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mybeautifulchristianjourney · 1 year ago

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Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time

by William MacDonald

“Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” – Isaiah 51:11

In its setting, this prophecy of Isaiah looked forward to the joyous return of God’s chosen people from their seventy-year captivity in Babylon.

It may also refer to Israel’s still-future restoration when the Messiah will regather them to the land from all over the world. That too will be a time of great jubilation.

But in its widest sense, we are justified in applying the verse to the rapture of the Church. Awakened by the shout of the Lord, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, the bodies of the redeemed of all the ages will rise from the grave. Living believers, changed in a moment, will join them as they ascend to meet the Lord in the air. Then begins the grand processional to the Father’s house.

It is quite possible that the entire route will be flanked by angelic hosts. At the head of the procession will be the Redeemer Himself, flushed with His glorious victory over death and the grave. Then come the ransomed throng, some from every tribe, tongue, people and nation. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, they are singing with all musical perfection, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.”

Every one in the multitude is a trophy of God’s wonderful grace. Each was ransomed from sin and shame, and made a new creature in Christ Jesus. Some went through deep suffering for their faith, others laid down their lives for the Savior. But now all the scars and mutilations are gone, and the saints have their deathless, glorified bodies.

Abraham and Moses are there, David and Solomon. There are the beloved Peter, James, John and Paul. Martin Luther, John Wesley, John Knox and John Calvin are there. But they are no more conspicuous now than God’s hidden ones, unknown on earth, yet well-known in heaven.

Now the saints are marching into the King’s palace. Sorrow and sighing are gone forever, and everlasting joy is on their heads. Faith has become sight and hope has received its long-awaited consummation. Loved ones greet each other with fervent embraces. Overflowing gladness prevails. Everyone is awed by the amazing grace that has brought them from the depths of sin to such heights of glory.

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dailyunsolvedmysteries · 3 years ago

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William 'The Mutilator' Macdonald

MacDonald was born Allen Ginsberg in Liverpool, England, in 1924. 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. The experience traumatised him, and the thought preyed on his mind for the rest of his life. Discharged from the army in 1947, he was diagnosed as having schizophrenia and committed for several months to a mental asylum where daily he was treated with electroconvulsive therapy.

MacDonald changed his name, then emigrated from England to Canada in 1949 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 behaviour bond. After moving to Ballarat, MacDonald then moved to Sydney in 1961 as a construction worker. He found accommodation in East Sydney, where he became well known in the parks and public toilets that were surreptitious meeting places for homosexual men, due to the criminalisation of same-sex sexual activity.

The murders began in Brisbane in 1961.MacDonald befriended a 63-year-old man named Amos Hugh Hurst 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. Hurst was so intoxicated that he did not realise what was happening and eventually began to haemorrhage. Blood poured from his mouth and on to MacDonald's hands. MacDonald then punched Hurst in the face, killing him. MacDonald then placed Hurst onto his bed, took off his trousers and shoes and pulled the sheets up over Hurst's head and tucked them in around all sides. MacDonald then waited there a while then turned off the lights and left the apartment.

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. MacDonald waited until Greenfield fell asleep, then removed his knife from its sheath and stabbed him approximately 30 times. The ferocity of the first blow severed the arteries in Greenfield's neck. MacDonald then pulled down Greenfield's trousers and underwear, severed his genitals, put them in a plastic bag and threw them into Sydney Harbour.

Similar to the second victim, Ernest William Cobbin, a 47-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. Cobbin was sitting on the toilet seat when MacDonald, using an uppercut motion, struck Cobbin in the neck with a knife, severing his jugular vein. Blood splattered all over MacDonald's arms, face and his plastic raincoat. Cobbin tried to defend himself by raising his arms. MacDonald continued to stab his victim multiple times, covering the toilet cubicle with blood. MacDonald then severed the victim's genitals, placed them into a plastic bag along with his knife, and departed the scene.

On 31 March 1962, in suburban Darlinghurst, New South Wales, the mortally wounded Frank Gladstone McLean was found by a man walking with his wife and young child. He was the victim of an unfinished assault committed by MacDonald. The man found McLean still breathing, but bleeding heavily, and went to get police. On this day MacDonald bought a knife from a sports store in Sydney. That night MacDonald left the Oxford Hotel in Darlinghurst and followed McLean down Bourke Street past the local police station. MacDonald initiated conversation with McLean and suggested they have a drinking session around the corner in Bourke Lane. As they entered Bourke Lane, MacDonald plunged his knife into McLean's throat. McLean tried to fight off the attack but he was too intoxicated to do so. He was then stabbed again in the face and punched—forcing him off balance. The assault was interrupted by a young family approaching. MacDonald hid himself on hearing the voices and the sound of a baby's cry. Once the man and his family had left, MacDonald returned to the barely-alive McLean, pulled him further into the lane and stabbed him again. A total of six stab wounds were inflicted. He then pulled down McLean's trousers, sliced off his genitals and put them into a plastic bag which he took home and disposed of the next day.

The police at one stage thought that the killer could have been a deranged surgeon. The manner in which McLean's genitals were removed seemed to be done by someone with years of surgical experience. Doctors at one stage found themselves under investigation.

On the night of Saturday 6 June 1962, MacDonald went to a wine saloon in Pitt Street, Sydney, where he met 37-year-old Patrick Joseph Hackett, 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. MacDonald then unleashed a renewed attack, eventually striking the knife into Hackett's heart, killing him instantly. He continued to stab his victim until he had to stop for breath. Hackett's blood was splattered all over the walls and floor.

The knife having become blunted, MacDonald was unable to sever his victim's genitals and fell asleep. When he awoke the following morning he found himself lying next to the victim's body covered in sticky, drying blood. The pools of blood had soaked through the floorboards and almost on to the counter in his shop downstairs. He cleaned himself and went to a hospital to have the wound in his hand stitched. He told the doctor that he had cut himself in his shop. After cleaning up the blood, MacDonald dragged Hackett's corpse underneath his shop. Believing the police would soon come looking for his victim, he fled to Brisbane.

Three weeks later, neighbours noticed a putrid smell coming from the shop and called the health department, who in turn called the police. On 20 November 1962 police discovered the rotting corpse, which was too badly decomposed to be identified. An autopsy determined that the body was of someone in their forties, which tallied with records of the missing shop owner, Brennan (MacDonald's alias). In late July, the police had still made no connection between the case and the three previous Mutilator killings, and had profiled the killer as operating in Sydney's inner eastern suburbs, which were many miles distant from Concord.

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. They even said that he was crazy. He went back again the next day and tried to explain what had happened, but they still didn't believe him. This persuaded McCarthy to go to the Daily Mirror newspaper where he spoke to crime reporter Joe Morris. McCarthy explained how he bumped into the "supposed to be dead" Brennan. The reporter saw the account as credible and filed a story under the headline "Case of the walking corpse" Publication forced the police to exhume the corpse. The fingerprints identified the body as belonging to Hackett and not MacDonald. Closer examination found that the body had several stab wounds and mutilation of the penis and testicles, potentially linking the crime to the notorious Mutilator.

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.

#William 'The Mutilator' Macdonald #serial killers #crime #killers #true crime #unsolved mysteries

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thekillerblogofkillers · 7 years ago

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William MacDonald (1924-2015)

William MacDonald, also known as “the Mutilator” was possibly Australia’s first serial killer. He was born in Liverpool, England in 1924 and between 1961 and 1962 MacDonald terrorised Sydney, Australia with a series of gruesome murders before being arrested while working as a porter at a railway station. His MO was to select male victims at random, lure them somewhere dark, stab them dozens of times in the head and neck and then sever their genitalia.

In 1943, when MacDonald was 19, he 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 – he felt traumatised at first, but later decided he had enjoyed the experience, which preyed on his mind for the rest of his life. MacDonald was discharged from the Army in 1947 and was diagnosed as having schizophrenia. He was committed to a mental asylum for a few months and was treated with daily electroconvulsive therapy.

In 1949 MacDonald emigrated from England to Canada and then to Australia 6 years later. He hadn’t been in Australia long before he was arrested and charged with touching a detective’s penis in a public toilet. He was placed on a 2 year good behaviour bond. In 1961, MacDonald moved to Sydney and became well known in the parks and public toilets in his area (popular meeting places for gay men).

MacDonald’s murder spree began in Brisbane in 1961, where he befriended 55-year-old Amos Hurst outside the Roma Street Railway Station. They went drinking in a local pub, and afterwards went back to Hurst’s apartment to continue drinking. Once Hurst was intoxicated, MacDonald began to strangle him. Hurst was too drunk to realise what was happening and eventually began to haemorrhage, blood pouring from his mouth and onto MacDonald’s hands. MacDonald then punched Hurst in the face, killing him. Five days later he saw Hurst’s obituary in the newspaper. It said he had died accidentally. MacDonald breathed a sigh of relief, as he had been living in terror of being arrest, although he was sure nobody had seen him leave Hurst’s apartment.

On 4 June 1961 police were called to the Sydney Domain Baths, where they discovered the nude body of a man who had been stabbed over 30 times, and had had his genitalia completely removed. Alfred Reginald Greenfield was the second victim of the killer soon to become known as “the Mutilator.” Greenfield had been sat on a park bench in Green Park, just opposite St. Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst, when MacDonald approached him and struck up a conversation. MacDonald offered Greenfield a drink and lured him to the nearby Domain Baths on the promise of more alcohol when they got there. Once there, MacDonald waited until Greenfield was asleep, then stabbed Greenfield to death. The savagery of the first blows severed the arteries in Greenfield’s throat. MacDonald then removed the victim’s clothing, severed his genitals, and threw them into Sydney Harbour.

Third victim William Cobbin was also stabbed repeatedly and mutilated. His body was discovered in a public toilet at Moore Park. MacDonald had been walking down South Dowling Street when he met 55-year-old Cobbin. He lured his victim to Moore Park, where they drank beer in a public toilet. Just before the attack, MacDonald ominously put on his plastic raincoat. Cobbin was sat on the toilet seat when MacDonald used an uppercut motion to stab Cobbin in the neck with a knife, severing Cobbin’s jugular vein. Cobbin tried to defend himself, but MacDonald was frenzied, stabbing his victim multiple times, covering the toilet cubicle with blood. MacDonald then severed Cobbin’s genitals, placed them and the knife into a plastic bag, and left. On the way home MacDonald washed the blood off his hands and face.

On March 31, 1962, in Darlinghurst, New South Wales, fatally wounded Frank McLean was found by a man out walking with his wife and child. He was the victim of an interrupted assault committed by MacDonald. The man found McLean still breathing, but bleeding heavily, and went to get the police. Earlier that day, MacDonald bought a knife from a sports shop in Sydney. That night MacDonald left his hotel in Darlinghurst ad followed McLean past the local police station. MacDonald began a conversation with McLean and suggested they go drinking around the corner in Bourke Lane. As they entered the lane, MacDonald plunged the knife into McLean’s throat. McLean tried his hardest to fight back, but was too drunk to do so. He was then stabbed in the face and punched, which forced him off balance. However, the assault was interrupted by a young family approaching and MacDonald hid himself. After the man and his family had left to summon police, MacDonald returned to his half-dead victim, pulled him further into the lane and stabbed him again. He pulled down McLean’s trousers, cut off his genitals and put them into a plastic bag which he took home and disposed of the following day. Due to the way in which the victims’ genitals had been removed from multiple bodies, police at one point thought that they may be looking for a surgeon, and local doctors found themselves under investigation.

After being fired from his job at the local post office, where he was using the name Alan Edward Brennan, MacDonald went into business alone. He bought a mixed business store in Concord, again under his assumed name, where he intended to sell sandwiches and other sundries, living in the rooms above the store. He only lived there for about a week after paying the deposit.

On Saturday 6 June 1962, MacDonald went to a wine bar where he met 42-year-old James Hackett, a homeless petty thief who had just been released from prison. The pair went back to MacDonald’s new home and continued to drink. After a short time, Hackett fell asleep on the floor. MacDonald got a boning knife that he used in his delicatessen and stabbed Hackett in the neck. The blow went straight through his throat. Following the first blow, Hackett woke up and tried to protect himself by pushing the knife back into MacDonald’s hand and cutting it badly. MacDonald then upped the ferocity of his attack, eventually hitting Hackett’s heart, killing him immediately. He continued to stab his victim until he had to take a break. Hackett’s blood was all over the apartment. The knife was blunted, so MacDonald wasn’t able to sever his victim’s genitals, and so he fell asleep. When he woke up he was lying next to Hackett’s body, covered in sticky, drying blood. The pools of blood soaked through the floor and into the shop underneath. He cleaned himself up and went to the hospital to get his hand stitched, telling the doctor he had cut himself in his shop. After cleaning up the blood, MacDonald kept Hackett’s corpse under the shop. He fled to Brisbane, believing that the police would soon come looking for either him or Hackett.

3 weeks later, neighboured noticed a foul odour coming from the shop and called the health department, who called the police. On 20 November 1962 police found the decomposing corpse, which could not be identified. An autopsy confirmed that the body was of a male in their forties, which matched the description of the store’s owner, Alan Edward Brennan (MacDonald’s alias). In July, police still had not connected the case with the 3 previous Mutilator killings.

After some investigation, the victim was misidentified as Alan Edward Brennan, and a notice was published in a newspaper obituary section. This was read by his former colleagues at the post office, who attended a small funeral for him. At this time, MacDonald was living in Brisbane before moving to New Zealand, believing that the police were on his trail. He felt the urge to kill again, but for some reason felt that he needed to return to Sydney to do it. When there, he ran into former workmate John McCarthy, who said, “I believed you had died,” at which MacDonald replied, “Leave me alone,” and ran away. He then went to Melbourne. McCarthy went straight to police to tell them he had seen Brennan, who was presumed dead. They did not believe him at first, accusing him of having had too much to drink. He was told to go home and sleep it off. They even called him crazy. He went back again, sober, the following day to explain what he had seen, but they still didn’t believe him. McCarthy decided to go to the Daily Mirror newspaper to speak to crime reporter Joe Morris. McCarthy told his story and the reporter believed him and filed a story under the headline “Case of the Walking Corpse.” The publication of this article forced police to exhume the corpse. The fingerprints proved that the body belonged to James Hackett, not William MacDonald. On closer examination, police discovered that the body had several stab wounds and mutilation of the penis and testicles, linking this death to the notorious Mutilator.

The Sydney police got an identikit picture of MacDonald, which was circulated to every newspaper in the nation. MacDonald had taken a job in Melbourne, on the railways, being hired as “David Allan”. MacDonald tried to disguise himself by dyeing his hair and growing a moustache, but he was instantly recognised by his colleagues. Melbourne police arrested him as he collected his weeks’ wages. When he was questioned, MacDonald admitted to the killings, saying he had an irresistible urge to kill. He said that he was a victim of rape as a teenager, and was inflicting his revenge on victims he chose at random. MacDonald claimed that due to his schizophrenia, he heard voices telling him that his victims were the corporal who raped him as a teenager. He was charged with 4 counts of murder and his trial began in September 1963. MacDonald pleaded guilty on the grounds of insanity and testified to every grisly detail, including how blood had sprayed over his coat as he was castrating his victims, how he put their genitals in plastic bags and took them home. Some jurors fainted and had to be escorted from the courtroom. The jury chose to ignore the evidence from psychiatrists and handed down a guilty verdict. Mr 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 clear that if he was free, he would continue killing. He was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences with the strong recommendation that he never be released.

MacDonald was imprisoned at Long Bay Hospital, a division of Long Bay Correctional Center, but was soon declared insane and transferred to a secure mental hospital. MacDonald was in prison for so long that he became completely institutionalised, and was the longest continuous serving inmate in the New South Wales prison system. He said in 2003, “I have no desire to go and live on the outside. I wouldn’t last five minutes.” MacDonald died May 12, 2015, aged 90, while still in prison. At the time of his death MacDonald had been the oldest and longest-serving prisoner in custody in NSW.

#william #macdonald #australia #liverpool #serial killer #mutilator #genitals #murder #insane

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randomfactsandinfo-blog · 6 years ago

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William MacDonald: Australia’s Gay Jack the Ripper

William MacDonald, later “the Sydney Mutilator,” was born on June 17th, 1924 in Liverpool, England, and his life was pretty uneventful until he was conscripted for the British Army as a nineteen year old in 1943. He was transferred to the Lancaster Fusiliers, after which he was brutally raped by one of his corporals in an air-rade shelter, an assault that traumatized him for the rest of his days. He was honorably discharged with exemplary conduct in 1947.

While still a teenager, he was diagnosed as an erratic schizophrenic, and was then committed to the Scottish Crichton Royal mental hospital, and was treated with electroconvulsive therapy daily. Soon after his arrival, his mother arranged for his release.

In the year 1949, he emigrated from England to Canada, but his crimes did not begin until he moved to Australia in 1955.

Soon after his arrival in Australia, he was arrested and charged with indecent assault on a male person and two counts of gross indecency after he grabbedf the groin of a police officer in a public bathroom, but was placed on a two-year good behavior bond. In 1961, he settled in Sydney and cemented his identity as a gay man, frequenting meet-up spots for other gay men like him.

The murders started in Brisbane in 1960, with the death of Amos Hurst, a 55 year old man MacDonald befriended outside Roma Street Railway Station. MacDonald invited the man for a drink at a local pub, and then took him back to his home for more drinks. When Hurst throughly intoxicated, MacDonald began to strangle him, and he started to haemorrhage. Blood poured from his mouth all over MacDonald’s hands, and then he ended it by punching him hard in the face, which ended up finally killing him. Amos Hurst’s body was examined by a coroner and it was declared that he died of natural causes because of his documented history of heart disease.

The second victim was Alfred Reginald Greenfield, who was found completely nude in the Sydney Domain Baths on June 4th, 1961. He was stabbed over 30 times, and his penis was completely severed from his body. He was peacefully sitting on a park bench in Green Park across the road from St. Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst when MacDonald offered Greenfield a drink and lured him into the Domain Baths, offering him even more alcohol after that. He patiently waited until Greenfield passed out drunk, and then stabbed him 30 times. The first blow severed the arteries in his neck, killing him. After Greenfield was dead, MacDonald pulled down his pants and castrated him, throwing the severed member into the Sydney Harbor.

Victim #3, 55 year old William Cobbin, was found in a public bathroom in Moore Park, stabbed repeatedly and his groin mutilated just like Alfred Greenfield. MacDonald was strolling down South Dowling Street when he met Cobbin, and proceeded to lure him into Moore Park, where they drank beer in the public restroom where he was found by the police. Before he attacked Cobbin, MacDonald pulled on a plastic raincoat, and then used an uppercut motion to stab him in the neck with a hunting knife, severing his jugular vein as he sat on a toilet seat. Cobbin desperately tried to defend himself by putting up his hands to block MacDonald’s blows, but he continued to strike him, drenching the stall with blood. Following his signature, MacDonald severed his newest victim’s penis and dropped it in a plastic bag with his weapon and left the scene.

William MacDonald’s fourth victim, Frank Gladstone McLean, was killed on March 31st, 1962. His lifeless corpse was discovered in suburban Darlinghurst, New South Wales, and was almost stopped by an approaching family. Just before the murder, MacDonald bought a new knife from a sports store in Sydney. Leaving Oxford Hotel in Darlinghurst, he tailed McLean down Bourke Street, and struck up a conversation with him, convincing him to have a drink with him just around the corner in Bourke Lane. Upon entry of Bourke Lane, MacDonald plunged a knife into McLean’s throat, and he was unfortunately too inebriated to effectively fight back. MacDonald proceeded to stab him in the face and punch him. MacDonald heard the coos of the baby belonging to an approaching family, and promptly hid to avoid being seen. McLean was still alive, barely breathing and bleeding profusely by the father, who then went with his family to go get help. When they were gone, MacDonald stabbed him once more, killing him with a total of six stab wounds. He again removed his victim’s genitals, bagged them, and got rid of them the next day.

MacDonald’s final victim, 42 year old Patrick James Hackett, was murdered on Saturday, June 6th, 1962. He was a convicted thief, and had just been released from prison. MacDonald took him into his home (an apartment above the new sandwich business he just started) for a friendly drink. When Hackett fell unconscious from intoxication, MacDonald stabbed him straight through the neck with a boning knife he used to prepare sandwiches for his customers. After the first blow, Hackett awoke, and pushed MacDonald’s knife into his other hand, slashing it. He then struck Hackett in the heart, killing him instantaneously. Though his victim was already dead, MacDonald kept stabbing him, until his entire apartment was dripping with buckets of blood. His weapon was blunted, so he couldn’t carry on with the ritual of castration, so he just fell asleep next to Hackett’s corpse.

When MacDonald woke up, the blood from last night’s massacre had mostly dried and even soaked through the floorboards, almost on the shop counter downstairs. He cleaned up the mess as best as he could (which was not much), dragged the body under the shop, and went to the hospital to get his hand stitched up, telling the doctor that he wounded himself while making a sandwich. Fearing police detection, MacDonald fled to Brisbane. Three weeks later, the neighbors complained of a putrid odor emanating from the sandwich shop, calling the health department, who in turn notified the police. The cops found the rotting corpse of Hackett on November 20th, 1962. The corpse was already so decomposed, it was impossible to identify. It was misidentified as Alan Edward Brennan, William MacDonald’s alias. His old coworkers from working at the post office even prepared a service for him.

William moved to New Zealand, though once he got the itch to kill again, he returned to Sydney, where he ran into one of his old coworkers, John McCarthy, who recognized him immediately. He ran off and fled to Melbourne. McCarthy tried to inform the police that MacDonald is alive and well, but they didn’t believe him, so he went to the Daily Mirror newspaper to speak to crime reporter Joe Morris, who believed him. He wrote an article headlined “Case of the Walking Corpse.” Upon further examination, they used fingerprints to ID finally ID the body as James Hackett. The stab wounds and severed genitalia linked to the Sydney Mutilator’s other killings.

Sydney police obtained a police sketch of MacDonald, which was sent out to every newspaper in the nation. At the time, he was working as a porter under the name of David Allan, trying to disguise himself using dyed hair and a mustache, but to no avail. He was instantly recognized by his coworkers. William MacDonald was arrested as he went to collect his weekly paycheck on May 13th, 1963.

In questioning, he immediately confessed to his crimes, reporting that his insatiable need to kill stemmed from the corporal who raped him as a teenager, causing him to exact his revenge on strangers at random. As a man with schizophrenia, he said that the voices in his head told him that his victims were actually the corporal who assaulted him. “I thought when the corporal attacked me, he took my life away. So I thought I’d destroy his sex the same way.” He also said that the imaginary voices taunted him at night saying, “kill...kill...kill!”

William MacDonald was charged with four counts of murder, and was committed for trial on August 15th, 1963. The trial began in September, and he pled not guilty on grounds of insanity, reinforced by the psychiatrists. He testified in great detail about his crimes so vividly that some of the jurors fainted and had to be carried out of the courtroom. The jury found him guilty, but denied his plea of insanity, sentencing him to life imprisonment. He is the longest serving inmate in the South Wales prison system. He reported that his life had greatly improved in jail, having become a vegetarian and a lover of classical music, and due to his exemplary behavior, he was recommended for release. However, he became very institutionalized and begged them not to release him. “I wouldn’t last five minutes out there,” he said. He expressed his fear that he would kill again if let out.

He spent 52 years behind bars before he died of natural causes in 2015.

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