The Bullseye Serial Killer Documentary, John Cooper

Serial killer John Cooper appeared on an episode of Bullseye in 1989 (Picture: ITV) The detectives who brought serial killer John Cooper to justice have described how an episode of Bullseye helped them get their man. Cooper murdered four people in Pembrokeshire, Wales but escaped prosecution for 20 years until he was convicted for the killings in 2011. The team of police who picked up the cold case used advances in forensic science to catch him, and a freeze frame from an episode of Bullseye in 1989. This incredible case will be looked at in a revealing new ITV documentary called The Gameshow Serial Killer: Police Tapes. Cooper murdered the first couple Richard and Helen Thomas in 1985. They were found shot dead in the burned out wreckage of their farmhouse. Four years later, he appeared on the darts game show mere weeks before shot another couple, Peter and Gwenda Dixon, as they went for a walk in Wales on the last day of their holiday. A huge manhunt was carried out, but no one was caught. John Cooper murdered four people (Picture: ITV) Twenty years later a team took up the case. Detective Inspector Louise Harries said: ‘We obviously wanted a result because you had horrendous offences that had happened, and there were the victims families out there, who were still all these years later looking for answers, so you have that feeling of burden that you want to get justice for those families.’ Peter and Gwenda Dixon were killed on their holiday in Wales (Picture: ITV) The officers noticed similarities between the killngs and the modus operandi of John Cooper, a local burglar. Cooper was brought in for an interview but they got nowhere. They looked back over an artist’s impression of the killer and realised they would need to find an image of Cooper from around that time and see if it matched up. It was then it emerged that he had appeared on Bullseye in 1989 – and the episode turned out to provide a breakthrough in the case. Det Chf Supt Steve Wilkins said: ‘What we managed to do then was freeze John Cooper in exactly the same position as the artist’s impression, and for me, it was like a tracing.’ Officers compared a freeze frame of Cooper on Bullseye with an artist’s impression of him (Picture: ITV) Cooper was serving 16 years in prison for a violent robbery, and officers ended up with just four days to get a confession. They were unable to find forensic evidence to help their case as Cooper was ‘forensically aware’ when carrying out the burglaries. Forensics lead Glan Thomas said: ‘He was no fool, he’d go gloved up, he’d go masked up. There were no fingerprints, there was no DNA evidence. So basically, I am looking for that golden nugget.’