The Wimbledon Kidnapping: Part Two: Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein

Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein

  At 7:45 pm on Sunday 29 December 1969, News Limited Deputy Chairman, Alick McKay returned to his home at Wimbledon to find his front door wide open and his wife missing. The phone had been pulled from the wall, her handbag contents were strewn across the house and a meat clever lay on the floor.[1]
 Alick called the police from his neighbour's house at 8pm. Hours later, at 1 am, Alick received a phone call from an unknown male, who stated he was ‘M3’, part of ‘Mafia M3’. Over the coming weeks, there would be 18 phone calls from M3 and three letters, demanding 1 million pounds or the man would kill Mrs McKay. In one phone call, the man claimed, “We tried to get Rupert Murdoch’s wife. We couldn’t get her, so we took yours instead. You have a million by Wednesday night or we will kill her.”

 On February 1^st, 1970, the Mafia M3 three contacted McKay’s son Ian and demanded £500, 000 pounds be delivered to a drop off point. The police sent their own man in dressed as Ian, but perhaps suspecting an ambush, the kidnappers didn’t show.
 The next communication stated that Alick and his daughter, Diane would deliver two suitcases of money to a destination on 6 February. Police again played the role of the McKay’s. They delivered the suitcases, but an unsuspecting member of the public reported the out of place cases to local police, who knew nothing about the ambush and arrived on the scene.
 Police who had staked out the location noted a silver Volvo driving past repeatedly, registered to Arthur Hosein, so they ran a background check. Hosein’s fingerprints matched those found on ransom notes.
 Police raided the Hosein farm and scoured it for clues. They could find no trace of Muriel McKay but were positive she was dead. They charged the brothers for their kidnapping and ransom plot, and then charged them for murder, even without evidence that Muriel McKay was dead!

 

Arthur Hosein's house where Muriel McKay was held hostage.

The brothers faced trial at the Old Bailey on 14 September 1970. They were both found guilty on all charges on 6 October. They received life sentences, plus, on the charges of blackmail and kidnapping, Arthur recurved 25 years and Nizamodeen, 15 years.

 

…but the story doesn’t end there…

 

To be concluded next week: The Wimbledon Kidnapping: Part Three: Closure

© 2022 Allen Tiller

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[1] The McKay Kidnapping, Crime+Investigation, (2022), https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/mckay-kidnapping

The Wimbledon Kidnapping: Part One: Rupert and Anna Murdoch

The Wimbledon Kidnapping: 

Part One: Rupert and Anna Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch, wife Anna Murdoch and their three children, (left to right) Elisabeth (9), Lachlan (6), and James (5), New York, 1977.

Rupert Murdoch is ingrained in Adelaide’s history, having started his empire in the City of Churches. He has never been far from controversy, and in the late 1960s was associated with a murder. Before I get to that, a brief background on one of Australia’s most successful men.

 

 Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1931, Keith Rupert Murdoch became the head of one of the largest media empires in the world. Murdoch was the son of Sir Keith Murdoch an Australian war correspondent and publisher. In 1952, Sir Keith Murdoch died, leaving to his son Rupert an inheritance that included South Australian newspapers, The Sunday Mail and The News.
 Under Rupert’s leadership, The News became a tabloid full of brash and salacious headlines. Murdoch sold The News in 1987 to Northern Star Holdings.[1] It was on this inheritance that Murdoch founded News Corporation, later acquiring another South Australian newspaper, The Advertiser.
 Murdoch grew his empire by purchasing newspapers in other Australian states and running the same headlines that featured sex and scandal.
 In 1969, Murdoch expanded into the UK, acquiring News of the World, and like his Australian newspapers, this one also began to feature copious sex, crime and scandalous headlines, pushing sales through the roof. In 1970, Murdoch acquired The Sun, a London daily newspaper; and in 1973, Murdoch broke into the U.S. market by acquiring the San Antonio News. Later he acquired the New York Post, The Boston Herald, TV Guide, the Chicago Sun-Times, and New York Village Voice. He bought and sold newspapers over the decades before diversifying into radio, film, and television. He bought Twentieth Century – Fox Film Corporation, and later founded Fox Inc, after acquiring television stations in the USA.[2]

 

  Rupert’s profile increased through his media acquisitions, putting him on the radar of some very shady people!

In 1969, Arthur Hosein was watching TV with his brother Nizamodeen one night, when Rupert Murdoch and his wife Anna were featured on a program. Arthur had a ‘get rich quick' idea and decided to put it into action.

 Hosein was a tailor’s cutter who had emigrated to the UK from Trinidad in 1955. He had big dreams of becoming an English squire and purchased a property for him and his wife near Hertfordshire. He applied to become a member of the local fox hunting club, even though he couldn’t ride a horse, or afford the subscription![3]
 To alleviate his money problems Arthur concocted a plan to abduct Rupert Murdoch’s wife and hold her for ransom. They staked out the Murdoch’s Roll Royce, and followed it to its destination at 20 Arthur Street, Wimbledon, believing it to be Murdoch’s house.
 The two men later broke into the home and abducted 55-year-old Muriel McKay, mistaking her for Anna Murdoch. Muriel and her husband Alick were Adelaide born and raised and had moved to London when Alick took the job of Newspaper Executive for News Limited. Muriel had been using the company car, the Murdoch Rolls Royce, while the Murdochs were on holiday in Australia.

Continued next week: The Wimbledon Kidnapping: Part Two: Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein

© 2022 Allen Tiller

[1] SA Memory, ‘News’, State Library of South Australia, (2013), https://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?c=2627.

[2] Rupert Murdoch: Australian-born American publisher, Britannica, (2022), https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rupert-Murdoch.

[3] Rachel Scout, Arthur & Nizamodeen HOSEIN, Murderpedia, (2022), (https://murderpedia.org/male.H/h/hosein-brothers.htm.

The Sundown Murders: Part II: Execution or Exoneration?

 The Sundown Murders: Part II:

 Execution or Exoneration?

In December 1957, the bodies of Thyra Bowman, her daughter Wendy, and family friend, Thomas Whelan were found at the Sundown Station in South Australia’s outback.

Raymond Bailey had been arrested and charged for the murders, claiming he, “had gone mad”.

The case against Bailey was overseen by Justice Reed. It took a jury 96 minutes to decide that Bailey was guilty. Evidence was not overwhelming against Bailey, but a statement he alleged to have given to police was enough to convict.[1] Police also found gunshot casings at the murder site that matched casings found in Bailey’s car.
Bailey was found guilty and sentenced to hang.

  It was announced in newspapers that Raymond John Bailey would be hanged at the Adelaide Gaol on 17 June 1958.[2] He received a reprieve from hanging for one week after claiming there was a fourth body, he had buried. Bailey claimed he had witnessed a man burying the body of Mrs Bowman, and that he killed the man in self-defence. He also claimed to have buried the knife near where Mrs Bowman's car was found. Police took Bailey back to the Station, but he could not produce evidence of the buried body.

Bailey was hanged at 8am, Tuesday, June 24, 1958, in Her Majesty’s Adelaide Gaol.[3]

 

As an interesting footnote to this case.  Stephen Bishop, an investigative journalist has pushed for an exoneration for Bailey. Bishop believes his confession was coerced under duress, and that Detective Glen Hallahan forced Bailey’s confession. Bishop also claims that evidence was overlooked, or ignored, such as footprints that were too large to be Bailey’s, being found at the murder location.

© 2022 Allen Tiller

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[1] 'Bailey Found Guilty Of Sundown Murder', The Canberra Times, (21 May 1958), p. 8., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91250953.
[2] 'Bailey to Hang on Tuesday', The Canberra Times, (21 June 1958), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136300645.
[3] 'Bailey Hanged For Murder Of Mrs. Bowman', The Canberra Times, (25 June 1958), p. 12., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136301002.

The Sundown Murders:  Part One – Confession

Raymond Bailey (center)

December 1957, the bodies of Thyra Bowman, aged 44, her daughter Wendy, aged 14 and their family friend, Thomas Whelan aged 22 were found at a deserted outback property known as Sundown Station.

The trio was travelling from Glen Helen Station, via Alice Springs to Adelaide.

Each of them had fractured skulls and bullet wounds. Newspaper reports described them as being ‘clubbed to death', and their bodies hidden under 'blankets and canvas'.[1]

  Raymond Bailey aged 24, was arrested by Mount Isa (Queensland) police on a provisional warrant for the murders. Police in Queensland wanted the RAAF to fly Bailey’s car to Adelaide for forensic testing.[2] Bailey was a married man and worked as a carpenter. He had one son. The family lived in Dubbo, New South Wales.
Bailey told police he was driving north to Alice Springs towing a caravan. He saw a Vanguard motor car parked on the side of the road, with three people sitting around the campfire. Bailey stopped further up the road, where his wife went to bed.

 Raymond Bailey had been arrested at Mount Isa in Queensland under suspicion of murder in outback South Australia. In court, Prosecutor, Mr E.B. Scarfe, read to the Judge and Jury a statement allegedly from Bailey, confessing to the crime.

It read,

"I saw the three people lying down. I heard a noise behind me when I was passing through the camp and was just about through it and I turned around and fired. I did not see if it was, but it sounded like a dog growling.
  When I fired, a chap jumped up and made a noise and fell down again. I thought I had killed him and I just went mad after that. When I did this I thought I would have to kill the lot and cover up.
 The young girl and the woman rushed towards, me. That was when I moved over to see if the chap was dead.
  I loaded my rifle again and aimed it at the older woman who was rushing towards me and fired. She fell down straight away. "The young girl ran at me too, so I loaded again, aimed it and shot her. She fell down, too. "I don't know how many times I shot them. I just went mad.”

I put the three bodies in the Vanguard car together in the back and put all the canvas and blankets and other stuff that I could find around the camp with them. Then I drove the Vanguard car into the scrub on the other side of the road and went in a fair way and emptied the back of all the bodies and blankets and canvas. I laid the bodies out and put the canvas and blanket over them as well as everything else that was there.”[3]

 After walking back to his caravan, Bailey washed and went to bed. His wife asked where he had been, and he lied, telling her he had been sick. The next morning, he awoke early and headed back to where he had killed the trio. He found two dogs tied to a tree and shot them.

 He then told police, as he neared Alice Springs, he threw the rifle away into the scrub. Somewhere between Tennant Creek and Mount Isa, he had thrown Whelan’s now empty wallet from the car.

 

Next Week: The Sundown Murders: Part Two: Execution

© 2022 Allen Tiller

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[1] 'Science May Solve Sundown Murder', The Canberra Times, (9 Jan 1958), p. 15., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91254845.
[2] 'Charge Follows Arrest Of Murder Suspect', The Canberra Times, (24 Jan 1958), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91256049.
[3] 'Man Shot Accidentally, Baily Told Detectives', The Canberra Times, (14 May 1958), p. 7., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91250300.