William "The Mutilator" Macdonald

Alone with the Mutilator

As the guard left us I realised instantly that I wasn't in any threat of danger and that the little serial killer sitting before me was an articulate, perfectly lucid, candid, well-read and gentle old man. And his candidness overtook the room. He managed a faint smile from time to time as he told us that he loved to read the classics and biographies of famous people of our times and listen to classical music, his favourites being the tenors Mario Lanza and Luciano Pavarotti, and Mozart, Chopin and Liszt, and the musicals of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Bill MacDonald would have looked more at home playing a violin or conducting a symphony orchestra than sitting before us in prison greens and telling us of his unfortunate life.

The Walkman radio he carries everywhere is tuned into a classical FM station. He doesn't have a TV in his cell because he cannot watch colour TV because of his eyes and the jail hospital does not have a black and white set and he cannot afford to buy one.

The $10 a week he gets from the government is spent on a can of Milo and other small grocery luxuries. He never reads a newspaper from one year to the next because he can't afford to buy them. He recalls that some years back the guards gave him the papers to read as a Xmas present.

"I spend almost every waking hour in my cell listening to classical music," he says. "I don't associate with anyone else within the prison system. I never have. I have never had a friend in my life. I keep very much to myself. I prefer it that way."

He went on to tell us that in his 37 years behind bars ours was the third visit he had ever had. The other two were from journalists; Joe Morris in 1963 and Sydney Morning Herald writer Greg Bearup in 1995. He had heard from one of his brothers many years ago but tore the letter up and never heard from him again.

Bill MacDonald is a homosexual who has never had sex with a woman or anyone for that matter for at least 37 years, has never used a telephone in his life, has never driven a car, has never learned how to play cards or chess and never smoked.