William "The Mutilator" Macdonald

The Mutilator Must Kill Again

As the months went by the urge to kill again became overwhelming. On the morning of Saturday, March 31, 1962, William MacDonald purchased another long-bladed sheath knife and packed it in his bag with his raincoat and a plastic bag.

It was raining lightly that night and William MacDonald was wearing his raincoat. At 10 p.m. he left the Oxford Hotel in Darlinghurst and followed Frank Gladstone McLean down Bourke Street and past the Darlinghurst police station. MacDonald struck up a conversation with the drunken McLean and suggested that they turn into Bourke Lane and have a drink.

As they rounded the unlit corner, the Mutilator plunged a knife into McLean's throat. Frank McLean was a tall, thin man, well over six feet and could have made mincemeat of the much smaller MacDonald had he not been so drunk. McLean felt the knife sink deep into his throat and started to resist. The Mutilator stabbed him again in the face and, as McLean fell about trying to protect himself, the Mutilator punched him in the face, forcing him off balance. McLean fell to the ground and the Mutilator was on him. He stabbed McLean about the head, neck, throat, face and chest until he was dead.

Saturated in Frank McLean's blood, the Mutilator dragged the body a few meters further into the lane, lowered his victim's trousers and, in an upward stroke, sliced off Frank McLean's genitals.

For the first time ever the Mutilator was frightened that he had been caught in the act. He had committed a murder only a few yards from busy Bourke Street. As he put the genitals in his plastic bag, he feared that someone may have seen him. He had heard voices and a baby crying as people walked past the entrance to the laneway. In his paranoia he expected a police car to pull up at any minute. But his luck held.

The Mutilator peeked around the laneway and, satisfied that no one was coming, wrapped his knife and his plastic bag in the raincoat, put it in his bag and strolled down Bourke Street. He also took the bottle of sweet sherry that he and McLean had been drinking, as it was covered in fingerprints. He passed several people along Bourke Street, but they paid him no attention.

Back at his room, the Mutilator washed the contents of his plastic bag in the sink and put them in a clean plastic bag. In the morning he threw the incriminating evidence off the Sydney Harbour Bridge.