John Wayne Glover

John Wayne Glover (26 November 1932 – 9 September 2005) was an English-Australian serial killer convicted of the murders of six elderly women (aged from 60 to 93), over a period of 14 months from 1989 to 1990. The victims included Winifreda, Lady Ashton, widow of the English-Australian impressionist painter Sir Will Ashton, in suburbs located in Sydney's North Shore. Given the advanced age of his victims, the press nicknamed him The Granny Killer.

Following his arrest in 1990, he admitted to the murders and was sentenced to consecutive terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He died after hanging himself in prison on 9 September 2005.

Biography Background Originally from a working-class family in Wolverhampton, England, Glover was convicted of many petty crimes dating back to 1947, mostly for stealing clothing and handbags. He left school at 14.

He served in the British Army but was expelled when these crimes were discovered. He emigrated to Australia in 1956 or 1957 with no qualifications. In 1962, he was convicted on two counts of assaulting women in Melbourne, two counts of indecent assault, one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and another four counts of larceny. He was sentenced to a three-year good-behaviour bond.

He had a troubled relationship with older women in his life, especially his mother Freda (who had several husbands and many boyfriends). After 1968, when he married Gay Rolls

Murders No proof has been found of Glover killing before 1989, when he was 56. At this stage, he had been married for 20 years with children, and his wife had no knowledge of his previous criminal offences.

Glover admitted to the killings when confronted with the police evidence. He denied responsibility for other crimes in which he was a prime suspect, including the bashing murder of 78-year-old artist Florence Broadhurst in her Paddington studio in 1977. A number of years after his conviction, Glover admitted that he never worried about who his victims were, or why he killed them. He said he wanted to stop killing, but could not. After each murder, he apparently went about his normal life.

Pre-murder offence On 11 January 1989, After parking his car, he walked up to the victim. He punched Todhunter in the face, and stole the contents of her purse, totalling $2,000. Glover went to the Mosman Returned Services League (RSL) club, where he spent Todhunter's money. Investigating police concluded the crime was a mugging and held little hope of finding the perpetrator.

Gwendolin Mitchelhill On 1 March 1989, as Glover left the Mosman RSL in Military Road, he saw 82-year-old Gwendolin Mitchelhill walking down the street. He continued to strike her about the head and body, breaking several of her ribs. Glover removed her underwear and pantyhose before fleeing the scene,

A post mortem examination was carried out and no sign of semen was found. The ligature mark around her neck measured . She had bruises on her nose and temple, on her neck, and both her eyelids. At some stage during the struggle, she bit her lips, causing damage to the inner lining of her mouth. A wound was on her cheek, which was an open cut. A small, semicircular abrasion was a few centimetres away from it. The examiner noted the victim's diamond ring was still present, suggesting that she had not been killed for money.

Further offences On 6 June 1989, Glover molested 77-year-old Marjorie Moseley at the Wesley Gardens Retirement Home in Belrose. The victim reported to hospital staff and police that a man had put his hand under her nightgown, but that she could not remember what the man looked like. On 24 June 1989, Glover visited the Caroline Chisholm Nursing Home in Lane Cove, where he lifted the dress of an elderly patient and fondled her buttocks. In a neighbouring room, he slid his hand down the front of another patient's nightdress and stroked her breasts. The woman cried out for help and Glover was briefly questioned by staff at the hospital before leaving. On 8 August 1989 , Glover assaulted the elderly Euphemia "Effie" Carnie in a back street of Lindfield, on Sydney's upper North Shore. According to her, the attacker was a young man, possibly a teenager or skateboarder. Cox assisted police with an identikit drawing, but again, the scene had been cleaned by neighbours before investigators arrived.

Margaret Pahud On 2 November 1989, Glover approached 78-year-old Lane Cove resident Dorothy Beencke while she was walking home in a quiet back street, just off Longueville Road, Lane Cove (about 10 km from Mosman). and when she collapsed, he struck her again on the side of the head. Glover rearranged her clothing, shoes, and walking stick, took her handbag, and left. Again, nobody saw the attack, but within a few minutes, her body was found by a young schoolgirl, Once again, the old woman's injuries were initially attributed to a heavy fall, and the crime scene was washed down. No eyewitnesses were found. Shortly afterwards, the state government doubled the reward for apprehension of the perpetrator to $200,000.

Muriel Falconer On 23 November 1989, Glover was sitting in the Buena Vista Hotel in Middle Head Road, Mosman, Glover returned to his car (parked opposite the police station), to retrieve his hammer and gloves. He followed Falconer to the exterior of her home in Muston Street. A neighbour described a suspect as middle-aged, portly, and grey-haired. The reward was increased to $250,000 by Christmas.

Police investigation On 11 January 1990, Glover visited the Greenwich Hospital in River Road, Greenwich, on his pie sales round. He separated from his wife, who took their daughters to New Zealand.

Trial Glover's trial commenced on 19 November 1991. Glover pleaded not guilty to his crimes on the grounds of diminished responsibility. A professor of psychiatry, who reviewed the case, said Glover had "built up a pile of hostility and aggression from childhood against his mother, then his mother-in-law. She was the lightning conductor, and when she died he had to take it out on other people." They added that Glover's was a very unusual case because few serial killers exist, and most of them are mentally ill, and/or have an organic disease of the brain;

"Confession" sketch Days before Glover killed himself, he handed his last outside visitor a sketch of a park. Glover noted two pine trees in the image. In the middle of the right pine tree, the number "nine" could be seen between leaves and branches. The number nine is said to represent either the total number of murders or the number of unsolved murders committed by Glover. where he was held in a maximum-security prison cell.

In May 2005 Glover collapsed in his cell and was placed on suicide watch after telling prison officers "I've had enough – I want to kill myself." He was examined by a mental health review team, and monitored by closed circuit television. He was also given medical examinations as a follow-up to the two cancer surgeries he had undergone the year before.