How real life serial killer in Netflix’s 'gripping' number one true crime series was caught 20 years later
Netflix has a new number one TV show here in the United Kingdom: true crime mini-series The Pembrokeshire Murders, which has stormed to the top spot just days after heading to the streaming giant's platform.
Originally shown on ITV in 2001, the gripping true crime three-parter stars Luke Evans and Keith Allen in a retelling of the very real murders that gripped the south west Wales county of Pembrokeshire.
Hollywood's Evans stars as the real-life Detective Superintendent Steve Wilkins, who, in 2006, reopened two unsolved double murder cases from the 1980s.
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The series, which boasts an 82 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, has been hailed by viewers as 'gripping' with 'generally outstanding acting'.
Leading DCI Wilkins on a journey that finally pins the murders on Milford Haven man, John Cooper (Allen), modern advances in DNA forensic analysis busted the case wide open.
Police finally pinned the crime on Cooper in 2009, just months after he left prison following a robbery and burglary conviction in the 1990s.
And while DNA played its part, a simple appearance by Cooper on a TV game show was critical in pinning the murders on the now-80-year-old.
The real-life Pembrokeshire Murders
Evans described Cooper as the 'worst serial killer Wales has ever seen'.
The pensioner was given a whole life sentence for two double murders; brother and sister Richard and Helen Thomas in 1985, followed by husband and wife Peter and Gwenda Dixon four years later.
The Thomas siblings were killed with shotgun blasts in their home near Milford Haven just days before Christmas. The house was set on fire following their deaths. The Dixons were shot at close range on a coastal path near Little Haven having been camping in south Wales on a trip from their Oxfordshire home. A shotgun was also the gun used to kill them.
On top of these heinous acts, Cooper was also convicted of one count of rape; one count of sexual assault; 30 burglaries; and one attempted robbery.
Back in the 1980s, police did not have the forensic capability to pin the crimes on Cooper, and he got away with them for almost 30 years.
"It is a real story of a team of people who absolutely wanted to find the truth and get the man who committed these crimes," Evans said of the mini-series.
How John Cooper was caught
In 2006, Dyfed Powys Police launched Operation Ottawa. Led by DCI Wilkins, it focused on conducting cold case reviews in to the double murders.
At this point in time, Cooper was already in prison on a 16-year sentence for a burglary and robbery he committed in 1998.
Wilkins had returned to Wales after two years working for the National Criminal Intelligence Service, with a belief that Cooper was the man who committed the double murders back in the 1980s.
“For the first three years, we didn’t get a forensic link,” Mr Wilkins told BBC News.
“Then in 2008, a pair of shorts seized from Cooper’s house in 1996 were re-examined and a speck of blood was recovered which belonged to Peter Dixon.
“Soon after, Mr Dixon’s blood was found on a shotgun used by Cooper in a previous robbery.”
Cooper had thrown the shotgun in to a hedge following a failed robbery in 1996; it was recovered by police.
Bullseye appearance used as evidence
Famously, a Bullseye appearance was used to bring Cooper back to prison and face justice for his crimes of murder, rape, and sexual assault.
During his trial, the court was shown an appearance of Cooper on iconic British game show Bullseye, with his appearance in the show put side by side with police sketches of a murder suspect.
Cooper appeared on Bullseye just weeks before killing the Dixons.
Due to the sheer brutality of his crimes, Cooper was found guilty and given a whole life order, meaning he will not leave prison while he is still breathing.
Presiding judge John Griffith Williams said 'the murders were of such evil wickedness that the mandatory sentence of life will mean just that'. The prison in which he is located is not known.
The Pembrokeshire Murders is available to stream on Netflix now
Tom Earnshaw