Black Panther's evil trail of murder.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Black Panther's evil trail of murder

DONALD Neilson turned from cat burglar to deadly Black Panther when he gunned down Baxenden sub-postmaster Derek Astin and sparked one of Britain's biggest ever manhunts. In the first of a series of six features retracing the steps of some of East Lancashire's most notorious killers, crime reporter NICK EVANS looks back at the case and talks to one of the detectives who helped bring him to justice.

JUST before four in the morning on September 6, 1974, Baxenden sub postmaster Derek Astin woke to find a hooded intruder in his bedroom.

He cried out and leapt out from his bed to tackle the man, pushing him along the corridor and into the bathroom.

As he did so the intruder pulled out a shotgun and blasted the postmaster at point blank range in the shoulder, before fleeing through a downstairs window.

Despite the best efforts of his wife Marion and ambulance crews, Derek Astin died from his wounds in Blackburn Infirmary later the same morning.

The killer was later unmasked as the notorious Black Panther, Donald Neilson, convicted two years later of the