AKA: Alan Ginsburg (birth name) The Sydney Mutilator, The Knick-Knack Man, Sydney's Jack The Ripper, Australias first serial killer, Alan Edward Brennan, David Alan.
Born: 17 June 1924, Liverpool, England.
Death: Natural causes, complications arising from a gastrointestinal obstruction, 12 May 2015 (aged 90)
Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia
Family: Daniel Ginsburg (father), Henrietta Frank (mother), Michael Ginsburg (eldest brother, born 1921), Geoffrey David Ginsburg (youngest brother, born 1927)
Life & Trauma: Ginsburg was born into a wealthy Orthodox Jewish family in England. He was the middle of three boys and attended Newborough Kindergarten. From aged 8 he attended the prestigious Liverpool Institute school. He suffered as a student, distracted by constant headaches and fits of depression. He was frequently bullied and kept to himself. He formed no close relationships with either family or friends and his father publically referred to him as "The Idiot Child."
Behaviour & Emotion: Antisocial, non violent as a child, emotionally immature, secretive, introverted, easily distracted, disconnected, humiliated and un-nurtured by his family. He was a loner his whole life and lived inside his own head.
1942-MacDonald (19) joined the British Army, signing up with the Lancashire Fusiliers in Lanark, Berwick-Upon-Tweed. He is raped in an air raid shelter by his senior officer, 45 year old career soldier, corporal Alexander Rice. With no prior experience of sex, sexual desire or acts of self pleasure, this violent attack would be his introduction to male sexuality. "I believe (this circumstance) changed my life forever....and doomed me to a life of homosexuality."
1947-He was Honourably Discharged.
1948-Attended Rushworth & Dreaper's Tobias Matthay Private College of music, Islington. Learns Piano, cello, organ and violin.
1948- He explored his homosexual urges, approaching men in public bathrooms and hotels. He was discovered by police who informed his brother Geoffrey. He was sent to Crichton Mental Institute at Dumbfries, Scotland and recieved electroconvulsive therapy 5 days a week and was heavily sedated.
1949-Ginsburg leaves UK, for Canada. Within a few weeks he'd spent all his money and was both jobless and homeless. He lived on Salvation Army handouts on the streets of Montreal. He was too ashamed to ask his parents for help. After 12 months of sleeping on park benches and in derelict houses, the Salvation Army contacted his mother.
1950-Henrietta Ginsburg sends her son money and he returns home to the UK.
Alan Ginsburg legally changes his name to William MacDonald and undergoes rhinoplasty surgery. He works 4 years in the family business saving money to leave the UK.
1954-Emigrates to Australia on the ship Orcades.
Murder Timeline: 1961-1962- responsible for the death of one men in Queensland (Brisbane) and four men in New South Wales (Sydney). At least 3 other known victims survived attacks. In 1964 he killed a prison inmate and served time in Morriset Home for the Criminally Insane, then returned to prison in 1980.
Methodology: The urge to commit murder was commanded by incessant voices inside his head saying "Kill, Kill, Kill." The frenzied attacks were fuelled by delusion and performed with maniacal rage. MacDonald believed his heroic mission was to destroy his rapist, Alexander Rice. In each victims face he saw Rice staring back at him."When the corporal attacked me, he took my life away, so I thought I'd destroy his sex the same way."
The first murder takes place in Brisbane. Amos Hurst is strangled. He was the only victim not baring the killers trademark of excessive stab wounds and genital mutilation.
1960-Macdonald moves to Sydney assuming the alias, Allan Brennan. His inner city dwelling allows immediate access to the nocturnal pleasures that keep the beast awake at night. He preys on the lost souls who litter the streets after hours. The homeless vagrants are easy prey, lured by a false companion offering alcohol.
He beats and stabs the men to death, to the point of overkill. He attacks their face, throat and heart with a long blade knife, in excess of 40 times. The final act of mutilation becomes the killers trademark: The complete removal of the dead man's genitals.
June 4, 1961- Constable Robert Greentree and a crew of divers search the waters of Wooloomooloo Bay, hoping to find evidence to assist with the case. 10 meters from the shore Greenfield resurfaces, with a man's penis and balls clutched in his hand. It was easily identified as being that of Alfred Greenfield, who was circumcised and tattooed along his shaft with the words "all for a nights love"
1. Amos Hugh Hurst (63) March 19, 1960 Strangulation
2. Alfred Reginald Greenfield, AKA Alan Thomas (40) June 4, 1961 Stabbing
3. Ernest William Cobbin (47) Body found November 21, 1961 Stabbing
4. Frank Gladstone McLean, March 31, 1962 Stabbing
5. Patrick 'McNulty' Joseph Hackett (42) November 3, 1962 Stabbing
Occupation: Rent collector (Clerks association), Junior clerk (Evans, Lescher & Ware) Store owner (sandwiches, mixed goods) Postal worker, Railway worker, British Armed Forces (Lancashire Fusiliers) during WW2. Coal miner at Newcastle-on-Tyne, worked in family furniture and piano shop. In Australia and New Zealand he was fired from several jobs for insubordination and his inability to work well with other employees.
Medical diagnosis: Suffered migraines and fits of depression in childhood and adolescence, homosexuality (then considered a mental illness), Paranoid Schizophrenia (diagnosed in army, 1947) Schizoid personality (1961).
Cosmetic rhinoplasty to fix the "hooked nose" inherited by his father.
After arrest (1963) McDonald was diagnosed as clinically insane by three independent psychologists.
His autopsy report revealed Macdonald suffered from leg clots, a peptic ulcer, hernias, dementia and occasional diarrhoea.
Macdonald was first arrested for two counts of gross indecency after touching an undercover police officer in a public toilet.
May 13, 1963 arrested for murder. Macdonald made a full confession to 5 murders. Jailed for life in 1963, Long Bay Jail (Sydney)
Justice McLennan sentenced the Mutilator to five consecutive life sentences with a strong recommendation that he never be released.
After 52 years behind bars, he became the longest serving prisoner in NSW history.
Hobbies: The family owned a furniture and music shop called The Piano Galleries. Music was perhaps the one thing Ginsburg ever had a connection with. He grew up listening to the classics (Beethoven, Mozart, Berlioz, Handel, Brahms, Wagner.) His childhood dream was to become a concert pianist. He loved classic literature and Crime and Punishment magazine. As a child he fixated on the macabre and loved violent movies and tales of murder. His favourite film was I Am The Fugitive From a Chain Gang. His unhealthy obsession with Jack The Ripper clearly influenced the method of killing.
The knick-knack man : inside the mind of Australia's most deranged serial killer: Paul B. Kidd
WickedWe: WILLIAM MACDONALD / THE MUTILATOR / AUSTRALIA’S MOST FEARED SERIAL KILLER: Robbie Ruinsburg
Murder Down Under: The Mutilator Dead Man Walking by Anthony Ferguson
Daily Mail: Australia's First Serial Killer
