John Wayne Glover: The Granny Killer

A Serial Killer on the Loose

On October 18 Glover struck again, and this time with a ferocity that would convince police that their worst nightmare was a reality — that the attacks were the work of one man. But in what would later prove to be a cruel irony, this assault would start them looking for the wrong "type" of offender.

In the mid-afternoon of October 18, Glover struck up a conversation with 86-year-old Mrs Doris Cox as she slowly made her way home along Spit Road, Mosman. He walked with her into the secluded stairwell of her retirement village then he attacked her from behind using his entire body-weight to smash her face into a brick wall. She collapsed at his feet. After finding nothing that he wanted in her handbag, Glover left her for dead and went home.

Mrs Cox, an Alzheimer's victim, somehow survived the attack. But she was hazy about the description of her attacker even though she saw him while he walked with her. In her understandably confused state, she thought that her attacker was a younger man and assisted the police as best as she could in preparing an identikit drawing. At last the police believed they had a lead.

To the head of the task force, Detective Inspector Mike Hagan, the new information made sense. He suspected that the killer was a local because of the close proximity of the killings and muggings. As well, police psychological profiles suggested the killer would most likely be a teenager with a grandmother fixation. And Mrs Cox thought that she had been bashed by a young man.

Mike Hagan now concentrated the task force energies in search of a young local who may be acting strangely or had any possible relationship or connection to the victims. Tragically, this theory was only right to the extent it suggested the killer was a local. It would almost appear that some unknown force was protecting Glover as his next attack would lead police to doubt that the man they sought was even a local.

Mrs Margaret Pahud

The murder of 85-year-old Mrs Margaret Pahud on November 2 was undoubtedly the work of the Granny Killer. She was bashed on the back of the head by a blunt instrument as she made her way home along a laneway off busy Longueville Road, Lane Cove.

Coronial evidence presented at the trial indicated that the attack was over in seconds and from the force of the blows taken by her massively fractured skull, the coroner concluded that it was doubtful that the poor old woman felt a thing. Glover took her handbag, and tucked it inside his shirt with the hammer and calmly left the scene.

There were no known witnesses, although Mrs Pahud's body was found within minutes by a passing schoolgirl who at first thought that it was a bundle of clothing dumped in the laneway. As the police and ambulance sirens wailed their way to the murder scene, Glover examined the contents of Mrs Pahud's purse on the grounds of a nearby golf club where he pocketed $300 and hid the bag in a drain. He then went to the Mosman RSL Club where he drank and gambled with Margaret Pahud's money.

By now police were almost frantic with frustration. This murder was committed about five kilometres from Mosman and their theory about it being a local was losing credibility.

Now they decided they were looking for a teenager who came from just about anywhere. Baffled and no closer to solving the case than they were when it had all started ten months earlier the police intensified their investigations.