#Doc Explores Australian Serial Killer ‘The Night Caller,’ Who Terrorized a City (VIDEO)

Sundance Now’s new original true crime series The Night Caller recalls a chilling chapter from Australia’s history.

In 1959, residents of the city Perth were terrified by the brutal slaying of a single mother in her own suburban home. Sadly, that horrific crime was only the beginning of a violent spree carried out by serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke.

Over the next four years, the man who would become known as The Night Caller committed at least 22 violent attacks and left eight people dead. Among his other victims: a chocolate empire heiress he bludgeoned to death using a hatchet and scissors, and a babysitter he shot in the head. One one day alone—January 26, 1963—he shot five people in their cars and homes.

 

Because the crimes and methods varied, Cooke managed to elude law enforcement for years before he was eventually caught and confessed to his crimes.

Sixty years later, The Night Caller director Thomas Meadmore revisits the case, and interviews key players including Cooke’s wife and the two men who were wrongly convicted of the crimes following intense pressure on law enforcement to collar a culprit.

The four-part series, full of shocking twists and turns, premieres on Tuesday, January 19 with new episodes following every Tuesday.



The Night Caller, Premieres Tuesday, January 19, Sundance Now