Born out of wedlock in October 1944, Briton Barry Prudom was an avid outdoorsman and firearms enthusiast who joined the elite Special Air Service in 1969. His subsequent travels abroad including a camping tour of the United States - would later be used in an effort to explain his final rampage as inspired by "overseas organizations," but the conspiracy theory will mat stand close examination. Prudom's ex-wife remembers him as violent and possessive, harboring true affection only for his mother and grandparents.

Prudom was already named in one arrest warrant, for wounding, when Constable David Haigh stopped his car for a routine traffic check near Harrowgate, in Yorkshire, on June 17, 1982. Barry identified himself as "Clive Jones," but gave his true birthdate, and Constable Haigh had time to jot the information down along with Prudom's license number - before Prudom whipped out a pistol, killing his victim with one shot to the head.

The car was found abandoned in a field near Leeds, its license plate and latent fingerprints identifying Prudom as the gunman. Moving swiftly, he turned up in Lancashire, invading an old woman's cottage and leaving her bound but unharmed as he fled with some cash. At Girton, in Nottinghamshire, he broke into the home of George and Sylvia Lockett, seeking more money. George tried to defend himself and was killed on the spot, his wife crippled by a shot to the head, causing permanent brain damage.

Traveling in the Locketts' car, Prudom made his way to the Dalby Forest region of North Yorkshire. He was resting when Constable Kenneth Oliver surprised him, and Barry squeezed off seven shots, wounding Oliver in the face, arm, and chest. The officer's life would be saved by emergency surgery, but a massive manhunt was already underway for the notorious "Cop Killer," police sparing no effort in their bid to run him down.

Prudom was leaving the post office at Old Malton when Constable Michael Woods approached him to make the arrest. Unarmed, Woods bolted at the sight of Prudom's gun, but the killer pursued him, dropping Woods with three close-range shots as he tried to scramble over a nearby wall. Witnesses maintain that the final shot was fired while Woods lay helpless on the ground at Prudom's feet.

Living off the land, Prudom fashioned himself a makeshift shelter in the woods near Malton, Yorkshire, emerging from cover on July 3 to hold three members, of the Johnson family hostage in their Malton home. Sitting down to dinner with the family, Prudom called it "the Last Supper," regaling them with a description of his crimes while he fed himself. Prudom left the Johnsons unharmed, and police were close behind him when he returned to his forest hideout on July 4. A fierce battle erupted, officers lobbing stun grenades, blasting away with rifles and shotguns before silence fell over the scene. Inside his lean-to, Prudom was found dead from a self-inflicted head wound; he had also stopped a shotgun pellet in the forehead, and the coroner would count 21 other wounds on his body. A. jury deliberated for eighteen minutes before ruling his death a suicide.