The Evil Within - A Top Murder Squad Detective Reveals The Chilling True Stories of The World's Most Notorious Killers Read Free Page B

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 theferocity 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.
    He decided to leave the city. He caught a train to Brisbane, where he took up lodgings in a boarding house. He changed his features by dyeing his greying hair black, growing a moustache and assuming the name of Allan MacDonald. Every day, he bought the Sydney newspapers expecting to read of the murder of Hackett and how police were looking for a man named Brennan in connection with the Mutilator Murders.
    Shortly after he left, the police received a complaint of rancid odour emanating from the shop premises. Enquiries revealed that the owner had not been seen since 4 November. They entered the premises and found the naked and butchered Hackett concealed beneath the shop. At the time, the police believed that this victim was the new tenant, Brennan (MacDonald). The press reported that this victim was Allan Brennan (William MacDonald) and, onthat basis, the police enquiry continued. However, that assumption later turned out to be false.
    In April 1963, MacDonald returned to Sydney, a move that was to be his undoing. On 22 April 1963, a former co-worker of MacDonald spoke to him in the street. He told MacDonald about what the papers had reported and that he was supposed to have