Anita Cobby killer Michael Murphy dead
One of the notorious brothers who abducted, raped and murdered beauty queen Anita Cobby, has died in Long Bay jail overnight. Ms Cobby’s widower John was told of the death this morning. MARK MORRI DESCRIBES HIS REACTION IN A POWERFUL VIDEO
One of the notorious brothers who abducted, raped and murdered beauty queen Anita Cobby, has died in Long Bay jail overnight.
Michael Murphy, 66, the oldest of a pack of killers who raped and almost decapitated the nurse in a field in western Sydney in 1986, was moved from Long Bay jail into palliative care last year.
He was suffering from liver cancer and had been in and out of Prince of Wales Hospital over the past few months.
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Ms Cobby’s widower John was informed of the death early this morning after Murphy died at 2am.
“I hope it was painful for him” he said.
“One down, four to go”.
Imprisoned since his arrest over a crime that shocked the nation more than 32 years ago, Murphy has spent most of his incarceration in Goulburn prison’s maximum security wings.
He was aged in his early 30s on the evening of February 2, 1986 when, with brothers Gary and Les, psychopath John Travers and Michael Murdoch, he spotted Ms Cobby walking home.
The registered nurse had been out for dinner with friends and alighted at Blacktown Railway station around 10pm.
The men, who spotted her from the car they were travelling in, dragged Ms Cobby into the vehicle and drove 5km to a rural farm in Prospect.
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There they took turns raping the 26-year-old before Travers slit her throat and left her to die.
Two days later, a farmer found Ms Cobby’s naked body face down in the Prospect paddock.
She had been beaten, repeatedly raped and tortured, and had her fingers broken and bones dislocated.
In 1987, all five men were convicted of Ms Cobby’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
They were all “cemented in”, and denied the possibility of parole.
Ms Cobby’s father Garry died in 2008, and her mother Grace in 2013.
She is survived by a sister, Kathryn Szyszka, who reportedly has been informed about Murphy’s imminent death.
Gary Murphy, Les Murphy, Joh Travers and Michael Murdoch, who are aged around 50 and 60 years old, remain in various maximum security prisons to live out their days.
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