William MacDonald

William MacDonald (17 June 1924 – 12 May 2015) was an English serial killer responsible for the murders of five people in the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales between 1961 and 1962.

A British citizen, MacDonald immigrated to Australia in 1955. Between 1961 and 1962, MacDonald terrorised Sydney, committing a string of gruesome murders before being apprehended while working as a porter at Melbourne's Spencer Street railway station on 13 May 1963. His modus operandi was to select his male victims at random (mostly derelicts), lure them into a dark place, violently punch and stab them with a long bladed knife dozens of times about the head and neck, and finally sever their genitals. Due to his gruesome style of murdering victims, he was given the nickname The Mutilator by the media.

Early life MacDonald was born Allen Ginsberg in Liverpool, England, as the second of three children to a Jewish family. The Ginsbergs were reportedly wealthy and well-to-do, but MacDonald was considered anti-social from an early age and emotionally neglected by his parents.

In 1943, at the age of 19, MacDonald was enlisted in the army and transferred to the Lancashire Fusiliers. One night, MacDonald was raped in an air-raid shelter by one of his corporals. and then to Australia in 1955. Shortly after his arrival, he was arrested and charged for touching a detective's penis in a public toilet in Adelaide. For this he was placed on a two-year good behavior bond. After moving to Ballarat, MacDonald then moved to Sydney in 1961 as a construction worker.

Crimes

First victim The murders began in Brisbane in 1961. outside the Roma Street Railway Station. After a long drinking session at one of the local pubs, they went back to Hurst's apartment where they consumed more alcohol. When Hurst became intoxicated MacDonald began to strangle him.

Second victim On 4 June 1961, police were summoned to the Sydney Domain Baths. A man's nude corpse had been found, savagely stabbed over 30 times, and with the genitalia completely severed from his body. Alfred Reginald Greenfield became the second victim claimed by the killer soon to be dubbed "the Mutilator".

Greenfield, 41, had been sitting on a park bench in Green Park, just across the road from St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst. MacDonald offered Greenfield a drink and lured him to the nearby Domain Baths on the pretext of providing more alcohol.

Third victim Similar to the second victim, Ernest William Cobbin, a 37-year-old male (possibly 36 or 37 years old) was stabbed repeatedly and mutilated. His body was found in a public toilet at Moore Park.

On this night, MacDonald was walking down South Dowling Street where he met Cobbin. MacDonald lured his victim to Moore Park and drank beer with him in a public toilet. Just before the attack, MacDonald put on his plastic raincoat. a thief and derelict who had just recently been released from prison. They went back to MacDonald's new residence where they continued to drink alcohol. After a short period, Hackett fell asleep on the floor. MacDonald then got out a boning knife that he used in his delicatessen. He stabbed Hackett in the neck, the blow passing straight through. After the first blow, Hackett woke up and tried to shield himself, pushing the knife back into MacDonald's other hand and cutting it severely. and had profiled the killer as operating in Sydney's inner eastern suburbs, which were many miles distant from Concord.

The "Case of the walking corpse" After investigations, the victim was incorrectly identified as Brennan and a notice published in a newspaper obituary column. This was read by his former workmates at the local post office, who attended a small memorial service conducted by a local funeral director. At this time, MacDonald was living in Brisbane and then moved to New Zealand, believing that the police would still be looking for him. He felt the need to kill again, but for some reason he had to return to Sydney to do it. Returning to Sydney, he met former workmate John McCarthy, who said, "I believed you had died," at which MacDonald replied, "Leave me alone," and ran away, travelling to Melbourne soon after.

McCarthy went straight to the police. At first they did not believe him and accused him of having had too much to drink and he was told to go home and sleep it off. Even though he tried to disguise himself by dyeing his hair and growing a moustache, he was instantly recognised by his workmates. Melbourne police arrested him as he collected his pay for that week.

Under questioning, MacDonald readily admitted to the killings, blaming them on an irresistible urge to kill. He claimed he was the victim of rape as a teenager, and had to disempower the victims chosen at random. A man with schizophrenia, MacDonald said that he heard voices in his head telling him that his victims were the corporal who raped him as a teenager. He was charged with five counts of murder and committed for trial on 15 August 1963. The trial began in September 1963 and was one of the nation's most sensational. MacDonald pleaded not guilty on the grounds of insanity and testified in great detail to the gruesome murders. He told the court of how blood had sprayed over his raincoat as he castrated his victims, put their private parts into plastic bags and took them home. He even told the court what he did with the genitals once he got home. Some jurors fainted and had to be taken from the court. The jury chose to ignore overwhelming evidence for insanity in handing down a 'guilty' verdict, which amazed expert psychiatrists. Before passing sentence, Justice McLennan said that this was the most barbaric case of murder and total disregard for human life that had come before him in his many years on the bench. MacDonald showed no signs of remorse and made it quite clear that, if he were free, he would go on killing. He was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences with the strong recommendation that he never be released.

Imprisonment MacDonald was imprisoned at Long Bay Hospital, a division of Long Bay Correctional Centre, but was soon certified as insane and transferred to a secure mental hospital. In the prison system, MacDonald was known simply as Bill; he had been in prison for so long that he became institutionalised, the longest continuous serving inmate in the New South Wales prison system. He stated in 2003 "I have no desire to go and live on the outside. I wouldn't last five minutes."

Death At the age of 90, MacDonald died from a gastrointestinal blockage on 12 May 2015, while he was still imprisoned. At the time of his death, MacDonald was the oldest and longest-serving prisoner in custody in New South Wales.