PERTH — 1963 · Serial Murder

Perth's "Night Caller" Serial Killings

SolvedSources: ALast updated: 14 October 2026

Between late 1958 and mid-1963 a series of attacks and killings struck Perth's western suburbs; the press called the offender the "Night Caller". The attacks comprised at least twenty violent crimes, and eight people died. The offender, Eric Edgar Cooke, was arrested in September 1963, confessed, was sentenced to death and was hanged at Fremantle Prison on 26 October 1964, the last person executed in Western Australia. Two other men had earlier been wrongly convicted over two of the deaths Cooke confessed to; their convictions were only overturned in 2002 and 2005. The case is one of Australia's best-known miscarriages of justice.

Date: 1963
Place: Western Australia, Australia, Perth, AU
Category: Serial Murder
Case Status: Solved
Coordinates: -31.9800, 115.8000 ↗

Timeline of Events

1958A series of attacks began in Perth's western suburbs.
1961A young man was wrongly convicted of a murder Cooke later confessed to.
1 September 1963The offender was arrested and confessed.

26 October 1964He was executed at Fremantle Prison.
2002–2005The convictions of the two wrongly convicted men were overturned.

Sources

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