John Wayne Glover, Sydney's "Granny Killer," Dies by Suicide in His Prison Cell at 72
Glover was serving life with no release for murdering six older women on Sydney's North Shore. The detective who arrested him believed there were more victims.
Published
John Wayne Glover never told police whether he had killed more than the six women he was jailed for. On September 9, 2005, the Sydney "Granny Killer" died in his prison cell, aged 72.
A correctional officer found Glover in his cell at Lithgow Correctional Centre at about 1:25 p.m., and he was pronounced dead despite efforts to help him. A coroner later found that he had taken his own life, that there were no suspicious circumstances and that he had appeared depressed after a recent television program about his crimes. A transfer to the hospital at Long Bay jail had been approved that day, but he had not yet been told.
Glover, a former pie salesman from Mosman who was born in England in 1932, was serving life for murdering six older women on Sydney's North Shore in 1989 and 1990: Gwendolin Mitchelhill, 82; Winifred Ashton, 82; Margaret Pahud, 85; Olive Cleveland, 81; Muriel Falconer, 93; and Joan Sinclair, 60. Police arrested him on March 19, 1990, at the home of Sinclair, his last victim. Sentencing him in 1991, Justice James Wood said, "This is a case where the prisoner will never be released."
Dennis O'Toole, the detective who arrested him, believed Glover was responsible for other unsolved killings and visited him in prison for years, hoping he would confess. Glover never did.
Sources
- Report by the NSW State Coroner into deaths in custody/police operations 2006 (inquest no. 1012 of 2005: John Wayne Glover), NSW State Coroner / NSW Attorney General's Department
- Granny killer found dead in cell, The Sydney Morning Herald (with AAP)
- Granny Killer takes evil secrets to his grave, The Sydney Morning Herald