John Wayne Glover: The Granny Killer

Face to Face with "The Granny Killer"

Detective Sergeant Miles O'Toole and Detectives Paul Mayger and Paul Jacob noticed the pools of blood almost as soon as they crept in the door. With guns drawn, they tiptoed from room to room, covering each other but careful not to be caught in a crossfire should the madman leap at them with an axe or a shotgun.

They saw a hammer lying in a pool of drying blood on the mat. As they peered further around the doorway, they saw a pair of woman's panties and a man's shirt covered in blood. Then a woman's body came into view. Joan Sinclair's battered head was wrapped in a bundle of blood-soaked towels. She was naked from the waist down and pantyhose were tied around her neck. Her genitals were damaged but Glover would later deny sexually interfering with her.

It was unmistakably the work of the Granny Killer. But where was he? Was he waiting in ambush? Detective Mayger almost breathed a sigh of relief as he found feet sticking out of the end of the bath. An unconscious, naked, grey-haired chubby man was lying in the tub. One wrist was slashed and the air was heavy with the smell of alcohol and vomit. The relieved detectives prayed that he was still alive. Their prayers were answered.

The man in the bath was John Wayne Glover, the Granny Killer. After he recovered in hospital, Glover told police of the final chapter in the Granny Killer murders. Glover had known Joan Sinclair for some time and they were extremely fond of each other in a platonic relationship.

However, after he entered the house on March 19, Glover got his hammer out of his briefcase and bashed Mrs. Sinclair about the head with it. Glover then removed her pantyhose and strangled her with them and with others he found in her bedroom.

This sequence of events completely baffled the police. Murdering Mrs. Sinclair was in many ways out of character with the other murders and bashings.

Glover rolled Mrs. Sinclair's body over on the mat, wrapped four towels around her massive head wound to stem the flow of blood, and then dragged her body across the room, leaving a trail of blood. When he had done that he ran a bath, washed down a handful of Valium with a bottle of Vat 69, slashed his left wrist and lay in the tub to die.

But he didn't die and the police were glad of that. They felt that if the suicide had been successful then there would always be speculation as to whether Glover was the right man. Glover further brushed away their concerns by confessing to everything. Nonetheless he frustrated police and psychiatrists alike with his inability or unwillingness to set out the reasons for his acts.

The question Why? was repeatedly met with the same answer: "I don't know. I just see these ladies and it seems to trigger something. I just have to be violent towards them".