Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - "The Granny Killer" John Wayne Glover Pt. 2

Episode Date: August 15, 2022

Throughout 1989 and 1990, elderly women in Sydney were being preyed upon. But because investigators were wrongly looking for a young man, John Wayne Glover was free to kill without suspicion. Until one day, a simple mistake led police right to him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this episode, listener discretion is advised. This episode contains discussion of assault, sexual assault, suicide, and murder. Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13. It was just before 9 p.m. on June 3, 1967, when Elsie Boys was found. The 68-year-old's body lay in a public bathroom at the corner of a park in the suburb of St. Kilda East. Whoever killed the mother of two, bashed and stretched. strangled her, then left her to die in the creeping cold of the Melbourne winter. Elsie's murder remains unsolved to this day. So why are we discussing it here 65 years later?

The answer to that question is the subject of today's episode, John Wayne Glover. Before we finish his story, it's important to keep in mind that we might not have all the pieces of the puzzle. Many people believe that Elsie Boys was Glover's first victim, just months after he arrived in Australia. and their reasons are compelling. Not only was Elsie beaten and then strangled, as became Glover's trademark, the crime scene bore eerie similarities to others we'll discuss in this episode.

Whoever killed Elsie pulled her dress up around her waist before they left. Then they removed her red shoes and placed them neatly beside her body. Those same hallmarks baffled investigators throughout Glover's final crime spree over 30 years later, and in the decade since he was unmasked,

people have asked, was John Wayne Glover, Australia's worst serial killer? And if he was, just how many people did he actually kill? Hi, I'm Greg Paulson. This is serial killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're finishing our series on the life and crimes of John Wayne Glover, Australia's so-called Granny Killer. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. Last time, we took you through Glover's early years in England and his complex relationship with his mother.

Then we followed him to Australia, whereas petty crimes turned increasingly violent, with a disturbing focus on older women. Today we'll take a close look at the murder spree that had Sydney Ciders on edge throughout 1980. and 1990, and sent investigators looking for answers in all the wrong places. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Bonnie and Clyde, the lonely hearts killers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. These are infamous criminal duels. But you don't need to break any laws to find your perfect business partner because you have Shopify.

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Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. March 1st, 1989, started up peacefully enough in the middle-class suburb of Mossman. But a little after 4 p.m., two young boys found Gwendolyn Mitchell Hill lying face down just outside the Camellia Gardens apartment building. The 84-year-old was covered in blood, with more of it pooling underneath her,

but she was still alive just when, paramedics arrived on the scene, they remarked that it didn't look like Gwendolyn had simply taken a fall, as older people are likely to do. There was too much blood, and she was too disoriented. It was also odd that her shoes had been placed neatly beside her, and her wallet was missing from her handbag. But there was little time to puzzle out exactly what had happened when a woman was in need of medical attention, so the paramedics rushed Gwendolyn to the hospital, prepared to fill police in on their suspicions later. However, while surgeons worked to save Gwendolyn's life, her neighbors got to work cleaning up the front of Camellia Gardens. They thoughtfully washed away the blood from the concrete, eliminating any physical evidence there might have been at the crime scene, because the paramedics were right.

Gwendolyn Mitchell Hill hadn't fallen down. She'd been brutally beaten, and when she died on the operating table, it became murder. During the autopsy, the forensic pathologist noted the viciousness of the attack and puzzled over what kind of a blunt weapon caused Gwendolyn's injuries. It seemed like a hammer, except there was no puncture to suggest the ball or claw end of the tool were what caused the damage. So the doctor just noted it was likely a wood or metal instrument. That detail plays a role in this story, so keep it in the back of your mind. For now, though, we'll remind you that Gwendolyn's attacker did use a hammer, but he purposely struck her with the flat side of the hammerhead to avoid a lot of blood splatter.

The murder made a small splash in local newspapers, but an article painted the crime as evidence of rising violence in Sydney, which one expert speculated was because of spiking heroin use in the city. But heroin was not to blame for the death of Gwendolyn Mitchell Hill. John Wayne Glover was, and the 56-year-old was just getting started. While police floundered for answers, he set out to indulge his violent impulses again. On the afternoon of May 9th, Glover noticed Lady Frieda Ashton

walking along military road in Mossman. Something about the 84-year-old caught his eye. Perhaps it was her red raincoat. He got out of his car and followed her to her apartment on nearby Ragland Street. Glover waited until Lady Ashton opened the door to her building. Then he shadowed her into a utility room where he tackled her to the ground.

Without a hammer this time, he resorted to beating the widow's head against the concrete floor until she lost consciousness. After that, he removed Lady Ashton's panty hose and strangled her to death, nodding the fabric so tightly around her neck, but it bit into her fragile skin. Once she was dead, Glover took his victim's black velvet pumps and placed them neatly near her feet with her walking stick. Then he grabbed her purse and went out the way he came, leaving Lady Ashton in a pool of of her own blood. When neighbors discovered her lifeless form a little later, they called doctors and the police.

There was no mistaking this crime for a fall. It was clearly murder. It was also clear to authorities that whoever killed Lady Ashton was the same killer responsible for Gwendolyn Mitchell Hill two months earlier. The first indicator was the curious placement of the shoes. Then there was her autopsy. Like Gwendolyn, Lady Ashton's body was littered with bruising from the attack, and her killer had beaten her about the head. News of the second murder made a bigger splash than Gland's had. Part of that was due to the victim. Lady Ashton's late husband was a famous landscape painter, attaching a certain level of celebrity to her name. But it was also the second murder of its kind in the area.

Speaking with the Sydney Morning Herald, a local detective warned women in the area to travel in groups whenever possible. He said, we don't wish to alarm the the community, but they must be aware that we do have a madman out there. Unfortunately, they had no real idea who that so-called madman really was. Based on reports of some suspicious activities in the area, authorities announced that they wanted to speak with a slim, blonde man in his early 20s. After that, tips flooded in about young men people had noticed around Mossman. But of course, none of them were really about the killer.

It seemed like one woman might have actually had a close call, though. A 95-year-old Mossman local told authorities that a man had offered her a ride from the library in mid-May. He looked around 50 and was well-groomed and dressed. He also seemed friendly enough, so when he asked to see her retirement village unit, the woman invited him in. But once they got inside, he put his arms around her waist and rubbed her breasts. Despite the disturbing nature of the assault, it seems that police made little headway investigating the incident. Perhaps they didn't think that a middle-aged groper could possibly be related to more bloody crimes. Instead, authorities launched a large-scale canvas of the area.

Fifty officers sit 3,000 homes over three days, but finished with little to show for their efforts. With that initiative abust, detectives turned to Dr. Rod Milton, a leading forensic psychiatrist. They asked him to compile a criminal profile of their killer in the hopes that it could narrow down the scope of their search. Despite having never created one before, Milton was up for the challenge. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please keep in mind that Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist, but we've done a lot of research while we put this episode together. Thanks, Greg.

In 1989, criminal profiling was still a fairly new concept, and though it's proved to be a useful tool since its inception, it's far from an exact science. In this instance, Dr. Milton assesses, the details of the two murders and suggested that the killer was a young man, possibly even a high school student, from a well-off family, given that he left both women still wearing expensive jewelry. He guessed that the offender had a military father because of the quote-unquote priciness of how he placed his victim's shoes. A domineering father might also have explained the explosive

violence of the assaults, which Milton believed might reflect a hatred of an older relative. Summarizing his thoughts, the psychiatrist noted that the killer's actions reminded him of infamous serial killer Ed Kemper, who had a fraught relationship with his mother. In essence, Milton got almost nothing right in that initial profile, other than the killer's general animosity towards older women. Last time, we detailed Glover's relationship with his mother, which soured as he got older. He also butted heads with his mother-in-law for years, until she moved into a nursing home. Ever since then, Glover had been quietly sneaking around similar facilities, assaulting women, then disappearing. And that's just what he was doing while police hunted for a disgruntled teen killer who didn't exist. In June and July of 89, several patients reported that a man-matching Glover's description touched them inappropriately.

But though staff were often quick to respond, no one had caught him in the act. Despite the obvious sexual nature of the assaults, they were markedly. less violent than we know Glover could be. Perhaps that was because he recognized the dangers of taking things too far in a building full of people. However, just outside those nursing homes, Glover felt comfortable enough to do as he pleased. He proved that on October 18th, when he brutally attacked Doris Cox at the Garrison Retirement Village in Mossman. He pretended to kindly escort the woman towards the building, then bashed your head against a brick wall. With his victim on the ground, Glover searched Doris's bag for

for cash, but when he didn't find any, he turned and walked away. A short time later, two employees from a nearby retirement facility found the 86-year-old collapsed in some bushes, bloody and beaten. Thinking that she just had a nasty fall, they took her back to the garrison. By the time doctors arrived, she was vomiting blood. So they rushed her to the hospital. Like with Gwendolyn Mitchell Hill, well-meaning onlookers washed away the blood from where Doris was found, so by the time anyone realized that she hadn't just fallen, there was little left for police to inspect. Doris herself wasn't helpful either. Though she survived the attack, she didn't remember anything about what happened. She had Alzheimer's and refused to believe that she was even

injured. She was so distressed that even her own bruised and swollen reflection didn't jog her memory. Still, detectives did what they could to investigate the attack. The severity of Doris's injuries reminded them of the murders from earlier that year, and they brought in a medical examiner to take a closer look. The doctor noted peculiar Y-shaped marks on Doris that matched those on Gwendolyn's head. He suggested they were probably made by the same blunt object, although it still wasn't clear what.

On that point, however, investigators thought they might have a lead. A local woman had noticed a teenage boy on a skateboard near the nursing home around the time Doris was attacked. When she heard about what happened, she called the police to tell them maybe it was him. The kid had looked like he was in a hurry, and in the woman's mind, it looked like he hadn't cared about

how many elderly residents were in the area, given how fast he was going. Hearing the story, the doctor agreed that the Y-shaped marks could have been made by a skateboard, though it was far from a certainty. It wasn't much, but it was the best lead they had so far, and the idea of a teenage killer

matched the profile from Dr. Milton. The police made a sketch of the skateboarder and sent it out to local media, they were ready to catch their killer and bring the whole story to a close. But they had no idea just how far from the end they really were. Coming up, John Wayne Glover kills with impunity,

sending waves of fear radiating across Sydney. Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers, the creator and host of the True Crime Podcast, Crime Junkie, and you might remember me from a few podcast cast shows like supernatural, international infamy, or very presidential. I'm popping in to tell you about my new book that I think all of you true crime fans will not be able to put down. It's called All Good People Here, and it's officially out right now. It's a mystery about a journalist who returns to her small hometown and becomes obsessed with trying to solve a kidnapping that she thinks

could be linked to a decades-old unsolved murder. It is full of twists and turns, and will leave you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. Grab your copy of all good people here now, wherever books are sold. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptitide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity, or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. Zepbound is approved. as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection. Zephound contains terseptide

and should not be used with other terseptide containing products or any GLP1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if Zepound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop Zepbound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia

if you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. Taking Zep bound with a sulfonel urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-99-9 or visit zepbounds.lily.com. Now back to the story. With a teenage boy on a skateboard, now their only real suspect, police in Sydney's North Shore put boots on the pavement, hoping to find their killer. In particular, they started making inquiries at Mossman High School, which ruffled plenty of feathers. Parents in the affluent suburb didn't much like the cops suspecting their kids of murder. News that investigators were searching in entirely the

wrong place, wouldn't have bothered John Glover, though. Despite the growing fervor about his crimes, the 56-year-old pie salesman was in the clear, as long as everyone was looking for a much younger culprit. So less than a month after he attacked Doris Cox outside her Mossman nursing home, Glover went out looking for his next victim. November 2nd, 1989 was a Thursday, and Glover, was in Lane Cove for work. The suburb wasn't all that different from Osman, which might be why he felt so comfortable there, secure in the knowledge he could get away with murder. Around 2.30 that afternoon, he noticed 78-year-old Dorothy Beanke, making her way home from the grocery store. Seizing his chance to do a good deed, Glover jumped out of his car and insisted on helping Dorothy carry her

heavy bags. Glover was well-dressed, and his round face looked kind. So despite some hesitation, She let him take her parcels and let him down the quiet laneway to her home. Once they got to her front door, Glover moved in close, chatting amiably with the widow. He put her groceries down, then turned and walked away. Something about Dorothy had put him in a good mood, but it wasn't to last. A little later that same day, he watched another woman struggling with her shopping. Margaret Powood was 85 and bore a striking resemblance to Glover's late mother, Frida. Maybe that familiarity was what frustrated him, moved him to grab his hammer, and tuck it into his trousers.

He got out of his car, his eyes locked on Margaret. But unlike before, he didn't offer to help carry her bags. He just followed her up the street and down a quiet laneway. No one was in their front yard to see Glover get closer and closer to Margaret. No one was watching through their windows when he raised his hammer and brought it crashing down onto her head. No one saw her fall to the ground, saw Glover hit her again. With Margaret sprawled before him, Glover leaned down and tugged at her dress, exposing her left shoulder and breast. But he didn't have time to do more than that before he realized just how exposed he was.

Leaving her shoes on her feet, he grabbed her handbag and headed back to his car. Despite his momentary panic about people seeing him, Glover remained eerily calm for the rest of the day. He rifled through Margaret's purse, taking out $400, then discarding the brown leather handbag. He brought the money to the RSS where he casually fed it into the slot machines, a little relaxation time before he headed home to his wife and daughters. Meanwhile, Margaret's neighbors found her unmoving form in the street. They called for help, but there was nothing anyone could do except hold her hand as she died. Like many of Glover's earlier victims, people assumed Margaret had fallen down.

It was a lot of blood for a fall, but it seemed that even then, no one suspected foul play. So her distraught friends hosed and scrubbed away the blood. They bundled up her smashed glasses and a single earring and threw them away. By the time the police arrived to inspect the scene that evening, it was almost like nothing had happened in that quiet laneway. Still, it was clear to investigators that they were dealing with the same culprit. However, Lane Cove was about five miles away from where Glover had struck recently, which was a considerable distance for a teenager to cover, with or without a skateboard.

Suddenly, one of the only real theories about who was behind the attacks seemed shaky at best. So, eager to find out if anyone had seen anything suspicious, detectives started canvassing the neighborhood. When they knocked on Dorothy Beanke's door, she told them all about the man who'd carried her groceries home for her, but when they asked her to describe him, she refused. Gentlemen like him were few and far between, she thought. thought, and didn't deserve to be dragged into a police investigation.

However, Dorothy wasn't the only one who'd seen Glover that day. A local woman noticed him near the laneway around the time of Margaret's murder. She'd never seen him in the area before and made a mental note of his appearance. Later, when police came asking questions, she told them all about the clean-cut mystery man with gray hair. Based on everything they'd learned, it seemed like this middle-aged man might be a solid new lead. But before they could follow up on it, news of the latest murder broke across Sydney, making headlines and setting chins wagging about the terrifying reality of an active serial

killer in the city. With more eyes on the murders, Sydney's police stepped up their efforts. They dispatched officers to check local dry cleaners for any clothes coming in with bloodstains. Their search was fruitless. Perhaps because their killer wasn't concerned with the state of his clothes. He was fixated on his next kill. About 24 hours after he killed Margaret Paoud, Glover was at a retirement village in Bellrose, about seven miles from his home in Mossman. He paid a quick visit to the kitchens where he failed to make a sale, then went on his way. Heading back to his car, Glover spotted 81-year-old Olive Cleveland, sitting alone outside the building. With a quick check to make sure no one was around, he struck her on the head. Then he pulled off her stockings and

strangled her with them, tying a bow so tightly around her neck that it cut into her skin. With Olive's lifeless form before him in a growing pool of blood, Glover walked calmly back to his car and headed for home. He was calling it a day. Even with after-school traffic, Glover was probably already home by the time people found Olive an hour and a half later. Not seeing the flesh-colored stockings at first, it was once again assumed she'd fallen. So they brought her body inside and washed away the blood, leaving nothing for police to inspect at the scene. When police released the news of yet another murder, some witnesses reported seeing a scruffy young man carrying a piece of timber in the area that day. It was another red herring,

something that sent investigators chasing their tails. As newspapers ran stories about the specter they called the Granny Killer, officials returned to the suspect profile Dr. Rod Milton drafted after the second murder, the one that pointed to a young culprit. It so neatly matched the description of a random youth carrying a blunt object, but until they made it to an undisturbed crime scene, there was little else they could work with. Of course, they didn't just sit on their hands. Public outcries forced local authorities to set up an official task force. 35 detectives were assigned to the team, and all leave was canceled.

Meanwhile, Sydney's older residents were in a panic. Women were scared to go out in public, so police visited nursing homes and retirement communities. in retirement communities and increased patrols and local shopping centers, in the hopes that their visible presence would calm rising fears. It didn't do much to help, and with every passing day, the public got more and more desperate for answers. Journalists took to door knocking in the streets where the women were killed and hounding the residents of the nursing homes. Things looked so dire that the government offered

a $200,000 reward for any information leading to the killer's arrest. But no matter how many letters and phone calls came in, investigators were left scratching their heads. Meanwhile, Sydney Siders were hungry for bloody justice. When interviewed about the slings, a local woman said, I think it's a wicked thing. If I caught him, I'd cut his throat myself. Though it seems extreme, the woman's feelings weren't unique at the time. People were angry at the thought of someone targeting vulnerable older women. There was a collective urge to retaliate in some way. In nature, we often see herds closing ranks to protect weaker members from predators. And it's possible that this outrage was an expression of that instinct.

It's also possible that people simply wanted vengeance for a morally reprehensible crime. But why does that instinct feel so strong and occasionally violent? Well, in their article, the psychology of compensatory and retributive justice, social psychologist John Darley and Thane Pittman point out that our emotions play a role. They write, intentional wrongdoing might invoke anger, strongly connected with the retributive impulse resulting from violation of personal autonomy. In other words, people see an elderly person taken advantage of and anger flares up. That strong feeling begets a desire to see retributive justice and maybe even drive someone to want to exact it with their own hands. Of course, to punish him, they'd have to catch the granny killer first.

and so far he'd been lucky. But on November 23rd, another elderly woman caught Glover's eye as he sat in the Buena Vista Hotel, nursing and after-work beer. When 93-year-old Muriel Falconer walked past the hotel, he guessed she was headed home for the evening. Abandoning his drink, Glover hustled to his car and grabbed his hammer and a pair of gardening gloves. He tucked the tool inside his shirt as he caught up to Muriel,

then slipped the gloves on while falling into step behind her. He tailed the grandmother all the way to her red brick house and watched her go through the black iron gate. The garden beyond was screened by a tall hedge and a low brick wall, offering privacy from the busy street. Unfortunately, it also formed a welcome shield for Glover. When Muriel opened her front door and carried her lone shopping bag inside, he made his move. It only took a few quick steps for him to cross the garden and follow her inside. Then he struck her with the flat side of his hammer. Once her frail body crumpled to the ground, he pulled off her stockings and belt to fashion a ligature.

He wrapped it around her neck and nodded it tightly. With the flash of violence over, he yanked her brown striped dress up over her head, leaving her exposed to whoever came through the front door. Then his final flourish. He placed Muriel's shoes neatly beside the table. After that, Glover indulged his curiosity. So many of his murders were out in the open, but he decided that he decided that he was he could risk a few minutes to explore this Federation-style home with its abundant privacy.

He stepped over Muriel's body, walking down the hallway with its antique furniture and trinkets. He swiped about $100 from a cupboard before he eventually turned to leave. On his way out, he emptied Muriel's plastic shopping bag onto the ground next to her, then placed his bloody hammer and gloves inside. It would make for a much less conspicuous walk back to his car. With one final look around, Glover pulled the front door closed behind him and headed for home. Coming up, investigators finally catch a break and race to catch the granny killer before he strikes again. Want to support your gut health? Take Activia's gut health challenge by enjoying two Activia yogurt today for two weeks and see if you feel a difference. With billions of

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Something was wrong in Muriel Falconer's home. Her neighbors were sure of it. The 93-year-old usually threw open her back door around 9.30 each morning to feed the birds who visited her garden. But she didn't emerge on the morning of November 24, 1989. She also hadn't paid. picked up her mail from the day before, which wasn't like Muriel. And when Meals on Wheels stopped by that afternoon, there was no answer. As the day wore on, Maggie Hughes got more and more worried in the house next door. She had a spare key to Muriel's place and often called throughout the day to check in on her. But she also knew that the news about the recent murders in the area had frightened her friend.

It was enough to frighten anyone, but reports about the Granny killer had especially spooked Muriel. So when Maggie hadn't heard anything from Muriel by the late afternoon, she decided it was time to make sure everything was all right. Before she even set foot inside the house, Maggie knew she'd find something awful inside, because Muriel's keys dangled in the closed front door. But whatever she expected, it was so much worse. She almost fell over Muriel's body as soon as she stepped into the hallway,

and it was immediately clear that this wasn't to fall. Blood had splattered as high as, six feet up the wall and soaked into the Persian rug. Maggie was a nurse and knew that no fall could cause that much of a mess. Correctly assuming that the granny killer was to blame, Maggie left Muriel's body as it was, and called first a doctor, then the Mossman police. While they waited, Maggie and the doctor noticed bloody footprints in the carpet. She pointed them out to investigators as soon as they arrived, and they assured her that they were making a plaster cast of the blood-soaked imprint. Thanks to Maggie's instincts, the cottage was the best crime scene investigators had found yet.

Not only were there clear blood patterns to examine, they also found several gray hairs in Muriel's hand. A neighbor described seeing a gray-haired man near Muriel's house the day she was murdered, but because the task force still believed they were chasing a young killer, they were more interested in hearing about the teenager she'd also seen that day. However, just days later, whatever confidence investigators had about their suspect profile, was shaken. They'd analyzed the shoe print from Muriel's house and found that although it didn't match any models manufactured in Australia, it was almost certainly not worn by a teenager. The tread made it clear. No school kid would wear a shoe like this. At the youngest, their killer was in their

20s or 30s, perhaps even older. After that revelation, Dr. Rod Milton revised his suspect profile a little, but the changes weren't significant. One of the big additions was a guess that the suspect might attempt suicide unless he was caught. However, he did note that it was entirely possible that the killer didn't match the profile at all. Like we pointed out before, criminal profiling isn't an exact science. And although he didn't nail it this time, Dr. Milton later accurately profiled Ivan Millat,

who was responsible for Australia's backpacker murders. So he definitely knew his stuff. But in this case, the profile was far off the mark. And as tips stacked up in the days after Muriel Falconer's murder, the list of potential suspects grew to over 700. Most were easily ruled out, but it was a time-consuming process. One made all the more frustrating by the knowledge that the killer might strike again at any time. As November bled into December, it felt like they were spinning their wheels. So with no new evidence coming in, Detective Sergeant Paul Tuxford went back over the intel from the previous crimes.

noticing a tidbit about the gray-haired man near Muriel's house, he went to follow it up. The witness said that the man had looked unobtrusive, like he belonged. His gray hair was thick, and he was neat and tidy in a gray suit. The description of Glover aligned with recent police reports from the area, a man following an elderly woman home from the Buena Vista Hotel, another about a man trying to snatch an older woman's purse on military road, and an attack on an 81-year-old woman outside a Lindfield. nursing home. Then Detective Sergeant Tuxford found the report from Margaret Todd Hunter,

who Glover assaulted in the street. At the time, the 84-year-old gave police a solid description of him, but the investigation went nowhere. Now they realized she might have survived an encounter with the Granny Killer. Members of the task force reached out to Margaret, who worked with an artist to create a sketch. The picture was ready just before Christmas that year, making for a festive gift at police stations across Sydney's North Shore. Meanwhile, John Glover enjoyed a typically low-key holiday with his family, full of lukewarm sentiments and predictable gifts. Had he known that a sketch of him was making the rounds in connection to the granny killer murders,

he might have panicked or decided to lay low for a while. As it was, he did not know about the sketch and welcomed the new year in the only way he knew how. On January 11, 1990, Glover was visiting Greenwich Hospital around lunchtime, ostensibly for work, but that wasn't his only focus that day. Once he was done visiting the kitchen to try and sell some meat pies, he stopped by the palliative care ward, where he sexually assaulted a woman in her bed. After Glover left, the woman told hospital staff what had happened, and they called the police. Seemingly, the first time his nursing home assaults were officially reported.

When Constable Pam Whitaker arrived at the hospital to follow up, they got Glover's name from a list of people who visited the hospital's catering office that day. Despite the large-scale investigation entered the Granny Killer case, Whitaker didn't connect the assault with the more high-profile crimes. So when she called Glover at home to ask him some questions, it was a fairly casual conversation. At least it seemed that way from her perspective. But Glover was freaked.

Trying to stay calm he admitted to being at the hospital, but said he didn't know anything about an indecent assault. He told the constable that he couldn't come down to the station that day, then promised he'd be there the next evening. But it was a promise he had no intention of keeping. On January 13th, the 58-year-old attempted suicide. But his wife Gay found him before it was too late and called for help. At a rambling letter to his family, Glover wrote the phrases,

No More Grannies, and Essie started it, which seemed like an admission of guilt and a... desire to blame his late mother-in-law for his crimes. To be fair, though, we can see that because we have the benefit of hindsight. At the time, no one thought much of the note. When he woke up, Glover convinced his family and doctors that his suicide attempt was work-related. And everyone accepted that, even Constable Whitaker, who came to the hospital to finish her investigation. Still, Whitaker took a photo of Glover to show the woman at the hospital. He refused to look at the camera, but it didn't make a difference. The hospital staff picked him out of a lineup right away,

as did the woman he assaulted. Despite the positive ID, Whitaker didn't take any further action just then. She had some time off approaching, then was due to start her detective training. Based on what his doctors told her, Glover was going to remain in the hospital for another few weeks, so there didn't seem to be any urgency to the case. When Glover was released from the hospital three weeks later, he might have felt like he was in the clear. But the wheels of justice were just to just turning very slowly. That same weekend, Sergeant Whitaker finally sent her file on Glover and the sexual assault case over to the Granny Killer Task Force. The lead detectives took one look at the photo of Glover in his hospital bed and were sure he was their guy. He perfectly matched the

descriptions of the gray-haired man people had seen at several of the crime scenes and looked a lot like the sketch of the guy who attacked Margaret Todd Hunter, but it wasn't enough to make an arrest, not for the murders at least. Hoping they'd find something on him, the task force put Glover under 24-hour surveillance while they spoke to witnesses and survivors. Staff at several nursing homes and hospitals remembered Glover, or someone who looked like him, assaulting their patients. Records also placed him at the nursing home where Olive Cleveland was murdered the previous November.

After that, Margaret positively IDed Glover based on his photo. By then, there was no doubt in anyone's mind. And with Margaret's statement, they had enough to check. charged Glover with assault, but they still didn't have any conclusive evidence tying him to the murders, which they were determined to get him for. So they decided to wait a little longer. And the consequences were disastrous. On March 15th, a member of the task force visited the James Milsen nursing home in Kiribili to ask if they'd had any instances of indecent assaults on residence. According to authors Lindsay Simpson and Sandra Harvey, the receptionist asked if the questions had

anything to do with John Glover. Surprise, the officer said that Glover was the man they were looking into. What the officer hadn't known was that the receptionist was gay Glover, John's wife. She didn't waste any time telling her husband what she knew that night. Meanwhile, the task force scrambled into action, knowing that their prime suspect might take drastic action at any moment. Ready or not, they were in the end game now. The task force kept up their surveillance, and the following Monday, March 19th, they watched him leave the house and drive to a liquor store. From there,

they tailed him to a house on Pindari Avenue, not too far from his own place. When he arrived around 1030, Glover picked up his briefcase and walked to the front door. It was Joan Sinclair's house. They'd met over a year earlier at the RSL while playing the slot machines and had been having an affair ever since. Glover thought no one knew about her, that no one saw. That was partly true. because although the police were watching him, they didn't realize whose house it was they were parked outside. They assumed Glover would emerge before long, that perhaps he was there to see his solicitor

to discuss his recent legal troubles. It was a deadly miscalculation. Inside the quiet home, Glover greeted Joan, who was still getting ready for the lunch date he'd promised her. But when she had her back turned, Glover pulled his hammer out of the briefcase and hit the 60-year-old on the head. He hit her again and she went down.

Then he just had to finish what he started. Like so many of the others, Glover pulled off Jones' panty hose and tied them tightly around her neck. He also removed her underwear and shoes, then placed them neatly at the side of the room. After that, he placed two towels over her head. Perhaps he felt some guilt over killing a woman he knew. With that done, he left Jones' body in the hallway, then went into the bathroom to end it all. Outside, the police had no idea what was going on in the house. The high hedge that was a hallmark of the middle-class suburb screened everything from view.

And so they waited and waited and waited. After five hours had passed, their patience was running thin. So, under the pretense that a neighbor had called to complain about dogs barking, they sent a young constable in to check things out. When there was no answer at the door, she made her way carefully through the back. The constable almost fell over Jones' exposed and bloody body. When backup arrived, they found Glover in the bathroom, clinging to life after another suicide attempt. Despite the fact that he'd clearly murdered Jones & Clair, the police were determined to keep Glover alive.

He had to pay for what he'd done. So they called an ambulance and rushed him to the hospital. After that, things moved as you might expect. After recovering from his second suicide attempt, Glover confessed to his crimes. In total, he was charged with eight assaults, to which he pleaded guilty, and six murders. At trial, he argued that he wasn't responsible. There were two Glovers, you see, one good and one bad. The latter was the one who did murder.

The jury wasn't moved by the flimsy excuse. With everything laid bare, it didn't matter how many versions of him there were. They were all guilty. In November of 1991, a judge sentenced 59-year-old Glover to remain behind bars. for the period of his natural life, which was a relief to his victim's loved ones. In the following years, his wife and daughters changed their surnames. They only visited him in prison a handful of times before stopping altogether. Glover had seen plenty of fresh starts in his life.

Now they deserved a clean break of their own. However, though it might have seemed like Glover's story was over, questions lingered over other crimes he was never charged for. In our last episode, we mentioned several murders close to where Glover lived and worked before his infamous killing spree. Those murders remain unsolved, but there are strong suspicions that Glover is responsible. During his time in prison, Glover seemed to tease authorities when they questioned him about the slayings, but he never gave them anything useful, at least nothing they could charge him with.

If there'd been anything to definitively link Glover to the crimes, he might have gone down in history as Australia's worst serial killer. But without that kind of proof, all anyone can do is wonder. If he did hold the answers, Glover took them to his grave. He died by suicide in 2005, after living to an age he'd long seemed repulsed and aroused by. That complicated relationship with aging is central to Glover's story, and not just because of who his victims were. Yes, Glover prayed on the elderly, which roused.

of fury in the public and a sense of urgency in the authorities. But assumptions about the frailty of people as they get older, blinded investigators on their search. And even when the signs pointed to the granny killer being an older man, they were ignored. Everyone seemed to assume murder was a young man's game. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. We'll be back soon with a brand new story. For more information on John Wayne Glover, amongst the many sources we used, we found

The Killer Next Door, Death in an Australian Suburb by Sandra Harvey and Lindsay Simpson, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Stay safe out there. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Juan Borda, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Nick Johnson,

Trent Williamson and Carly Madden. This episode of serial killers was written by Joel Callan, edited by Abigail Cannon, fact-checked by Kevin Johnson, researched by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood, and produced by Joshua Kern. Serial killers stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up,

getting ready for bed, is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids, The rest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon

Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Do you want to hear something spooky? Some Monster, it reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal. One of the boys started to exhibit demonic possession. Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves. Something very snake-like lifted its head out of the water. Hosted by me, your guide, Derek Hayes.

Somehow I lost eight whole hours. Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.