| Name: | John William COOPER |
| Nickname: | The Bullseye Killer |
| Born: | 2 Sep 1944 |
| Status: | Married |
| Occupation: | |
| Died: | – |
| Classification: | Serial Killer |
| Country: | UK |
| Active: | 1985 & 1989 |
| Victims: | 4 |
| M.O.: | Murdered two couples in Wales over 3 years apart |
| Arrested: | 13 May 2009 |
| Fate: | Life imprisonment, 26 May 2011 |
On 22nd December 1985 Cooper went to the house of brother and sister Richard & Helen Thomas. Cooper shot both victims in the head with a shotgun, doused them in petrol and then set the house alight.
In July 1989 Cooper attacked Peter Dixon and his wife Gwenda as they walked along the Pembrokeshire coast on the last day of their holiday. He held them at gunpoint, forcing them to reveal their PIN, he stole their bank cards. He then shot them in the face with a shotgun.
He earned the nickname ‘The Bullseye Killer’ after appearing on television in the ITV quiz show, Bullseye, shortly after the second double murder.
In 1996 he was arrested for a series of burglaries and armed robbery after holding up a teacher with a shotgun at her home in Pembrokeshire. Two years later he was jailed for 16 years.
In 2006, as a result of a cold case review and the advancement of DNA technology, police were able to locate DNA from murder victim Peter Dixon on a pair of Cooper’s shorts, the victim’s blood was also found on Cooper’s shotgun. It was also found that he was responsible for the rape of a 16-year-old girl and indecent assault of her 15-year-old friend in 1996.
Cooper was released from prison in January 2009 and in May that year he was arrested on suspicion of the two double murders and sex crimes.
In May 2011 he was convicted with the offences and ordered to serve a whole life sentence from which he will never be released.
