Murder spree ended when Mutilator ‘rose from dead’
Sydneysiders lived in terror in the early 1960s as an unknown killer stalked the streets. Dubbed The Mutilator, he was eventually apprehended and has this week died in prison.
Today in History
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In the early 1960s the dark alleyways of Sydney could be dangerous places. There were all the usual criminals and thugs one finds in a bustling city. But also prowling the night was William MacDonald, aka The Mutilator.
MacDonald’s modus operandi still sends a chill up the spine. He would lure unsuspecting men to a private or secluded spot, then stab them repeatedly in a passionate frenzy before severing their genitalia.
MacDonald’s reign of terror ended in 1963 when he was finally caught and locked away in prison. He was still behind bars when he died this week, the nation’s oldest and longest serving prisoner.
MacDonald was born Allen Ginsberg in Liverpool, England, in 1924. He suffered from mental illness from an early age, remaining something of an anti-social loner through his childhood and teens. He joined the army in 1943 and, while taking refuge in an air raid shelter during a raid, was raped by a corporal. Badly traumatised, the incident left him confused. Realising he enjoyed the sexual act he was driven to seek out homosexual encounters.
Homosexual acts were still illegal in Britain at the time and MacDonald was soon in trouble. In 1947 he was discharged from the army, diagnosed with schizophrenia.
His behaviour was becoming increasingly erratic and his brother had him committed to an asylum.
His mother later had him released and he was determined to turn his life around.
In 1949 he changed his name to William MacDonald and emigrated to Canada. After trouble with the law there he moved to Australia in 1955 and was soon in trouble again, for trying to touch a police officer’s penis in a public toilet.
His murders began almost by accident, in Brisbane in May 1961, when he got drunk with Amos Hurst, a 55-year-old man he met outside a railway station.
Hurst took MacDonald to his apartment, where the drinking continued. At some point MacDonald had a strong desire to strangle Hurst. When Hurst realised what was happening he struggled with MacDonald, who punched his victim so hard in the face that Hurst died.
When Hurst’s body was found the police assumed it was an accident, which was how it was reported in the papers. This inspired MacDonald to commit other murders.
Calling himself Alan Brennan he moved to Sydney, taking a job with Australia Post.
In June 1961 he met Alfred Greenfield in a Sydney park and lured him to the alcoves near The Domain Baths. When Greenfield fell asleep MacDonald stabbed him repeatedly before slicing off the dead man’s penis and testicles, which he later threw into Sydney Harbour.
The motiveless crime baffled police who dubbed the unknown killer “The Mutilator”.
His next victim, William Cobbin, was stabbed and mutilated in a toilet in Moore Park in November that year. In March 1962 he struck again, luring a drunk man, Frank McLean, into a Darlinghurst alleyway before stabbing him.
When MacDonald lost his job at the post office he opened a shop. He took his final victim, James Hackett, who he met in a bar, to the apartment above his shop.
Hackett was also repeatedly stabbed but he fought back, cutting MacDonald’s hand. Unable to cut off the man’s genitalia MacDonald fell asleep exhausted.
He awoke in a pool of blood and dragged the body downstairs to hide it under the shop. He then sought medical help for his wounded hand and fled to Brisbane.
The police found Hackett’s decomposed body days later and assumed it belonged to the man named Brennan who had rented the shop. MacDonald was caught when he returned to Sydney and was spotted by a former workmate who had attended his funeral. The workmate alerted police and the story hit the newspapers, dubbed the “case of the walking corpse”.
Making his way to Melbourne in disguise, MacDonald was eventually cornered and convicted in 1963.
In 1964 he was declared insane after killing another prison inmate and served time in an asylum before being returned to prison in 1980, where he remained until his death.
KILLER ROLL CALL
ALTHOUGH some have called MacDonald “Australia’s first true serial killer” there were several others who could lay claim to that title
Alexander Pearce: Escaped from Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour penal settlement with six other men, possibly killing three to cannibalise their flesh. Recaptured he escaped again and killed another
co-escapee to eat his flesh, despite still having food supplies. He was hanged in 1824.
Frank Butler: Lured men into the Blue Mountains with an advertisement to share in a mining venture then killed them. Three known victims but there may have been more. He was hanged in 1897.
Louisa Collins:: Murdered two husbands, the first for the life insurance, the second didn’t have any life insurance. Hanged in 1889.
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