‘The Pottery Cottage Murders’ by Carol Ann Lee and Peter Howse

My Review (5 stars out of 5)

In January 1977, escaped prisoner Billy Hughes entered the home of Gill Moran and her family, threatening their lives. Keeping them in separate rooms, he secretly murdered five members of the family one by one. After three days, Hughes took Gill with him to flee, but by then police were closing in. A high-speed chase ended with Hughes crashing his vehicle and threatening to kill his hostage, while police attempted to persuade him to let her go…

Carol Ann Lee and former detective chief inspector Peter Howse, tell the story of the horrific murders that shocked the nation, and how Billy Hughes was able to lull Gill Moran into the belief that she could keep her family safe if she followed the killer’s instructions. As with all of Ms Lee’s true crime books, the story is told with great sensitivity and superb attention to detail, including recent interviews, news, and other official reports. The details of the murders are disturbing, not only due to the senseless nature of the crimes but in the killer’s apparent ease with which he was able to steal a knife while in prison and use it to escape by wounding the two prison officers transporting him to court. Charting the man’s criminal history and the rise of violence in his crimes, the authors point to failures in the prison and legal systems which allowed him to escape jail and murder three generations of one family.

A shocking and disturbing book.

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