The Evil Within - A Top Murder Squad Detective Reveals The Chilling True Stories of The World's Most Notorious Killers (2 page)

David Birnie (b. 1951) and Catherine Birnie (née Harrison, b. 1951) formed a Bonnie and Clyde relationship when they met in their early teens. During this early period, they were involved in a string of burglaries in Perth at shops and factory premises. This resulted in both of them spending some of their teenage years in separate reform schools. In 1984, their paths crossed yet again and, having formed a strong relationship, they got married. However, David became lost in a world of bizarre sexual fantasies to go with his insatiable sexual appetite.

On 6 October 1986, they changed from being petty thieves to becoming serial killers. On this day, they crossed paths with 20-year-old psychology student Mary Neilson, who visited the Birnie home. She had replied to an advertisement for the sale of tyres placed by David Birnie, who took advantage of the situation of a lone, unsuspecting female. After pulling a knife on her, they forced her into the bedroom of their house where she was chained to the bed and repeatedly raped. Catherine Birnie was present on this occasion, watching and taking photographs. They then placed the victim in David’s vehicle and drove her to the Gleneagles National Park, some 34 miles south of Perth, where Birnie raped her yet
again before he finally strangled her with a nylon cord. All the time this was taking place Catherine was present, encouraging him. They both then took turns in slashing the body of the victim, apparently in order to prevent the body swelling up while decomposing in the shallow grave they had dug.

Fuelled by this violent act, they both had the desire to kill and mutilate again. On 20 October, they found their second victim, 15-year-old Susannah Candy, who was hitchhiking. They picked her up and drove her back to their home where they held her captive, raping and sexually abusing her over a period of several days. They even made her write letters to her parents indicating that she was safe and well. As with the previous victim, they drove her to the Gleneagles National Park where on this occasion Catherine Birnie strangled the victim, again burying her in a shallow grave.

Their third victim, who was in fact known to the Birnies, was 31-year-old air hostess Noelene Patterson. David and Caroline Birnie came across Noelene, whose car had run out of petrol. Instead of helping her, David Birnie abducted her at knifepoint and drove her back to their home where she was chained to the bed and raped over a three-day period. It was later suggested that because of her beauty David became infatuated with her. This made Caroline jealous and she apparently told David that Noelene must die, but David apparently would not accede to her request. However, he later relented and gave the victim an overdose of sleeping tablets, and then, while she was unconscious, he strangled her. As with the previous murders, they took the body of the victim to Gleneagles National Park where they buried it in a shallow grave.

On 4 November, they found their fourth victim. Again, as with the previous victim, they preyed on a lone female hitchhiker in the Perth area – Denise Brown, a 21-year-old computer operator. As before, they took their victim back to their home and for two days thereafter Denise Brown was repeatedly raped and sexually abused. Following this, they drove Brown to a pine plantation some 40 miles south of the city where she was again raped and
then stabbed by David Birnie. Catherine watched and took photographs while this was happening. However, despite this savage attack on the victim she remained alive. Catherine then gave David a bigger knife, but despite inflicting more stab wounds on Brown she still remained alive. David Birnie then shattered her skull with an axe, which finally killed her. They buried the victim in another shallow grave.

The next intended victim would prove to be their downfall. On 9 November, they abducted a lone 16-year-old female hitchhiker named Kate Moir. As with the previous victims, she was taken to the Birnies’ home and again chained and subjected to sexual abuse. However, the Birnies’ luck was about to run out, as the following day the victim found herself unchained and apparently alone in the house. As a result, she managed to escape through a bedroom window. Badly bruised and half-naked, she staggered into a local shop and the police were called. She led them directly back to the Birnies’ address where they arrested Catherine Birnie and then went to David Birnie’s place of work to arrest him.

When questioned by police, the Birnies vigorously denied the girl’s allegations. Instead, they claimed that she had been a willing party and had gone with them to smoke marijuana. Birnie admitted to having sex with the girl but maintained that he had not raped her. A search of the house found the girl’s bag and a packet of cigarettes that she had had the common sense to conceal in the ceiling as proof positive that she had actually been there, but there was little else to prove the allegation of rape or to connect the Birnies with any of the other missing women.

Under more intense questioning, David Birnie finally confessed and calmly told the officer questioning him: ‘It’s getting dark. Best we take the shovel and dig them up. There are four of them.’ When told of David’s confession, Catherine Birnie finally confessed. They both agreed to take police to the bodies which were buried not far from the city.

On 3 March 1987, the Birnies appeared in court. They were both charged with four counts of murder and numerous
connected offences. They pleaded guilty and were both sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 20 years before parole. In relation to David Birnie, the judge expressed a hope that he would never be released from prison. That, however, may now not be the case with new challenges to life sentences under the Human Rights Act 1998.

David Birnie committed suicide at on 7 October 2005. He was found hanged in his cell. He had been due to appear in court the following day, charged with the rape of a fellow inmate.

At the time of writing, Catherine Birnie remains imprisoned in Bandyup Women’s Prison. Her request to attend David’s funeral was denied. She applied in 2007 but this was rejected. The Attorney General of Western Australia at the time, Jim McGinty, was against her ever being released.

Her case was due for review in January 2010, but on 14 March 2009, Christian Porter, the new Western Australian Attorney-General, revoked her non-parole period. She became only the third Australian woman to have her papers marked ‘never to be released’. She appealed against this decision in 2010 but Porter rejected the appeal.

William MacDonald was born Allan Ginsberg, in Liverpool, England, in 1924. At the age of 19, he joined the army, where he was raped in an air-raid shelter by a corporal who threatened to kill him if he told anyone. When he was discharged from the army in 1947, psychiatrists diagnosed him as schizophrenic and his brother had him committed to a mental asylum in Scotland where he shared cells with raving lunatics and received shock treatment every day. After six months, his mother had him released and took him home. As he grew older, he became what was termed a ‘practising’ homosexual, openly soliciting men in public toilets and bars. He emigrated to Canada in 1949 and then to Australia in 1955, where he decided to start a new life, changing his name to William MacDonald.

MacDonald’s career as a murderer began in Brisbane in 1960 when he befriended Amos Hurst, 55. They started drinking together and then went back to Hurst’s hotel room, where they sat on the bed and drank more beer. Hurst was almost unconscious when MacDonald strangled him. During the strangulation, blood spurted from his mouth all over MacDonald’s hands. MacDonald punched him in the face and Hurst fell to the floor dead. MacDonald then calmly undressed Hurst and put him into bed. He washed the blood from his hands and arms and left. In the cold light of the day, realising what he had done, MacDonald feared arrest. When no police called on him, he began to relax and his luck held. While scouring a local paper five days later, he saw Hurst’s name in the obituary column. It said he had died suddenly of a heart attack. What the papers didn’t say was that while Amos Hurst’s post mortem showed that he had died of a heart attack, it also revealed that the severe bruising on his neck suggested the possibility of death by strangulation; however, under the circumstances this could have been bruising from a fight or some other drunken misadventure. The case was closed.

MacDonald moved to Sydney in 1961 and continued to solicit men in toilets and bars. On 4 June 1961, McDonald met a homeless man, Albert Greenfield. They walked to a local swimming baths where they sat and talked. MacDonald’s urge to kill Alfred Greenfield had been growing, but he controlled his urge until Greenfield had drunk all his beer and fallen asleep on the grass. MacDonald removed a knife from its sheath as he knelt over the sleeping Greenfield. He brought it down swiftly and buried the blade deep in his victim’s neck. He then repeatedly stabbed Greenfield. The ferocity of the attack severed the arteries in Greenfield’s neck. Blood was everywhere, but MacDonald had come prepared. He had brought a light plastic raincoat in his bag and had put it on before he attacked the unsuspecting Greenfield. MacDonald removed Greenfield’s trousers and underpants, slicing the
testicles and penis off at the scrotum with his knife. On leaving the scene, MacDonald stopped along the way and washed his hands and face under a tap. On the way home, he threw Greenfield’s genitals into the harbour.

On Saturday, 21 November 1961, MacDonald purchased a bigger knife with a 6in blade. The urge to kill had again manifested itself. That night, MacDonald saw Ernest William Cobbin, 41, staggering towards him under the influence of drink. On the pretext of giving him more drink, MacDonald lured Cobbin to a nearby park where they sat in the public toilets and drank beer. MacDonald openly put on a raincoat from his bag and then took out the knife and thrust it into Cobbin’s throat, severing his jugular vein. MacDonald inflicted several more cuts to the throat, which caused blood to spurt all over MacDonald’s arms, face and raincoat. Despite his severe injuries, Cobbin tried to defend himself, but McDonald continued with his frenzied attack. MacDonald pulled Cobbin’s trousers and underpants down, lifted his penis and testicles, sliced them off with his knife and put them in a plastic bag he had brought with him. When he had finished, he calmly took off his raincoat, wrapped his knife and the plastic bag in it, put them in his bag and walked out of the toilet, again stopping along the way to wash his hands under a tap.

On returning home, MacDonald washed the bloody contents of the plastic bag in warm water, put them in a clean plastic bag and took them to bed with him. The following day, he wrapped the plastic bag and its grisly contents, the knife and a brick in newspaper, tied them with string and threw them from the Sydney Harbour Bridge into the deepest part of the harbour. This time, there would be no evidence left lying around for the police to find.

On 31 March 1962, MacDonald claimed his fourth victim. That morning, he purchased another long-bladed sheath knife and packed it in his bag with his raincoat and a plastic bag. At 10pm, he came upon Frank McLean, who was very drunk and
making his way along the road. MacDonald suggested they went somewhere quiet for a drink. As they turned a corner MacDonald attacked McLean, stabbing him in the throat. McLean attempted to defend himself but MacDonald continued to stab him repeatedly in the face. McLean fell to the ground and MacDonald took advantage of the situation, jumping on him and continuing his frenzied attack with the knife. He stabbed McLean in the head, neck, throat, face and chest until he was dead. Saturated in Frank McLean’s blood, MacDonald dragged the body a few feet further into the lane, lowered his victim’s trousers and proceeded to cut off McLean’s genitals and put them in a plastic bag. On returning home, he washed the contents of the plastic bag in the sink and put them in a clean plastic bag. In the morning, he threw the incriminating evidence off Sydney Harbour Bridge. When he was found, Frank McLean was still alive. Unfortunately, he died a short time later from his wounds and without being able to give a description of his attacker to the police. By now, the investigating officers were of the belief that the murderer might be specifically targeting homosexuals.

In November 1962, MacDonald, using the name Allan Brennan, acquired a shop premises and for a time ran the small shop on his own. However, it wasn’t long before he killed again. One night, MacDonald went to a bar in search of a potential victim. Here, he met 42-year-old James Hackett, a petty thief and down-and-out. MacDonald took Hackett back to his shop and they continued drinking until Hackett passed out on the floor. MacDonald pulled out a long knife and went to stab Hackett in the throat with the knife but it went straight through Hackett’s neck. Hackett woke up and attempted to ward off further blows with his arms and hands. As he did this, MacDonald was cut with his own knife. This enraged MacDonald further and he unleashed a volley of blows with the knife, eventually killing Hackett with a wound to the heart. Bleeding profusely, MacDonald bandaged his hand and set about removing Hackett’s genitals, but the knife was now blunt and bent from the
ferocity of the attack. Too exhausted to go and get another one, he sat covered from head to foot in Hackett’s blood, hacking away at Hackett’s scrotum with the blunt and bent blade. He stabbed the penis several times and made some cuts around the testicles before finally giving up and falling asleep where he sat.

The following morning, MacDonald found himself covered in dry, congealed blood. He was still lying next to his victim. MacDonald was concerned that blood had seeped through the floorboards and dripped down onto the counters of his shop below. He cleaned himself up and went to the hospital, where he had some stitches put in his hand. It took MacDonald the whole day to clean up. The huge pools of blood on the lino couldn’t be removed so he had to take all the flooring up, cutting it into smaller pieces and putting it in the dustbin. He also removed Hackett’s blood-soaked clothes, for some reason leaving only the socks. He managed finally to drag the body down as far as the foundations. There he left it, together with Hackett’s clothing. By now, he was starting to become agitated and panicky, realising the full horror of what he had done. He had only been able to remove some of the bloodstains and there was still blood all over the floorboards.