Thursday, September 28, 2023
  • Crime, The Law & Your Rights
No Result
View All Result
Crime Traveller
 
  • Home
  • Research

    Dangerous Behavior: Stalkers Using “Apple Air Tags” to Spy on, Harass, Threaten Lovers And Spouses

    How Your Brainwaves Could Be Used In Criminal Trials

    R. Kelly: Aided By A Network of Complicity Enabling His Crimes

    How Social Media Turns Online Arguments Between Teens Into Real-World Violence

    Kathleen Folbigg’s Children Likely Died Of Natural Causes, Not Murder. Here’s The Evidence My Team Found

    Do criminals freely decide to commit offences? How the courts decide

    Trending Tags

    • Neuroscience
    • Mental Health
    • Criminal Brain
    • Juvenile Crime
  • Psychology
    screaming man covered in paint

    Psychopaths – Born Or Made?

    The Question of Why: Did Ted Bundy have Dissociative Identity Disorder?

    Teenage psychopathy

    What Should We Do With Teenage Psychopaths?

    A Criminal Disorder? Advances in Neurocriminology Are Leading The Way

    Mark Safarik

    An Interview With Former FBI Profiler Mark Safarik on Violent Offending and Criminal Behavioral Analysis

    The Criminal Mind: An Interview With Forensic Psychologist and Author Katherine Ramsland

    Trending Tags

    • Narcissism
    • Psychopathy
    • Profiling
    • Mental Health
    • Psychology
  • Family Violence

    Reckless Speculation about Jeffrey MacDonald

    O. J. Simpson Trial: 26 Years Later

    O. J. Simpson: Murder in the First Degree

    Reasonable Doubt: The Hendricks Family Murders

    Melanie McGuire

    A Convicted Killer, Two Criminologists, and One Podcast: Direct Appeal Investigates ‘Suitcase Killer’ Melanie McGuire Case

    Family Annihilation: The Crimes and Psychology of Familicide

    Trending Tags

    • True Crime

      The Murder of Cecil Wells and the 49th State

      Uneven Ground documentary, the Melissa Witt Story

      Uneven Ground: The Melissa Witt Story, True Crime Documentary Review

      A teddy on the ground with emergency lights in the background

      The Babysitting Murder Of Hannah Wesche: What We Know So Far

      EXCLUSIVE – Errol Flynn: From Theft to Fame and Fortune

      Chandler Halderson and his parents

      Double Murder, Dismemberment, and Lies: The Twisted Web of Chandler Halderson

      Jean Claude Romand: From Fake Doctor to Family Annihilator

      Trending Tags

      • Unsolved
      • Serial Murder
      • Documentaries
      • Guest Posts
    • Book Reviews
      Strangled book review cover

      Strangled: A Courageous Fight Against The Darkest Corners of Humanity

      The Girl I Never Knew - Who Killed Melissa Witt?

      The Girl I Never Knew: Melissa Ann Witt Deserves Justice

      Befriending A Serial Killer: An Interview With Mark Austin

      The Husband Poisoner: Lethal Ladies and Dangerously Tasty Recipes

      Details are Unprintable: Wayne Lonergan and the Sensational Café Society Murder

      Operation Jacknap book cover image

      Operation Jacknap: A True Story of Kidnapping, Extortion, Ransom and Rescue

      Trending Tags

      • Interviews
      • Historical Crime Books
    • Crime Spotlight
      • All
      • Crime, The Law & Your Rights
      car accident on highway

      Is A Car Accident A Criminal Or Civil Case?

      mannequins with your body belongs to you stickers

      How to Prove Sexual Abuse Without Physical Evidence

      Medical Malpractice

      When Does Medical Malpractice Become a Criminal Case?

      Picture: Richard Bell, Upsplash

      Can A Crime Turn Into A Personal Injury Lawsuit?

      Korean Zodiac Killer case

      A Tale of Two Zodiacs

      5 Tell-Tale Signs Of An Abusive Person

    No Result
    View All Result
    Crime Traveller
    • Home
    • Research

      Dangerous Behavior: Stalkers Using “Apple Air Tags” to Spy on, Harass, Threaten Lovers And Spouses

      How Your Brainwaves Could Be Used In Criminal Trials

      R. Kelly: Aided By A Network of Complicity Enabling His Crimes

      How Social Media Turns Online Arguments Between Teens Into Real-World Violence

      Kathleen Folbigg’s Children Likely Died Of Natural Causes, Not Murder. Here’s The Evidence My Team Found

      Do criminals freely decide to commit offences? How the courts decide

      Trending Tags

      • Neuroscience
      • Mental Health
      • Criminal Brain
      • Juvenile Crime
    • Psychology
      screaming man covered in paint

      Psychopaths – Born Or Made?

      The Question of Why: Did Ted Bundy have Dissociative Identity Disorder?

      Teenage psychopathy

      What Should We Do With Teenage Psychopaths?

      A Criminal Disorder? Advances in Neurocriminology Are Leading The Way

      Mark Safarik

      An Interview With Former FBI Profiler Mark Safarik on Violent Offending and Criminal Behavioral Analysis

      The Criminal Mind: An Interview With Forensic Psychologist and Author Katherine Ramsland

      Trending Tags

      • Narcissism
      • Psychopathy
      • Profiling
      • Mental Health
      • Psychology
    • Family Violence

      Reckless Speculation about Jeffrey MacDonald

      O. J. Simpson Trial: 26 Years Later

      O. J. Simpson: Murder in the First Degree

      Reasonable Doubt: The Hendricks Family Murders

      Melanie McGuire

      A Convicted Killer, Two Criminologists, and One Podcast: Direct Appeal Investigates ‘Suitcase Killer’ Melanie McGuire Case

      Family Annihilation: The Crimes and Psychology of Familicide

      Trending Tags

      • True Crime

        The Murder of Cecil Wells and the 49th State

        Uneven Ground documentary, the Melissa Witt Story

        Uneven Ground: The Melissa Witt Story, True Crime Documentary Review

        A teddy on the ground with emergency lights in the background

        The Babysitting Murder Of Hannah Wesche: What We Know So Far

        EXCLUSIVE – Errol Flynn: From Theft to Fame and Fortune

        Chandler Halderson and his parents

        Double Murder, Dismemberment, and Lies: The Twisted Web of Chandler Halderson

        Jean Claude Romand: From Fake Doctor to Family Annihilator

        Trending Tags

        • Unsolved
        • Serial Murder
        • Documentaries
        • Guest Posts
      • Book Reviews
        Strangled book review cover

        Strangled: A Courageous Fight Against The Darkest Corners of Humanity

        The Girl I Never Knew - Who Killed Melissa Witt?

        The Girl I Never Knew: Melissa Ann Witt Deserves Justice

        Befriending A Serial Killer: An Interview With Mark Austin

        The Husband Poisoner: Lethal Ladies and Dangerously Tasty Recipes

        Details are Unprintable: Wayne Lonergan and the Sensational Café Society Murder

        Operation Jacknap book cover image

        Operation Jacknap: A True Story of Kidnapping, Extortion, Ransom and Rescue

        Trending Tags

        • Interviews
        • Historical Crime Books
      • Crime Spotlight
        • All
        • Crime, The Law & Your Rights
        car accident on highway

        Is A Car Accident A Criminal Or Civil Case?

        mannequins with your body belongs to you stickers

        How to Prove Sexual Abuse Without Physical Evidence

        Medical Malpractice

        When Does Medical Malpractice Become a Criminal Case?

        Picture: Richard Bell, Upsplash

        Can A Crime Turn Into A Personal Injury Lawsuit?

        Korean Zodiac Killer case

        A Tale of Two Zodiacs

        5 Tell-Tale Signs Of An Abusive Person

      Crime Traveller
      No Result
      View All Result
      • Home
      • Research
      • Psychology
      • Family Violence
      • True Crime
      • Book Reviews
      • Crime Spotlight

      True Crime & Justice | The Granny Killer of Sydney: John Wayne Glover

      The Granny Killer of Sydney: John Wayne Glover

      John Wayne Glover terrorized Sydney, Australia for over a year through brutal attacks on elderly women in wealthy suburbs.

      by Fiona Guy
      9 September, 2016 - Updated on 7 July, 2018
      in True Crime & Justice
      Reading Time: 6 mins read
      A A
      Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare
      Born in England in 1932, John Wayne Glover terrorized Sydney, Australia for over a year through brutal attacks on elderly women in wealthy suburbs.  Connected together as down the work of one individual, the nickname The Granny Killer soon emerged from the media.

      Arrested in 1990, Glover confessed to the murders of six women and sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.  After 15 years in prison, John Wayne Glover took his own life in his prison cell in 2005.

      • A petty criminal who graduated onto cold-hearted murder of defenseless and vulnerable elderly women.
      • John Wayne Glover had a long history of troubled relationships with women figures in his life, including his own mother and his mother-in-law.
      • He volunteered at a Senior Citizens Society in the years before the murders, providing care and support to the elderly in the area.
      • After his conviction, Glover claimed he wanted to stop killing but was powerless to stop himself and his choice of victims or even why he killed them did not worry him.

      Background

      A boy who left school with little qualifications he drifted, encountering rejection wherever he went.  Born in England, he joined the British Army for a period but was promptly discharged when they made the discovery of his earlier convictions.

      He emigrated to Australia in the late 1950’s unsure what he was going to do with his life. He did go on to secure employment as a sales rep for a food company, get married and have two children, settling into life in Mosman, Sydney. Like many who go onto serial murder, John Wayne Glover had a string of previous convictions, mainly for petty theft.  However, he continued his criminal activities when he moved to Australia where his arrest sheet reads charges for further thefts and a number of assaults on women in the Melbourne area.

      Glover was escalating and his behaviors had begun to be directed at harming women. In the late 1970’s and 80’s, John Wayne Glover’s life began to spiral out of control.  His mother had followed him to Australia in 1976, however, she died of breast cancer in 1989, a disease he would go onto develop himself.  His marriage crumbled and his estranged wife moved away with his children.

      A Descent Into Murder

      The number of offenses and murders in which John Wayne Glover carried out may never be known for sure.  In 1989 there was an attack on 84-year-old Margaret Todhunter in Mosman, Sydney.  She was punched in the face and robbed of her purse, an attack now attributed to Glover.

      In March 1989, 82-year-old Gwendoline Mitchelhill was followed to the entry foyer of her Military Road apartment building. She was struck on the back of her head with a hammer and as she lay on the floor was beaten repeatedly and her purse stolen.

      A brutal attack which Gwendoline Mitchelhill could not recover from and she died shortly after the emergency services arrived. Police had little to go on with no witnesses and no forensics to work with after good-willed neighbors had washed down the crime scene believing it had been a terrible accident and not, in fact, a murder.

      Related: Australia’s Night Caller: Eric Edgar Cooke

      Two months later another attack on an elderly woman and one which was almost identical to the murder of Gwendoline Mitchelhill.  84-year-old Lady Ashton was followed to the foyer of her apartment where she was attacked with a hammer.  Lady Ashton was strangled with her own pantyhose before the attacker made off with her purse.  The similarities in the two murders convinced police they were potentially looking at a serial killer operating in the area, specifically targeting elderly women in the doorway of their homes.

      “Serial murder has of course happened all around the world, but usually it involves young men and woman in their twenties and thirties. But what we were dealing with was much older ladies, most aged over 80.” – Detective Inspector Mike Hagan

      In June 1989 this serial killer turned into a serial molester.  Targeting women in retirement homes, a series of incidents were reported to police involving a man inappropriately touching elderly women.  By the approach of winter that year, the attacks continued, returning to their violent status. 86-year-old Doris Cox was attached in the stairwell outside her home.  She survived but was unable to give a description of her attacker to the police.

      Margaret Pahun at 85-years-old was attacked on her way home from shopping.  Hit over the back of the head she was subjected to further blows as she fell to the ground before she was robbed of her purse and left on the pavement.

      Olive Cleveland at 81 years old was attacked at her retirement home and strangled with her pantyhose.  This attack followed the same pattern as the preceding murders, with the killer rearranging clothing and stealing belongings. Muriel Falconer was 93 years old when she became another victim of the Granny Killer. Followed to outside her home, she was hit over the head with a hammer and then strangled.  Her body was not discovered until the next day giving the attacker plenty of time to escape unseen. From this crime scene, police were finally able to gather forensic evidence in the hunt for this brutal killer.

      Related: The Los Angeles Grim Sleeper: Lonnie Franklin Jr

      Capture & and Trial

      By 1990 John Wayne Glover had gained in confidence.  He had carried out a string of murders and attacks on elderly woman and had not been caught.  He became sloppy and during one of his regular food deliveries for his job at a hospital, he indecently assaulted an elderly female patient and was almost caught by a nurse.  He was identified by the nursing staff who knew him from previous deliveries and with a positive identification from the victim, police were closing in.

      Police requested John Wayne Glover attend the police station for an interview, a request he failed to honor.  When followed up, police discovered Glover had attempted suicide and was recovering in hospital.  At the hospital police were given a suicide note found by the nursing staff, a note which made detectives investigating the Granny Killer murders highly suspicious, scrawled on a receipt read the words ‘no more grannies‘.

      When finally interviewed John Wayne Glover denied all knowledge and involvement in the indecent assaults. Not convinced and not wanting to tip him off over their belief in his involvement in the murders, police placed Glover under surveillance to try and catch him in the act.

      While under surveillance John Wayne Glover visited the home of his friend 60-year-old Joan Sinclair. After three hours and no sign of Glover, police made the request to their superiors to enter the home. By early evening the police gain access and make the devastating discovering of Joan Sinclair’s body along with a bloodied hammer. Searching for Glover, they find him lying unconscious in the bathtub in another suicide attempt.

      “I have no excuse, no reason. I can’t give you what compulsion drove me to do it, but the fact remains it happened.”

      At the trial, commencing 28 March 1990, Glover admitted the killings but pleaded not guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility. A psychiatrist said John Wayne Glover had built up hostility and aggression since his childhood against his mother and then against his mother-in-law, who was said to “trigger” him.

      Both women had died shortly before he began is killing and it was suggested after their deaths, Glover needed a new outlet for his anger. The Crown prosecutor maintained that Glover was well aware of his actions and was entirely sane at the time of the killings.

      The jury took little time to find John Wayne Glover guilty of the six murders.  He was given six life sentences with a recommendation he was never to be released. After the guilty verdict was delivered, Justice Wood stated that he was dealing with an extremely dangerous prisoner:

      “The period since January 1989 has been one of intense and serious crime involving extreme violence inflicted on elderly women, accompanied by theft or robbery of their property. On any view, the prisoner has shown himself to be an exceedingly dangerous person and that view was mirrored by the opinions of the psychiatrists who gave evidence at his trial.”

      John Wayne Glover committed suicide in jail in September 2005, aged 72. At an inquest into his death, it was speculated he may have hung himself by accident in an attempt to gain sympathy.

      An extremely dangerous individual, John Wayne Glover pounced on vulnerable elderly women while their backs were turned.  They had no chance against him and for the six women who lost their lives, they died a terrifying death.

      Documentary

      This article uses material from the “John Wayne Glover” article at wikipedia.org and is licensed under CC-BY-SA.

      Tags: Serial Murder
      Share84Tweet21Pin8
      Previous Post

      New York City’s Son of Sam: David Berkowitz

      Next Post

      Newsweek JonBenet Ramsey Case Special Issue

      Related Posts

      The Murder of Cecil Wells and the 49th State

      30 August, 2023 - Updated on 31 August, 2023

      In the dead of night two intruders broke into the Alaskan home of Cecil Wells and shot him dead while he slept, before beating his...

      Read more

      Uneven Ground: The Melissa Witt Story, True Crime Documentary Review

      17 August, 2023
      Uneven Ground documentary, the Melissa Witt Story

      Melissa Witt will forever be 19 years old. Her life came to an abrupt and shocking end in a manner no one should ever have...

      Read more

      The Babysitting Murder Of Hannah Wesche: What We Know So Far

      2 August, 2023
      A teddy on the ground with emergency lights in the background

      Jailed for life in Ohio in 2018 for murdering 3-year-old Hannah Wesche, Lindsay Partin believes a newly discovered photo could exonerate her.

      Read more
      Load More
      Next Post

      Newsweek JonBenet Ramsey Case Special Issue

      The London Underground Serial Killer

      The Pearl Bryan Murder in Unwanted: A Murder Mystery of the Gilded Age

      Leave a Reply

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

      I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

      Popular

      Anders Breivik
      Crime Research

      Extreme Overvalued Belief and Anders Breivik: How Beliefs Can Be Mistaken For Psychosis

      17 July, 2017 - Updated on 25 July, 2023
      Psychology of Murder

      The Question of Why: Did Ted Bundy have Dissociative Identity Disorder?

      26 June, 2019 - Updated on 25 July, 2023
      Crime Spotlight

      O. J. Simpson Trial: 26 Years Later

      25 May, 2020 - Updated on 8 August, 2023
      Daniel Bartlam and Jacqueline Bartlam
      Family Violence & Homicide

      Daniel Bartlam: A Teenage Boy Convicted Of His Mother’s Murder

      15 August, 2015 - Updated on 28 June, 2023
      No Result
      View All Result

      Follow Crime Traveller

      New Posts

      True Crime & Justice

      The Murder of Cecil Wells and the 49th State

      30 August, 2023 - Updated on 31 August, 2023
      True Crime & Justice

      Uneven Ground: The Melissa Witt Story, True Crime Documentary Review

      17 August, 2023
      True Crime & Justice

      The Babysitting Murder Of Hannah Wesche: What We Know So Far

      2 August, 2023
      True Crime & Justice

      EXCLUSIVE – Errol Flynn: From Theft to Fame and Fortune

      7 July, 2023 - Updated on 27 August, 2023
      Crime, The Law & Your Rights

      Is A Car Accident A Criminal Or Civil Case?

      29 June, 2023 - Updated on 25 July, 2023
      Crime Research

      Dangerous Behavior: Stalkers Using “Apple Air Tags” to Spy on, Harass, Threaten Lovers And Spouses

      29 May, 2023 - Updated on 25 July, 2023
      Load More

      RECENT

      The Murder of Cecil Wells and the 49th State

      30 August, 2023 - Updated on 31 August, 2023

      Uneven Ground: The Melissa Witt Story, True Crime Documentary Review

      17 August, 2023

      The Babysitting Murder Of Hannah Wesche: What We Know So Far

      2 August, 2023

      POPULAR

      Jack The Ripper: A Freemason?

      Bombers, Rioters and Police Killers: Violent Crime and Disorder in Victorian Britain

      She’s So Cold: Murder, Accusations and the System That Devastated a Family

      A Victorian Murder Mystery: The Lady In The Cellar

      ☆ Get your true crime book reviewed on Crime Traveller

      Site Links

      • About Crime Traveller
      • Contact Page
      • True Crime & Justice
      • Crime Research
      • Psychology of Murder
      • True Crime Book Reviews & Author Interviews
      No Result
      View All Result
      • Terms
      • Privacy
      • Disclaimers
      • Cookies
      • DMCA
      • Newsletter

      Copyright © 2016 - 2023 Crime Traveller, a website owned and operated by Alythium | All Rights Reserved.

      No Result
      View All Result
      • HOME
      • About
      • Contact
      • True Crime
      • Research
      • Family Crime
      • Psychology
      • Spotlight
      • Book Reviews

      Copyright © 2016 - 2023 Crime Traveller, a website owned and operated by Alythium | All Rights Reserved.

      This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.