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Serial killer Donald Neilson was a ruthless psychopath whose criminal career began with burglaries and culminated in cold-blooded murder.

The former soldier kidnapped and murdered heiress Lesley Whittle, 17, in 1975 and also shot dead three sub-postmasters during armed robberies in Yorkshire and Lancashire between 1971 and 1974.

His first-known crime took place in 1972 when he broke into a sub-post office in Heywood, Lancashire, where he gunned down postmaster Leslie Richardson who survived gunshots after confronting hooded Neilson.

It is believed that he carried out 19 such robberies between 1967 and 1974.

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Neilson's interest in guns stemmed from his National Service days where he served in Kenya, Aden and Cyprus.

His army days were cut short when his wife, whom he married in 1955, asked him to return to Bradford and settle down.

The couple had daughter Kathryn in 1960 and lived in Grangefield Avenue in Thornbury, Bradford. In that year he changed his name from Nappey to Nielson, hoping to shield his daughter from the bullying he had suffered at school and in the army because of his unusual surname.

After leaving the army, Neilson's inadequacies as a man soon came to the fore as he began to struggle to make ends meet, first as a carpenter/builder and later failing to make successes of a taxi firm.

His career as a burglar is thought to have started in 1965. He managed to carry out around 400 break-ins without being caught. Greedy for more money, he turned to robbing sub-post offices.

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In February 1972 he shot and injured postmaster Leslie Richardson after breaking into his sub-post office in the middle of the night.

Two years later, on February 15 1974, Neilson used his shotgun to kill sub-postmaster Donald Skepper who confronted him on his premises in Harrogate.

And, seven months later, Neilson murdered a second man, Derek Astin, during a similar robbery in Baxenden, near Accrington, Lancashire.

Nine weeks later he shot dead Sidney Grayland, 55, during a raid on a post office at Langley in the West Midlands in which he escaped with £800 in cash and postal orders.

Detectives linked the murders while the media dubbed the killer 'The Black Panther' because of the black hood he wore and the speedy movements recalled by victims.

Two months later, Neilson turned to kidnap as a way of getting his hands on an even bigger sum of cash.

He targeted Lesley Whittle in May 1972 after reading a newspaper article which gave details about the £82,500 she had inherited when her father George, a coach company boss, had died.

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On January 14, 1974, he snatched Lesley, 17, from her bedroom in Highley, Shropshire, tied her up and put her into his green Morris before driving her to Bathpool Park in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, where he forced her into a deep drainage shaft.

The teenager spent her final days alone and with her neck tethered by a wire noose as Neilson tried to collect a £50,000 ransom from Lesley's brother Ronald.

But, following a series of blunders, the money was never delivered and Lesley's body was found hanging in the drainage shaft several weeks later. Her body was found hanging below a ledge containing a mattress and a sleeping bag.

A post mortem examination found she had died of shock.

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Neilson was finally caught in December 1975 by two police officers, Tony White and Stuart Mackenzie, who spotted him acting suspiciously near a post office in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

As PC Mackenzie asked questions, Neilson pulled out a shotgun and forced both officers to drive off at gunpoint.

The officer later recalled: "We saw him by the side of the road and while we were talking to him he pulled out a sawn-off shotgun. Before we could even get out the car he said, ‘Any tricks and you’re dead’.

"He forced Tony into the back of our Escort and sat in the passenger seat before shoving the sawn-off in my ribs.

"We kept talking to him to make him think he was in control. I pretended to be lost, swerved the car and Tony grabbed the gun and yelled, ‘Get him!’ The moment came and we took it.

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"Tony’s hand was hurt when the gun went off and the blast deafened me as I rolled out of the moving car.

"I thought Tony was dead and he thought I was dead – but he was still alive with Neilson in a headlock.

"We knocked 10 bells out of him and I pulled him out of the car and we wrestled him to the ground. He was only 5ft 6in but he fought like a wild animal. He was very powerful.

"He was a cold-blooded killer and he had planned to take us into Sherwood Forest and blow us away."

When police raided Neilson's home they found guns, hoods, masks, more than 500 car ignition keys, combat-style clothing, holdalls, crowbars, radios and the Dymo tape printing machine he had used to write the ransom note.

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His fingerprints matched one from the shaft where Lesley's body had been found.

In a BBC interview, Ray Wagg, a detective with West Mercia Police, described Neilson as merciless.

"You do what he tells you to do, otherwise you die. He was a determined man in that anyone who challenged him died."

The detective said although Neilson appeared to be a family man, in reality, he was a loner who had used his army skills to plan his criminal activities.

During police interviews, Neilson refused to answer questions but finally cracked and made a full confession.

Neilson received five life sentences and spent the next 36 years of his life in custody. He died aged 75 on December 17 2011.

After his death, retired cop Stuart Mackenzie, who helped bring Neilson's reign of terror to an end, described him as "pure evil" and deserving of capital punishment.

He said: "Prison was too good for him. I’m a great believer in an eye for an eye and anyone who takes a life doesn’t deserve to walk God’s earth.

"When you look at the number of lives he took, why shouldn’t he lose his own? But that’s British justice for you."

The former officer added: "He never showed any remorse. I just hope his death has brought some closure for the families of the people he killed."