything for him. You cannot do anything for him, and I don't think anyone ever could do anything for him. And they were like, What's let him out? But the guards and the staff at the prison shared the psychiatrist's opinion. They were like, Yeah, no, he's bad. And one officer summed Peter up as, One of the worst types we have at Peterhead.His police and prison record proves that it is utterly impossible to manage this man other than when he is locked up on his own.So there are special cases where that just fucking happens. Yeah.And let me remind you, he was just labeled a very dangerous, aggressive psychopath with absolutely no hope of recovery. But there was nothing that authorities could do to keep him locked up after his sentence. And Peter was released from H. M. Prison Peter's head in October of 1952.Damn, everybody must have been just shaking their heads. We're really letting this one go.And that's I'm going to end for part one. You motherfucker. Because Peter Manuel continues. Oh, no. He does not change. He does not shift. He continues in a very horrific way, which we will get into in part two. But don't you worry, he will get caught in part two. Okay, good. We love to hear that. But we are going to take a break for that one so I can do a little extra research on this one. All right.Well, in the meantime, we hope to keep listening.And we hope you... Keep it weird.But not to worry that you break into somebody's house and disrespect to their entire home by throwing spaghettios everywhere and putting out your lit cigarettes, douchebag.Asshole. Don't keep it that weird. You're a piece of shit, Peter Manuel.Spaghetti on the carpet. I would fucking lose it.If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining WNDRI Plus in the WNDRI app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondry. Com/survey.Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of WNDRI's podcast, American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history, events that have shaped who we are as a country and continue to define the American experience. We go behind the scenes looking at devastating financial crimes like the fraud committed at Enron and Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. American Scandal also tells marquee stories about American politics. In our latest season, we retrace the greatest corruption scheme in US history as we bring to life the bribes and backroom deals that spawned the Teapot Dome Scandal, resulting in the first presidential cabinet member going to prison. Follow American Scandal on the WNDRI app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge this season, American Scandal: Teapot Dome, early and ad-free right now on WNDRI Plus. After you listen to American Scandal, go deeper and get more to the story with WNDRI's other top history podcasts, including American History Tellers, Legacy, and even the Royals.

found there, fragments of bone, hair, and tissue.

What?

Yes. So I'll tell you how he killed her, and it's awful. So given the state that the body was found in, her clothes had been torn, disarranged, the investigating officers naturally immediately assumed that Anne had been sexually assaulted. It was confirmed later during her autopsy because that was later that day. But her attacker had also stolen her underwear before leaving.

That's such a fucking creepy thing to do.

Yeah. Her cause of death was noted as repeated blows to the head with a blunt object. They said it was so vicious and so many hits to her skull that, the vault of her head had been destroyed. That means the skullcap. That means the thing containing your brain had been absolutely destroyed. That's a lot. And that's where the fragments of bone and hair and tissue were happening. He had literally caved her head in. Oh, my God. He's a vicious monster. When they say the beast of Berkinshaw, they are not kidding. He's a fucking monster. He's a monster. And we're going to get to it. Don't worry. But somebody should have stopped him a long time before this happened. I hate when that happens. He had every single indication that he was going to escalate to something. It's really frustrating. There were also cuts and scrapes on Anne's hands that the pathologist thought could have been from the barbed wire on the golf course fence.

Like she might have climbed over to try to get away.

Oh, God. Now, police officers fanned out across the neighborhood, and they canvas door to door. But there was really only one neighbor who reported hearing any commotion 36 hours earlier. No one really saw or heard anything suspicious. Unfortunately, those who knew Anne were really not a lot of help either. According to her sister, Alice, and it's not because they intended to not a day before the murders, he said he'd been asked to participate in a robbery at the Watt home, but he declined the invitation. Oh, what a good man. He said, No, thank you. A day after the murders, the same man, he said, had come back to see him, and he said, Having been afflicted by the horrors he'd committed against the Watt women, he asked Manuel to get rid of the gun he'd used.Okay.And Peter Manuel said this was the same man who'd stolen the two rings from the home near the Watts house.Sorry. Which is like, you seem to have a whole lot of information, huh? That's the thing.He seemed to know a lot about these two crimes and a lot about these two crime scenes. Sure did. And although he was skeptical about what Peter Manuel had told him, the lawyer, William Watts's lawyer, felt it was, who knows, stranger shit has happened. So he reported it to the authorities. Nice. In time, it became clear Peter Manuel was angling for an early release on this robbery conviction and was trying to use this supposed information as a bargaining chip, being like, It was me, but I know so much about it. But I know everything. And it was true that he seemed to know a lot about the murders, including several little details that hadn't really been reported heavily in the press. But they said it was possible, though, that he had learned them from maybe some of the papers. They weren't heavily reported on these details, but he said they were like, It's not impossible that he didn't see it somewhere. Okay. And because after all, in addition to his criminal history, Peter Manuel was known to police in Lanarkshire as a fantastic liar. Oh, man. So they were understandably very skeptical about the report of some unnamed man being the real killer of the Watt family.Yeah. But still, if what he said was true, they didn't want to be remiss and not just do their due diligence and follow it up, which I'm glad they did. Good police work here. Yeah. So several officers began investigating his claims, and they started with a full scale raid on Peter's home that he shared with his father.Damn, his dad's probably like, Can you get your shit together?And it's also like, I bet you didn't see that coming. Definitely not. I think he thought it was going to lead them further away.Yeah, but not so much.It brought them closer. Oh, no. He was definitely trying to get that early release by being like, Look over there. It's some guy. Go find him. But they were like, No, I think it's you, actually. Let's look more at you. And in addition to William Watts's lawyer, Peter seemed to speak openly with anyone about several crimes, including Anne Neillon's murder, where he wasn't saying he did it. He speculated very heavily on the killer's identity. In an interview, Peter told reporters, I wish to state emphatically that I did not kill any of these unfortunate people. He also publicly demanded that Lanarkshire police go on record to state that investigators's recent actions, had no bearing on any murder case whatsoever. He wanted them to literally go on record and say, Yeah, I know we're doing a full-on raid on Peter Manuel's home, but it has nothing to do with murder. Not at all. No. It's like that would be a lie, Peter. Now, although some members of the police force suspected Peter Manuel of definitely being involved in the Neillins and Watt cases. It appears that at least at the time, he wasn't considered the most serious suspect.Really? To them, they said... So McLeod wrote, To them, he was just a troublesome liar with an annoying tendency to claim he was involved in major crimes because he had done this before. Right.It was his MO.Yeah. And he would claim he was involved in an outside way. He never did the crime.He just got rid of something for somebody.Somebody wanted me to be involved, but I said no.No, I would Never.It's likely for that reason that when William Watt was finally released and ruled out as a suspect, no one really decided to take a closer look at Peter Manuel. After Watt's release from custody, Peter Manuel kept writing these letters to law enforcement from prison, making increasingly fantastic claims about knowing some information about the recent murders. But he wouldn't say what. He was very cryptic, and it got more and more fantastical what he was claiming. He's intense. Yeah. The more fantastic these claims became, the less serious anyone was taking him. Because it's very like, Hey, hey, look at me behavior. Yeah. So he's like, no.And everybody's like, why would he do that?No one would do that if they actually did it. Well.From WNDYRI, I'm Indra Vaama, and this is the Spy Who. This season, we open the file on Oleg Penkowski, the spy who diffused the missile crisis. It's 1960, and the world's on the brink of nuclear war. However, one man in Moscow is about to emerge from the shadows with an offer for the CIA. His name is Oleg Penkowski. As a Cold War double agent, Penkowski wants to supply the US with the Soviet Union's greatest nuclear secrets. But is this man putting his life on the line to save the world, or is he part of an elaborate trap? Follow the Spy Who on the WNDYRI app or wherever you listen to podcasts, or you can binge the full season of the Spy Who diffused the Missile Crisis early and ad-free with WNDYRI Plus.In November 1957, Peter Manuel was released from Barlinnie and was back on the streets. Oh, God. Now, when Anne Neillens was murdered, Peter Manuel's name immediately came to the minds of several of the detectives working on the case. But like we said, it appeared he had that strong alibi. There was really nothing connecting him to it. When the Watt murders occurred, his name was again up on that possible suspect list. But again, no evidence to really tie him to it. But these suspicions were growing stronger and stronger after he had written that first letter to William Mwatz's lawyer claiming knowledge. The thing is, it's like when you look at that series of events, that journey that we just took, where your name comes up as a suspect in a murder. Over and over and over. Because you have a history of being fucked up, of being involved in sexual assaults and robberies and violent things that we will talk about. You came up, you were cleared. You came up Again. You were cleared. Again. And then you insert yourself into multiple homicide cases when you were cleared.It's so interesting though. That's so risky. But it's like, I feel like as soon as they started looking away from him, it probably pissed him off.He was like, wait a second.Because he likes the attention, it sounds like. He likes the attention but doesn't want to go in with both feet. But as soon as they start looking away, he's like, wait a second. Wait, but me. It's like he wants credit for it So the punishment.The punishment. Yeah, he doesn't want the punishment. He wants the credit for doing it. But it's just so wild. And it makes you say, who the fuck is Peter Manuel? Who is this guy? And why the fuck is he going out of his way to be associated with two Terrific crimes. What the fuck?Tell me.So Peter Manuel was born in Manhattan, actually, on March 13th, 1927. He was born to Samuel and Bridget Manuel, Scottish immigrants who'd come to the US to build a better life for their family. I love that. At the time, they already had one child named James, who they had to leave behind in Scotland. And this was very common for this time. They planned to send for him once they became established. I've said this in many other cases before So that would happen? Yeah. They would come over, try to build that better life and send for the child later. Unfortunately, the market crash of 1929 and the depression that followed really dashed any hope of that American dream or economic prosperity. We talked about how that one house was found with canned soup and spaghetti everywhere, mud everywhere, stopping the cigarettes out. That started early. Really? He would frequently rip up clothing and furniture, dump food on the floors, vandalize the walls, stub cigarettes out on the carpets. This started in his teens. What the fuck is he so angry about? I don't know. And according to one newspaper report at the time, the damage left was of such a normity that words could not adequately describe it.Wow.Now, Peter's violent behavior continued to escalate as he grew older. And in 1946, he was arrested when he hid in the walls of a home he was robbing while waiting for the police to leave.Oh.They couldn't find him. He was in the fucking walls.How did he get in the walls?No idea. But he was caught trying to escape the scene later.The There's too many stories where people are in the walls.Yeah, I love that. And they dislike it greatly. Everyone stopped having walls, I think. I don't know. What else do you do? But while he was out on bail for that, he committed three sexual assaults. Jesus. And you In bail? Yeah, on bail. And he was quickly rearrested and sentenced finally to eight years in prison. Yeah, what the fuck? But it was during this time that Peter had gained a reputation among law enforcement and other criminals for being a very big a compulsive pathological liar. And a cuckoo nut man. By most accounts, he would lie about literally everything and anything, including one frequently told story that he would use where he said his father had been executed in the electric chair. No, he's here. His dad was like, No, I'm still here. Just vouching for your ass. But he also continued his habit of blaming others for his behavior and the consequences of those behaviors. In this case, for example, he blamed his incarceration on William Munsey, who who was the Detective Constable who arrested him at the scene of the robbery. And he was like, No, I just caught you. You did it. I did not make you do this.I'm literally a Detective Constable, so fuck off.Peter's time in prison was also not... He was not a model prisoner. Lots of rules infractions, violations, violent outbursts involving other inmates, and he would receive all the inevitable punishments that followed. But nothing worked. Eventually, his continued outbursts and his unwillingness to be even slightly easy to deal with got him sent to the prison psychiatrist who included the following in his assessment of Peter. His record from the age of 12 makes it clear he is an aggressive psychopath. Oh. He has all the benefits of the juvenile court treatment and Borstel treatment, and it is doubtful whether even at the beginning of his sentence, any constructive war could have been done with him. There is nothing I can suggest now. Nothing. So this psychiatrist said, he is an aggressive psychopath, and I cannot do anything for him. You cannot do anything for him, and I don't think anyone ever could do anything for him. And they were like, What's let him out? But the guards and the staff at the prison shared the psychiatrist's opinion. They were like, Yeah, no, he's bad. And one officer summed Peter up as, One of the worst types we have at Peterhead.His police and prison record proves that it is utterly impossible to manage this man other than when he is locked up on his own.So there are special cases where that just fucking happens. Yeah.And let me remind you, he was just labeled a very dangerous, aggressive psychopath with absolutely no hope of recovery. But there was nothing that authorities could do to keep him locked up after his sentence. And Peter was released from H. M. Prison Peter's head in October of 1952.Damn, everybody must have been just shaking their heads. We're really letting this one go.And that's I'm going to end for part one. You motherfucker. Because Peter Manuel continues. Oh, no. He does not change. He does not shift. He continues in a very horrific way, which we will get into in part two. But don't you worry, he will get caught in part two. Okay, good. We love to hear that. But we are going to take a break for that one so I can do a little extra research on this one. All right.Well, in the meantime, we hope to keep listening.And we hope you... Keep it weird.But not to worry that you break into somebody's house and disrespect to their entire home by throwing spaghettios everywhere and putting out your lit cigarettes, douchebag.Asshole. Don't keep it that weird. You're a piece of shit, Peter Manuel.Spaghetti on the carpet. I would fucking lose it.If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining WNDRI Plus in the WNDRI app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondry. Com/survey.Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of WNDRI's podcast, American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history, events that have shaped who we are as a country and continue to define the American experience. We go behind the scenes looking at devastating financial crimes like the fraud committed at Enron and Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. American Scandal also tells marquee stories about American politics. In our latest season, we retrace the greatest corruption scheme in US history as we bring to life the bribes and backroom deals that spawned the Teapot Dome Scandal, resulting in the first presidential cabinet member going to prison. Follow American Scandal on the WNDRI app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge this season, American Scandal: Teapot Dome, early and ad-free right now on WNDRI Plus. After you listen to American Scandal, go deeper and get more to the story with WNDRI's other top history podcasts, including American History Tellers, Legacy, and even the Royals.

a day before the murders, he said he'd been asked to participate in a robbery at the Watt home, but he declined the invitation. Oh, what a good man. He said, No, thank you. A day after the murders, the same man, he said, had come back to see him, and he said, Having been afflicted by the horrors he'd committed against the Watt women, he asked Manuel to get rid of the gun he'd used.

Okay.

And Peter Manuel said this was the same man who'd stolen the two rings from the home near the Watts house.

Sorry. Which is like, you seem to have a whole lot of information, huh? That's the thing.

He seemed to know a lot about these two crimes and a lot about these two crime scenes. Sure did. And although he was skeptical about what Peter Manuel had told him, the lawyer, William Watts's lawyer, felt it was, who knows, stranger shit has happened. So he reported it to the authorities. Nice. In time, it became clear Peter Manuel was angling for an early release on this robbery conviction and was trying to use this supposed information as a bargaining chip, being like, It was me, but I know so much about it. But I know everything. And it was true that he seemed to know a lot about the murders, including several little details that hadn't really been reported heavily in the press. But they said it was possible, though, that he had learned them from maybe some of the papers. They weren't heavily reported on these details, but he said they were like, It's not impossible that he didn't see it somewhere. Okay. And because after all, in addition to his criminal history, Peter Manuel was known to police in Lanarkshire as a fantastic liar. Oh, man. So they were understandably very skeptical about the report of some unnamed man being the real killer of the Watt family.

Yeah. But still, if what he said was true, they didn't want to be remiss and not just do their due diligence and follow it up, which I'm glad they did. Good police work here. Yeah. So several officers began investigating his claims, and they started with a full scale raid on Peter's home that he shared with his father.

Damn, his dad's probably like, Can you get your shit together?

And it's also like, I bet you didn't see that coming. Definitely not. I think he thought it was going to lead them further away.

Yeah, but not so much.

It brought them closer. Oh, no. He was definitely trying to get that early release by being like, Look over there. It's some guy. Go find him. But they were like, No, I think it's you, actually. Let's look more at you. And in addition to William Watts's lawyer, Peter seemed to speak openly with anyone about several crimes, including Anne Neillon's murder, where he wasn't saying he did it. He speculated very heavily on the killer's identity. In an interview, Peter told reporters, I wish to state emphatically that I did not kill any of these unfortunate people. He also publicly demanded that Lanarkshire police go on record to state that investigators's recent actions, had no bearing on any murder case whatsoever. He wanted them to literally go on record and say, Yeah, I know we're doing a full-on raid on Peter Manuel's home, but it has nothing to do with murder. Not at all. No. It's like that would be a lie, Peter. Now, although some members of the police force suspected Peter Manuel of definitely being involved in the Neillins and Watt cases. It appears that at least at the time, he wasn't considered the most serious suspect.

Really? To them, they said... So McLeod wrote, To them, he was just a troublesome liar with an annoying tendency to claim he was involved in major crimes because he had done this before. Right.

It was his MO.

Yeah. And he would claim he was involved in an outside way. He never did the crime.

He just got rid of something for somebody.

Somebody wanted me to be involved, but I said no.

No, I would Never.

It's likely for that reason that when William Watt was finally released and ruled out as a suspect, no one really decided to take a closer look at Peter Manuel. After Watt's release from custody, Peter Manuel kept writing these letters to law enforcement from prison, making increasingly fantastic claims about knowing some information about the recent murders. But he wouldn't say what. He was very cryptic, and it got more and more fantastical what he was claiming. He's intense. Yeah. The more fantastic these claims became, the less serious anyone was taking him. Because it's very like, Hey, hey, look at me behavior. Yeah. So he's like, no.

And everybody's like, why would he do that?

No one would do that if they actually did it. Well.

From WNDYRI, I'm Indra Vaama, and this is the Spy Who. This season, we open the file on Oleg Penkowski, the spy who diffused the missile crisis. It's 1960, and the world's on the brink of nuclear war. However, one man in Moscow is about to emerge from the shadows with an offer for the CIA. His name is Oleg Penkowski. As a Cold War double agent, Penkowski wants to supply the US with the Soviet Union's greatest nuclear secrets. But is this man putting his life on the line to save the world, or is he part of an elaborate trap? Follow the Spy Who on the WNDYRI app or wherever you listen to podcasts, or you can binge the full season of the Spy Who diffused the Missile Crisis early and ad-free with WNDYRI Plus.

In November 1957, Peter Manuel was released from Barlinnie and was back on the streets. Oh, God. Now, when Anne Neillens was murdered, Peter Manuel's name immediately came to the minds of several of the detectives working on the case. But like we said, it appeared he had that strong alibi. There was really nothing connecting him to it. When the Watt murders occurred, his name was again up on that possible suspect list. But again, no evidence to really tie him to it. But these suspicions were growing stronger and stronger after he had written that first letter to William Mwatz's lawyer claiming knowledge. The thing is, it's like when you look at that series of events, that journey that we just took, where your name comes up as a suspect in a murder. Over and over and over. Because you have a history of being fucked up, of being involved in sexual assaults and robberies and violent things that we will talk about. You came up, you were cleared. You came up Again. You were cleared. Again. And then you insert yourself into multiple homicide cases when you were cleared.

It's so interesting though. That's so risky. But it's like, I feel like as soon as they started looking away from him, it probably pissed him off.

He was like, wait a second.

Because he likes the attention, it sounds like. He likes the attention but doesn't want to go in with both feet. But as soon as they start looking away, he's like, wait a second. Wait, but me. It's like he wants credit for it So the punishment.

The punishment. Yeah, he doesn't want the punishment. He wants the credit for doing it. But it's just so wild. And it makes you say, who the fuck is Peter Manuel? Who is this guy? And why the fuck is he going out of his way to be associated with two Terrific crimes. What the fuck?

Tell me.

So Peter Manuel was born in Manhattan, actually, on March 13th, 1927. He was born to Samuel and Bridget Manuel, Scottish immigrants who'd come to the US to build a better life for their family. I love that. At the time, they already had one child named James, who they had to leave behind in Scotland. And this was very common for this time. They planned to send for him once they became established. I've said this in many other cases before So that would happen? Yeah. They would come over, try to build that better life and send for the child later. Unfortunately, the market crash of 1929 and the depression that followed really dashed any hope of that American dream or economic prosperity. We talked about how that one house was found with canned soup and spaghetti everywhere, mud everywhere, stopping the cigarettes out. That started early. Really? He would frequently rip up clothing and furniture, dump food on the floors, vandalize the walls, stub cigarettes out on the carpets. This started in his teens. What the fuck is he so angry about? I don't know. And according to one newspaper report at the time, the damage left was of such a normity that words could not adequately describe it.Wow.Now, Peter's violent behavior continued to escalate as he grew older. And in 1946, he was arrested when he hid in the walls of a home he was robbing while waiting for the police to leave.Oh.They couldn't find him. He was in the fucking walls.How did he get in the walls?No idea. But he was caught trying to escape the scene later.The There's too many stories where people are in the walls.Yeah, I love that. And they dislike it greatly. Everyone stopped having walls, I think. I don't know. What else do you do? But while he was out on bail for that, he committed three sexual assaults. Jesus. And you In bail? Yeah, on bail. And he was quickly rearrested and sentenced finally to eight years in prison. Yeah, what the fuck? But it was during this time that Peter had gained a reputation among law enforcement and other criminals for being a very big a compulsive pathological liar. And a cuckoo nut man. By most accounts, he would lie about literally everything and anything, including one frequently told story that he would use where he said his father had been executed in the electric chair. No, he's here. His dad was like, No, I'm still here. Just vouching for your ass. But he also continued his habit of blaming others for his behavior and the consequences of those behaviors. In this case, for example, he blamed his incarceration on William Munsey, who who was the Detective Constable who arrested him at the scene of the robbery. And he was like, No, I just caught you. You did it. I did not make you do this.I'm literally a Detective Constable, so fuck off.Peter's time in prison was also not... He was not a model prisoner. Lots of rules infractions, violations, violent outbursts involving other inmates, and he would receive all the inevitable punishments that followed. But nothing worked. Eventually, his continued outbursts and his unwillingness to be even slightly easy to deal with got him sent to the prison psychiatrist who included the following in his assessment of Peter. His record from the age of 12 makes it clear he is an aggressive psychopath. Oh. He has all the benefits of the juvenile court treatment and Borstel treatment, and it is doubtful whether even at the beginning of his sentence, any constructive war could have been done with him. There is nothing I can suggest now. Nothing. So this psychiatrist said, he is an aggressive psychopath, and I cannot do anything for him. You cannot do anything for him, and I don't think anyone ever could do anything for him. And they were like, What's let him out? But the guards and the staff at the prison shared the psychiatrist's opinion. They were like, Yeah, no, he's bad. And one officer summed Peter up as, One of the worst types we have at Peterhead.His police and prison record proves that it is utterly impossible to manage this man other than when he is locked up on his own.So there are special cases where that just fucking happens. Yeah.And let me remind you, he was just labeled a very dangerous, aggressive psychopath with absolutely no hope of recovery. But there was nothing that authorities could do to keep him locked up after his sentence. And Peter was released from H. M. Prison Peter's head in October of 1952.Damn, everybody must have been just shaking their heads. We're really letting this one go.And that's I'm going to end for part one. You motherfucker. Because Peter Manuel continues. Oh, no. He does not change. He does not shift. He continues in a very horrific way, which we will get into in part two. But don't you worry, he will get caught in part two. Okay, good. We love to hear that. But we are going to take a break for that one so I can do a little extra research on this one. All right.Well, in the meantime, we hope to keep listening.And we hope you... Keep it weird.But not to worry that you break into somebody's house and disrespect to their entire home by throwing spaghettios everywhere and putting out your lit cigarettes, douchebag.Asshole. Don't keep it that weird. You're a piece of shit, Peter Manuel.Spaghetti on the carpet. I would fucking lose it.If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining WNDRI Plus in the WNDRI app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondry. Com/survey.Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of WNDRI's podcast, American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history, events that have shaped who we are as a country and continue to define the American experience. We go behind the scenes looking at devastating financial crimes like the fraud committed at Enron and Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. American Scandal also tells marquee stories about American politics. In our latest season, we retrace the greatest corruption scheme in US history as we bring to life the bribes and backroom deals that spawned the Teapot Dome Scandal, resulting in the first presidential cabinet member going to prison. Follow American Scandal on the WNDRI app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge this season, American Scandal: Teapot Dome, early and ad-free right now on WNDRI Plus. After you listen to American Scandal, go deeper and get more to the story with WNDRI's other top history podcasts, including American History Tellers, Legacy, and even the Royals.

We talked about how that one house was found with canned soup and spaghetti everywhere, mud everywhere, stopping the cigarettes out. That started early. Really? He would frequently rip up clothing and furniture, dump food on the floors, vandalize the walls, stub cigarettes out on the carpets. This started in his teens. What the fuck is he so angry about? I don't know. And according to one newspaper report at the time, the damage left was of such a normity that words could not adequately describe it.

Wow.

Now, Peter's violent behavior continued to escalate as he grew older. And in 1946, he was arrested when he hid in the walls of a home he was robbing while waiting for the police to leave.

Oh.

They couldn't find him. He was in the fucking walls.

How did he get in the walls?

No idea. But he was caught trying to escape the scene later.

The There's too many stories where people are in the walls.

Yeah, I love that. And they dislike it greatly. Everyone stopped having walls, I think. I don't know. What else do you do? But while he was out on bail for that, he committed three sexual assaults. Jesus. And you In bail? Yeah, on bail. And he was quickly rearrested and sentenced finally to eight years in prison. Yeah, what the fuck? But it was during this time that Peter had gained a reputation among law enforcement and other criminals for being a very big a compulsive pathological liar. And a cuckoo nut man. By most accounts, he would lie about literally everything and anything, including one frequently told story that he would use where he said his father had been executed in the electric chair. No, he's here. His dad was like, No, I'm still here. Just vouching for your ass. But he also continued his habit of blaming others for his behavior and the consequences of those behaviors. In this case, for example, he blamed his incarceration on William Munsey, who who was the Detective Constable who arrested him at the scene of the robbery. And he was like, No, I just caught you. You did it. I did not make you do this.

I'm literally a Detective Constable, so fuck off.

Peter's time in prison was also not... He was not a model prisoner. Lots of rules infractions, violations, violent outbursts involving other inmates, and he would receive all the inevitable punishments that followed. But nothing worked. Eventually, his continued outbursts and his unwillingness to be even slightly easy to deal with got him sent to the prison psychiatrist who included the following in his assessment of Peter. His record from the age of 12 makes it clear he is an aggressive psychopath. Oh. He has all the benefits of the juvenile court treatment and Borstel treatment, and it is doubtful whether even at the beginning of his sentence, any constructive war could have been done with him. There is nothing I can suggest now. Nothing. So this psychiatrist said, he is an aggressive psychopath, and I cannot do anything for him. You cannot do anything for him, and I don't think anyone ever could do anything for him. And they were like, What's let him out? But the guards and the staff at the prison shared the psychiatrist's opinion. They were like, Yeah, no, he's bad. And one officer summed Peter up as, One of the worst types we have at Peterhead.

His police and prison record proves that it is utterly impossible to manage this man other than when he is locked up on his own.

So there are special cases where that just fucking happens. Yeah.

And let me remind you, he was just labeled a very dangerous, aggressive psychopath with absolutely no hope of recovery. But there was nothing that authorities could do to keep him locked up after his sentence. And Peter was released from H. M. Prison Peter's head in October of 1952.

Damn, everybody must have been just shaking their heads. We're really letting this one go.

And that's I'm going to end for part one. You motherfucker. Because Peter Manuel continues. Oh, no. He does not change. He does not shift. He continues in a very horrific way, which we will get into in part two. But don't you worry, he will get caught in part two. Okay, good. We love to hear that. But we are going to take a break for that one so I can do a little extra research on this one. All right.

Well, in the meantime, we hope to keep listening.

And we hope you... Keep it weird.

But not to worry that you break into somebody's house and disrespect to their entire home by throwing spaghettios everywhere and putting out your lit cigarettes, douchebag.

Asshole. Don't keep it that weird. You're a piece of shit, Peter Manuel.

Spaghetti on the carpet. I would fucking lose it.

If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining WNDRI Plus in the WNDRI app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondry. Com/survey.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of WNDRI's podcast, American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history, events that have shaped who we are as a country and continue to define the American experience. We go behind the scenes looking at devastating financial crimes like the fraud committed at Enron and Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. American Scandal also tells marquee stories about American politics. In our latest season, we retrace the greatest corruption scheme in US history as we bring to life the bribes and backroom deals that spawned the Teapot Dome Scandal, resulting in the first presidential cabinet member going to prison. Follow American Scandal on the WNDRI app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge this season, American Scandal: Teapot Dome, early and ad-free right now on WNDRI Plus. After you listen to American Scandal, go deeper and get more to the story with WNDRI's other top history podcasts, including American History Tellers, Legacy, and even the Royals.