‘I was locked up with one of Australia’s most evil killers’
A prisoner who shared a cell with a high-profile rapist has given chilling insights into the depraved mind of the evil killer. Warning: Graphic
WARNING: Distressing
Have you ever thought about what it would be like to come face-to-face with evil?
Ex-prisoner Glenn, who did not wish to disclose his surname, said that despite being locked up with some of Australia’s worst criminals – including backpacker serial killer Ivan Milat and convicted gang rapist Bilal Scaf – there was one inmate so overwhelmingly vile that he has never been able to forget his face.
John Travers, along with four others, was charged with the brutal torture, rape and murder of Sydney nurse Anita Cobby back in 1986.
“Travers is pure evil, there was always something really off about him,” Glenn exclusively told news.com.au.
“I was locked up with him for 10 years on and off in Lithgow and Wellington.
“He had evil all over him. That’s what I remember the most, you could feel it.
“His eyes were completely dead. I’ll never forget that feeling of darkness.”
Anita was just 26 years old when she had her life brutally stolen from her in one of the most terrifying ways imaginable.
As the nurse walked home from the train station after a long day shift at Sydney Hospital, she was forcefully kidnapped by a pack of five men who made her last hours on earth a living hell.
The Murphy brothers Michael, 33, Gary, 28, and Leslie, 23, along with John Travers and Michael Murdoch, both 18, tortured Anita after forcing her into their car as she walked home just before 10pm.
The men savagely beat and raped the young woman for two hours before Travers slit her throat – almost decapitating her – and left her naked body in a paddock.
The heinous act was dubbed “the most savage and fiendish murder ever known”, with Justice Alan Maxwell describing the crime as “one of the most horrifying physical and sexual assaults … a calculated killing done in cold blood”.
John Travers has been incarcerated since 1986, when he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of sexual assault and murder.
“He hated women”
The now 56-year-old has spent time in different correctional centres around New South Wales, including Long Bay, Parklea, Maitland, Goulburn, Grafton, Lithgow and Wellington.
While doing hard time in prison might be enough to make some inmates reconsider their life choices and have a sense of regret about their crimes, Glenn said he does not feel like this was the case with Travers.
He said that Travers appeared to have “no remorse” and that it seemed like he really “hated women”, with the killer seemingly having no respect for any females he came into contact with in prison.
“I don’t feel like he had any remorse whatsoever,” he said.
“I remember how small he was and the hardness of his features. His eyes looked dead.
“On numerous occasions, he would say that if he got a chance outside there was a long list of people who were going to be tortured and killed.
“He hated women. Something I noticed, he would walk up and down the yard right at the fence, like lion stalking his prey.
“He knew the staff routines and would watch the female staff and would sometimes call them over. To me it looked uncomfortable and I can hardly imagine how they would feel.
“He would definitely express his hate towards women out loud. I guess in his mind he still had some power over them.”
Glenn also noticed that Travers was separated from all of the other inmates, something that would annoy the rest of the prisoners.
“It seemed like he had some special privileges, with access to extra food and milk, as well as being let out by himself so he could train,” he claimed.
“He got cushy jobs and was definitely looked after and looked out for.
“Travers was protected. Which just seems insane to me. Where was Anita’s protection?”
Corrective Services NSW explained to news.com.au that they are responsible for the care and safety of offenders in custody.
In certain situations, a prisoner may be separated if there exists a risk of personal safety of the inmate or to other inmates.
An inmate may require protective custody for a number of reasons, including due to the nature of their offence, their previous employment (i.e. if they were a police officer) or if they have an inability to cope with the normal correctional centre environment.
Due to the nature of his crime, it is likely that Travers was separated for his own protection.
Back in 2019, another one of Anita’s killers, Gary Murphy, was bashed by other prisoners in the shower and had to be transferred to St Vincent's hospital in a critical condition.
“Hang the bastards”
After Anita Cobby’s brutal murder shocked the country, heated demonstrations took place outside the court houses, demanding for Australia to bring back the death penalty.
“I’ll never forget seeing all the protests, people holding up nooses and wanting them to be killed,” Glenn recalled.
“They were yelling to ‘hang the bastards’. The whole country was angry, and rightly so.
“I don’t believe in the death penalty. I think that would be too easy for them.
“But they should never be let out, ever. That was one of the most brutal crimes I’ve ever heard of.
“I can't imagine what Anita went through.”
John Travers was considered the ringleader of the gang and was the one who slit Anita’s throat after the pack had terrorised her for hours.
He confessed to his crimes in a secret recording with a female relative, who has never been identified.
The woman on the tape – known only as ‘Miss X’ – asked Travers if he had sex with Anita and he confessed that they had all raped her.
“We were all drunk and she’d f**king seen all of us,” he told her, amid laughter.
“I said she’s got to be done and they said … ‘yeah, go on Johnny, do your bit’, so I just cut her.”
At the time, Travers was also wanted in Western Australia for the brutal rape of a teenage boy, a crime he committed just weeks before Anita’s murder.
According to detectives, he had held a knife to his victim’s throat in the attack and threatened to kill him if he tried to stop him.
Just two weeks later, he would do the same to Anita, but this time he did kill his victim.
Travers had a violent history of rape, with the West Australian reporting that he could have committed over 20 sexual assaults on both men and women in NSW and WA.
Crime Investigation Australia reported that Travers had a history of “cruelty to animals” and alleged that he had committed acts of bestiality throughout his life.
“He had sex with a sheep, cut its throat and then he would roast it on a spit in the back yard,” author Julia Sheppard claimed in the segment.
“I’d love to kill them …”
The murder of Anita Cobby is one the country’s most notorious crimes and even now – 38 years later – Australia has never forgotten what happened to her.
Her parents Garry and Grace Lynch both passed away in 2008 and 2013 respectively.
Asking how they would describe their daughter, they said she was “beautiful in body and spirit”.
“We’re devastated. We’ve been through so much since yesterday when we first heard the news that they’d found her,” Anita’s father told a reporter the day after her body was discovered.
“The grief comes up in waves. Goes away and comes up again. We’re totally devastated.
“She was such a beautiful creature who has been foully brutalised.”
“We just hope that these people are put away so that they can’t do it to anyone else,” Anita’s mother, Grace, told reporters outside the courthouse during the trial.
“We wouldn’t like anyone else to go through what we’ve been through.”
Anita married fellow nurse John Cobby in 1982 after meeting at Sydney Hospital while she was studying.
At the time of her murder, the couple had separated and Anita was living with her parents in Blacktown, although John said they had plans to reconcile.
“I was gobsmacked, she was so stunning,” John told 7News when describing the first time he saw Anita.
“She had these really long gorgeous locks of hair. I thought she was completely out of my league.
“Every time I thought about [her murder] I’d get depressed and angry. Revenge was high on what I thought.
“It was crippling. And I lived with that for years and years. I’d love to kill them. It would be gold, pure gold.
“I dream about her a lot. I dream about saving her from whatever.
“It’s like I missed my opportunity in life, but in my dreams I can still rescue her.”
All of Anita’s killers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Michael Murphy died in 2019 from liver cancer. The other four of her killers – John Travers, Michael Murdoch, Gary Murphy and Les Murphy – are serving out their sentences at prisons across New South Wales.
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