Dressed to kill: Serial killer cowboy took selfie wearing victim’s dress
A serial killer ‘cowboy’, who this week is set to win his release from prison, took photos of himself wearing the clothing of his fiancee he later killed. ‘It made me realise his depravity and why he can’t be allowed out of prison,’ a relative of the murdered woman has told The Daily Telegraph.
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Serial killer Reginald Arthurell took photos of himself wearing the clothing of a woman he later murdered, it can be revealed.
The Daily Telegraph has obtained a photo of the now 73-year-old wearing a dress owned by Venet Raylee Mulhall who he later bashed to death in her NSW country home in 1995.
On Thursday this week Arthurell, who has admitted to killing three people and is the suspect in other murders, faces the NSW State Parole Authority seeking release into the community.
Ms Mulhill’s brother, Paul Quinn, found the negative among his sister’s possessions after her murder.
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“I had it developed and realised he was wearing a dress that my wife and I had bought Venet for Christmas,’’ he said yesterday.
“It made me realise the depravity of this man and what he must have made my sister endure.”
The State Parole Authority has told Mr Quinn they intend to grant Arthurell parole, which he is vehemently opposed to.
“I will be there this week and tell them how evil this man is. My sister, a Christian woman, started writing to him when he was in prison for killing a young man and his stepfather.
“He was released on parole into her care and what did he do. Kill her. This man has not reformed and cannot be allowed out.’’
A former rodeo worker, Arthurell called himself Tex and fancied himself as a cowboy.
The SPA said that by releasing him a year earlier than when his sentence expires on May 21 next year, they can place extreme parole and monitoring conditions on Arthurell.
In 1974 he stabbed his stepfather Thomas Thorton to death in Sydney but avoided arrest for seven years drifting around Australia until he was caught in Darwin in 1981 for the brutal bashing death of a young sailer, Ross Browning. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter for both killings.
While corresponding with Venet Mulhall, Arthurell told prison authorities he had found God and was baptised in Darwin Prison.
In 1991, having served 23 months for the Browning murder, he was released into the care of Venet Mulhall who had become engaged to the killer.
In February 1995 Mr Quinn found the body of his sister, 54, in her Coonabarabran home. A witness said she saw Venet leaving the house before her body was found but it was later discovered he had dressed in her clothes and stole her car. In 1997 Arthurell was sentenced to a maximum 27 years, with a minimum of 18 years, for her murder.
Paul Quinn has written a book about his sister and his fight to keep Arthurell in jail. Titled In the Hands of Evil, the book is now available as an e-book on Amazon.com.
Originally published as Dressed to kill: Serial killer cowboy took selfie wearing victim’s dress