Patrick Mackay

Following Mackay's release in 1972, the affluent London areas of Chelsea and Knightsbridge were engulfed by a wave of petty crimes.[4] Known for being home to the wealthiest London residents and full of luxury shops and high-end restaurants, the areas suddenly saw a massive, unexplained rise in muggings, robberies and handbag snatchings.[4] The attacks specifically targeted elderly ladies, and the unidentified attacker would befriend these women and gain access to their homes before committing their crimes.[4] It would later be found that Mackay was behind these crimes.[4]

On 14 February 1974, 84-year-old Isabella Griffith was physically assaulted, strangled and stabbed in her home in Chelsea by Mackay.[4][3] Police were unable to identify him as the perpetrator and the muggings and petty thefts continued in the area.[4] Thirteen months later, on 10 March 1975, elderly Adele Price was also killed in her Chelsea home by Mackay who had entered her property asking for a glass of water.[4][3] Her granddaughter was coming home at the time and, without knowing, passed the killer as he left the premises after attacking the woman.[4] Police were concerned the crime spree and the killings of the two women were linked.[4]

Some miles away on 21 March 1975, priest Father Anthony Crean was brutally killed in his home in Shorne, Kent, near to the home of Mackay's mother.[4] Crean had been attacked with an axe in a frenzied attack, with the weapon being found at the scene.[4] Mackay had been seen in the area by multiple witnesses.[3]

An investigating police officer remembered an incident that had occurred some months earlier involving the young Mackay, who had befriended the priest only to break into his home and steal a cheque for £30.[4] Although Crean tried to persuade the police not to do so, Mackay was arrested and prosecuted at the time. He was subsequently ordered to pay compensation but never did.[3] The incident caused a rift between Mackay and Crean, and the former had returned to London.[14] After the incident was recalled by the officer, police arrested Mackay, who quickly admitted to killing Crean.[4]

After his arrest for the murder of Father Crean, Mackay's fingerprints were taken, which were found to match those found at the scene of Adele Price's death.[4] Jewellery and silver fountain pens were found in Mackay's home which had come from robberies he had committed in the Chelsea and Belgravia areas.[3] Mackay took detectives to an area of Clapham where he said he had thrown a knife he used in his killings.[3] The Metropolitan Police began to investigate Mackay and he was found to have committed many other of the unsolved murders and crimes in the London area.[4]

At first, he confessed to police of murdering Anthony Crean, Isabella Griffiths and Adele Price. But when Mackay was on remand at HMP Brixton, detectives got information from other prisoners that he had killed six more people.[15][4][13] Most of these murders were unknown to the interviewing officers. Detectives checked his descriptions of some of the killings and found they indeed matched details of unsolved murders that had occurred in and around London.[4]

The first of the unsolved murders, was of 17-year-old German au pair Heidi Mnilk, murdered on 9 July 1973.[13] Witnesses said the killer had stabbed her on a train before opening the door and throwing her out near Catford.[4][13] The second unsolved murder was of Mary Hynes, murdered in Kentish Town on 20 July 1973. The third: Mackay confessed that he had killed a drunken homeless man by throwing him off a bridge into the Thames in January 1974.[16] The fourth and fifth murders were of 57-year-old Stephanie Britton and her 4-year-old grandson Christopher Martin on 12 January 1974.[13] The sixth murder was of Frank Goodman on 13 June 1974, who had been beaten to death with a metal bar over a pack of cigarettes. Mackay's landlords recognised the bar from their house.[13] The seventh: Mackay allegedly confessed to the murder of 92-year-old Sarah Rodmell in her flat in Hackney on 23 December 1974, saying that he had nailed the back door shut and put her stockings in her mouth, and that "killing her was as easy as washing my socks".[13] The eighth murder was of 48-year old Café owner Ivy Davies in Southend in February 1975; the killer had beaten her with a tent peg.[13][17] Mackay confessed that he knew of the shop and considered robbing her, but when he was driven to view her cafe and nearby home, he could not recognise them.[18]

Investigators concluded that Mackay had been the perpetrator of the mugging and theft spree in Chelsea and Kensington, crimes which were previously unsolved.[4]

Mackay denied his confessions to all but four of the murders (Griffiths, Price, Crean and the homeless man he said he had thrown from a bridge in January 1974).[13] This meant that there was insufficient evidence to charge him for more than five murders.[13][19] Police were unable to identify the homeless victim Mackay said he had killed in January 1974.[16]

At his trial in November 1975, Mackay was convicted of the manslaughter of Adele Price, Isabella Griffith and Father Anthony Crean after pleading guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility.[16][13][3] Further evidence of his involvement in the murder of Frank Goodman was found. But these were insufficient and he was not convicted of the murders of Goodman or Hynes, the cases were left to lie on file.[13][16][19][17] He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years.[19][16]

Mackay's defence team had pleaded insanity, but medical experts instead concluded that he was a psychopath (a personality disorder and not a mental disorder).[13]

Mackay's crimes have been featured in a number of documentaries:

• In 2002, an ITV documentary titled London's Scariest Mysteries: Patrick Mackay documented his crimes.[23]
• On 7 October 2012, a series 2 episode of Fred Dineage's Murder Casebook series (alternatively titled Murders that Shook the Nation) covered Mackay's crimes. The episode was titled: Patrick Mackay: The Psychopath.[24]
• On 20 August 2013, a series 5 episode of Born to Kill? documented Mackay's crimes. The episode was titled Patrick Mackay: The Devil's Disciple.[25]
• On 1 January 2015, a series 1 episode of high-profile criminologist David Wilson's series First Kill/Last Kill focused on Mackay's crimes.[26]
• On 1 February 2023, a documentary titled Confessions of a Psycho Killer was released on Amazon Prime.[27]

• In 1976 authors Tim Clark and John Penycate published a book on Mackay titled Psychopath: The Case of Patrick Mackay. It was published by Routledge.[28]
• In 2019 a book on Mackay's murders and alleged murders was released by author John Lucas, titled Britain's Forgotten Serial Killer: The Terror of the Axeman.[29][23] The book contributed to the rising concerns of Mackay's possible release.[29]