MUNCIE VS MANUEL
What time is In Plain Sight on ITV tonight and is it a repeat?
HANGED for his crimes in 1958, Peter Manuel terrorised southern Scotland in the late 1950s.
He is now the subject of ITV's In Plain Sight.
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What time is In Plain Sight on ITV tonight?
The final part of the ITV drama is back tonight (Wednesday, June 9), at 9pm.
It has also been made available on ITV Hub.
The series, which had the working title of "Muncie", was writer Nick Stevens' TV writing debut.
Is it a repeat?
The Scottish programme was first shown on ITV on December 7, 2016.
The re-airing of In Plain Sight has stirred up some controversy.
ITV is broadcasting the drama again despite pleas from relatives of three Peter Manuel victims.
Stuart Reid, whose father Robert was haunted by the deaths of his sisters, Marion Watt and Margaret Brown, and teenaged niece, Vivienne, said: "All we want is for someone to stop this horrible decision."
Reid told on Saturday, June 5, 2021: "I was 12 at the time, I will be 77 at the end of this month - it's terrible that this is still going on.
"Me and my brother David are the last of my dad's family.
"We don't want to see it again."
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What is In Plain Sight about?
In Plain Sight tells the true story of Lanarkshire detective William Muncie (Douglas Henshall) and his mission to bring notorious serial killer Peter Manuel (played by Martin Compston) to justice.
Peter was an American-born Scottish serial killer who was convicted of killing eight people in South Lanarkshire between 1955 and his arrest in 1958.
He was born in 1927 in New York to Scottish parents who moved back to their motherland, settling in Birkenshaw in North Lanarkshire.
Bullied at school, he was a petty thief by the age of 10 and by the age of sixteen had committed a string of sexual assaults, was arrested, found guilty and served nine years in prison.
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Who did Manuel murder?
Manuel started his killing spree in 1956, a year after he was released from prison.
He met Anne Kneilands, 17, in East Kilbride on New Year’s Day and took her to a tearoom.
Later he dragged her to a deserted golf course and bludgeoned her to death with an iron bar.
He was questioned but released without charge after his father gave him an alibi.
He confessed to the murder two years later and charged but it was dropped due to insufficient evidence.
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In September 1956, the bodies of invalid Marion Watt, 45, her daughter Vivienne, 17, and Marion’s sister Margaret Brown, 41 were found by police in their home and Marion’s husband William was arrested and held in prison.
Manuel out on bail for robbery at the time, and police suspected him of being involved but found no evidence to convict him.
But he was already on Muncie’s radar after the detective arrested him for a series of housebreakings ten years previously – something Manuel never forgot or forgave.
Manuel taunted Muncie by sending him clues and birthday cards before going to kill Isabelle Cooke, 17, on December 28, 1957.
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On January 1, 1958, he killed the Smart family — Peter, 45, wife Doris, 42, and son Michael, ten – by shooting them in the head as they lay in bed, just like the Watts.
A police raid on Manuel’s parents’ house found items stolen from the Smarts, plus loot from other burglaries.
He was arrested, confessed to the murders and was hanged in July 1958.
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