Peter Howard Moore (born 19 September 1946) is a British serial killer who managed cinemas in Bagillt, Holyhead, Kinmel Bay and Denbigh in North Wales at the time of his arrest. He murdered four men in 1995. Due to his trademark attire of a black shirt and tie, he was dubbed the "man in black".
Background
Moore was born in St Helens and was raised in Kinmel Bay. As a child he attended Towyn Primary School and Dinorben Secondary Modern School.
Prior to his crimes Moore was well known in the North Wales area for his work restoring and running the Focus chain of cinemas. In 1991, he restored and reopened his first cinema in Bagillt. He went on to reopen the Empire Cinema in Holyhead on the 24 November 1994. The cinema had been closed for three years prior to Moore's renovations. On 4 August 1995 he reopened the 120 seat Futura Cinema in Denbigh. He also operated a cinema in Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Moore would buy second hand cinema equipment, and would restore it himself to keep costs down and ensure he could offer low ticket prices.
Both sources agree that once Roberts was dead, Moore went through his house and stole one of Roberts' swastika flags.
Keith Randles was a 49-year-old nightwatchman, who had been hired to protect machinery being used to repair the A55 road leading to Llangefni. Randles was staying on site in a caravan when Moore murdered him on the 29 November 1995. Carthy was intoxicated and asked Moore to drive him to his home in Birkenhead. But Moore took him to North Wales instead. Carthy panicked when he realised this and attempted to escape from the car while it was moving. Moore restrained him and stabbed Carthy to death and dumped his body in the Clocaenog Forest in October 1995. Moore would beat them with a police truncheon, and occasionally would masturbate on the victim before leaving.
Moore took the stand in his own defence, telling the jury that the crimes were committed by his boyfriend, Alan Williams, whom he called Jason. The nickname was believed to be a reference to the killer in the Friday the 13th horror films. Moore claimed Jason was a 48-year-old hotel worker who worked at the Empire Hotel in Llandudno and that they had met when Moore was cruising for sex on a beach in 1995. The police searched extensively for Jason, requesting guest and employee records from every hotel in the Llandudno area.
The jury found him guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 1996 with a recommendation that he never be released.
Moore sued his neighbours in 2000 for theft. In court Moore stated that he had allowed the couple to move into his home in 1996 on the agreement that they take care of the property. He agreed that they could sell some of his items but later found out that all his belongings had been sold. Moore won his case and was awarded £12,842 in damages. In 2001 he attempted to sue North Wales Police for £165,000 damages incurred during their 1995 search of the property, and for failing to protect his property while he was in prison. The case was thrown out by the district judge and did not go to trial.
During his time in Wakefield Prison, Moore befriended fellow serial killer Harold Shipman. Moore would call him "The Doctor", and often spoke about Shipman's English Literature course that he was taking at the prison. When Shipman committed suicide in January 2004, Moore was called upon for evidence in Shipman's inquest. He was one of the last people to speak to Shipman before his death.
In June 2008, Moore was told by the High Court that he would spend the rest of his life in prison. On 17 January 2012, it was announced that his appeal had failed. However, on 9 July 2013, it was announced the ECHR had ruled there had to be both a possibility of release and review to be compatible with human rights.
In February 2015, the ECHR upheld the lawfulness of whole life orders, on the ground that they can be reviewed in exceptional circumstances, following a fresh challenge by murderer Arthur Hutchinson, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for a triple murder in Sheffield more than 30 years earlier. There are around 70 prisoners in England and Wales serving whole life sentences.
Other
On 13 October 2011, it was falsely reported that Moore had died at Broadmoor hospital on 30 July 2011.