The Wimbledon Kidnapping: Part Three: Closure

Muriel McKay

 

In early 2022, Nizamodeen Hosein, now 75 years old revealed to police where he had buried the remains of Muriel McKay, who he, and his brother Arthur, had murdered 52 years prior in the bungled Rupert Murdoch kidnapping and blackmail plot.

 It had long been suspected that the brothers had fed Mrs McKay’s body to their pigs. No evidence of her remains had ever been found. Hosein claimed that while Mrs McKay was his hostage, she collapsed and died while watching the news of her kidnapping on TV.

The two brothers had been sentenced to life at the Old Bailey for the kidnap and murder. It was believed to be the first prosecution to go ahead without having a body to prove the murder. Nizamodeen was deported to Trinidad after serving his gaol time. Arthur died in prison in 2009.

 

Nizamodeen stated to the media, that his reason for revealing her burial location was that he was nearing death and wanted ‘closure’ before he ‘met his maker’.[1] He also claimed that there was no violence toward her during the kidnapping.[2]

 

© 2022 Allen Tiller

---

[1] Tom Pettifor, Bungled Rupert Murdoch wife kidnapper FINALLY reveals where he buried murder victim, Mirror, (2022), https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bungled-rupert-murdoch-wife-kidnapper-25918374.

[2] Sam Ramsden, Where Are Arthur & Nizamodeen Hosein Now?, Bustle, (2021), https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/where-are-the-hosein-brothers-now.

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

---

[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.