Heidi Mnilk (Unsolved Murder)

German tourist Heidi Mnilk was on a two week trip to the UK. The 17 year old pharmaceutical apprentice was staying with an English family in West Wickham in south east London.  On Sunday July 8th 1973 Heidi travelled to London with a friend to see the sights. Shortly before 5.00pm the pair boarded a train at Charing Cross Station to take them back to their accommodation. Heidi went to a non-smoking compartment and her friend to a carriage where smoking was permitted.  Less than two minutes after the train passed London Bridge two young passengers heard screams and witnessed the neighbouring compartment's door fling open and the body of a young woman fall onto the tracks. Despite these passengers raising the alarm they were not taken seriously and it was a little while before the body of Heidi Mnilk was discovered. A post-mortem showed Heidi had been stabbed before her body was hurled from the train. The young passengers gave a detailed description of a man seen leaving Heidi's compartment and police scoured London for the suspect. Then, a few months later, information came to light suggesting a motive for the seemingly random crime.

Sources for the episode an be found here

Transcript

Heidi Mnilk

Heidi Ann-Marie Mnilk travelled to the UK on a sightseeing trip in the summer of 1973. Modern day news articles say she was an au pair but this is not mentioned in contemporary reports. Born on November 12th 1955 the 17 year old was from Kassel in what was then West Germany, where she was a pharmaceutical apprentice. The overseas excursion was scheduled for two weeks and should have been an experience the young girl would look back on with fond memories for years to come. 

After she had been in the country for a week Heidi spent Sunday July 8th 1973 with friend and fellow compatriot, Doris, sightseeing in England’s capital city, London. That day the blonde, blue eyed Heidi was wearing red flared slacks, a red cotton top and black shoes and carried a red handbag. The teen also had with her a blue and white ¾ length, cotton, houndstooth checked coat.

After an itinerary-packed day the friends made their way to Charing Cross station to catch the train back to their accommodation. Both girls were staying with a travel agent and his family in West Wickham, situated in the borough of Bromley in south-west London. The travel agent regularly organised travel plans for German tourists.

Heidi and Doris boarded the 4.57pm train from Charing Cross which terminated at Hayes in Kent. At this point the girls separated and went into different compartments. Doris was a smoker, so chose a smoking carriage in the middle of the train. Heidi hated the smell of cigarette smoke and selected a designated non-smoking compartment. This was not out of the ordinary, Heidi always did this when travelling. 

The train did not have an internal corridor connecting the compartments and carriages. One could only gain access to each compartment from the main door, which was accessible only from the platform. Once you stepped into the compartment and the train started you could not get out until the next stop.

In the compartment next to Hedi were two 17 year old boys, Andrew and Stephen, from a comprehensive school in Forest Hill. The sixth form pupils were on their way home after attending a special school conference in Northampton. 

Shortly after the train passed London Bridge Station (the Evening Standard 12/08/1974 states it was just 90 seconds later) Andrew and Stephen’s conversation was abruptly interrupted by the sound of screams from the compartment next door. Terrified they listened intently, trying to make sense of what they were hearing. 

There then followed a period of deadly silence lasting twenty seconds. Through the compartment window the boys then saw the door of the neighboring compartment fling open and something fly out from the speeding train. It was just as the train went around a bend in the track. It all happened so quick but it was something red, with what appeared to be a mop of blonde hair on one end. The open door was then immediately slammed shut. In disbelief the boys concluded they had just seen the body of a woman being thrown from the moving train.

In shock and horror the boys sat in silence not knowing what to do. A few minutes later the train pulled into the next stop, New Cross station. 

As soon as the train came to a standstill Andrew raced out of the compartment and onto the platform to seek out a member of staff. Stephen stayed seated on the train. Stephen then witnessed a man exit the neighboring compartment and step on to the platform. As he did so the man turned and looked at the boy through the train window; making eye contact with him for a second or two. The man was close enough that the petrified boy could have reached out and touched him. Then, in a blink of an eye, the man had turned and was quickly walking away.

Meanwhile Andrew had found a railway porter and relayed what he had seen. Andrew did not use the word “murder”, though it was going through his mind, but made it clear that he believed he had seen someone fall from the train. The porter went and told his supervisor but to Andrew’s frustration the supervisor did not seem overly concerned.  Andrew got the impression he was not believed and so had no choice but to get back on the train and continue his journey home. At that point nothing was done by railway staff to further investigate the matter and the police were not informed. 

Andrew and Stephen were still very upset about what they had seen and were uneasy about the apparent lack of action by railway staff. When Andrew arrived at his home station, Catford Bridge, he contacted the police straight away. They took his story seriously and set about making inquiries and searching the railway line between London Bridge and New Cross. 

It wasn't long before the body of a young woman was found, lying close to the tracks near Abbey Road and Enid Street, Bermondsey, approximately 365 meters from London Bridge station. The body was soon identified to be German tourist, 17 year old Heidi Mnilk. 

Doris was informed by police about the death of her friend Heidi later that evening. She couldn't believe it. Doris had not been worried when she had not seen Heidi at the end of the train journey. Heidi was a keen photographer and Doris assumed she had wandered off to indulge in her favourite hobby. 

Police tried to piece together what had happened and at first said they were not looking for any weapons as they believed Heidi had died falling from the train. This was soon proven not to be the case. The evidence made clear that before Heidi had been hurled out of the carriage door her throat had been slashed with a knife. 

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Heidi's body was taken to Guy's Hospital in central London. A post mortem conducted by forensic pathologist Dr Keith Mant showed the cause of death was a single stab wound which had pierced the neck and upper chest. The knife had pierced an artery and Heidi would have been unconscious when she was thrown from the train, dying within seconds. The body displayed other injuries including minor cuts of the hands consistent with a fall from a moving train. There was no sign of sexual assault. 

From evidence found in the compartment there were signs of a struggle which indicated Heidi had fought back against her attacker.  

The murder weapon was thought to be a knife that had a 10 to 13 cm long blade and was a little over 2 cm wide. It was sharp along one edge and blunt on the other. One newspaper report suggested it could be a fixed blade weapon like a bowie knife. Railway Police embarked on a metre by metre search of the railway track in a bid to find the weapon. 180 metres from the spot where Heidi's body had laid, a blood-stained kitchen knife with a wooden handle was found wedged between a railway sleeper. One of the rivets was missing from the wooden handle of the knife. 

It did not appear that the knife had been there very long. It was sent for forensic examination and police concluded it was used to kill Heidi. The Sunday Mirror reported on July 29th 1973 that police believed clues from the knife should provide the killer’s name. It's unclear what made them so confident of this but regardless, it did not happen.

All of Heidi's clothes and the possessions she was known to have on her person that day were recovered from the scene apart from one item. The blue and white checked houndstooth coat was missing and it was thought that this may have been left on the train and someone had picked it up, not knowing its significance. Of course, another possibility was that the killer had taken it with him. An exact replica of the coat was flown in from West Germany so it could be shown to the public. The label in it said Gill Bretl, designed by Barclay. As far as I'm aware this coat has never been found. 

Attempts were made to inform Heidi's parents of the tragedy. This process took many days as they were away from the family home and on holiday somewhere in Germany. The English travel agent and his family with whom Heidi had been staying were shaken by the awful news. They described Heid as a pleasant and well spoken girl. 

A British rail spokesperson went before news reporters to  explain why no action had been taken when staff were first informed by sixth former Andrew of the horrific incident he and Stephen had witnessed. Rail staff had taken no notice as they had experienced a spate of “yobs crying wolf” and hoax messages claiming damage had been done to carriages. Andrew was not believed because of his age, and his terrifying story was written off as a schoolboy prank. If the alarm had been raised by railway staff there is a good chance Heidi’s killer would have been caught at the railway station. 

Sixth former Stephen had gotten a good look at the man who had stepped out of Heidi’s compartment at New Cross station. Police said he was able to give one of the best descriptions they had ever had of a suspect. Stephen also believed he would be able to pick him out if he saw him again.

The man was said to be aged between 37 and 45 with an average build. He was around 5ft 7 (170cm) with short brown, wavy hair which was swept back. He had a tanned or reddish, spotty complexion and a thin clean shaven  face. (At inquest in October 1974 the man's complexion was said to look like he was from the middle east or that he had not shaved). His lips were thin and he had a pointed chin. One unusual detail was that it appeared the man was squinting, possibly due to poor eyesight. He was wearing a red and blue checked shirt, a black or dark grey suit jacket and scruffy, baggy trousers. 

The police feared this man could strike again. He obviously had a strong hatred of women and an urge to kill. A photofit was generated of the suspect and within days Scotland Yard received 120 calls from people claiming they recognised the face. Detectives had their work cut out chasing down all the tips.

As part of their inquiries, police attempted to trace all the other passengers on the train; particularly those who had alighted or boarded at New Cross station, where the suspect was last seen. In particular an appeal was made for a couple in their twenties who had got into the train compartment with Andrew and Stephen at New Cross station. Perhaps they had seen the suspect too?

Investigators even speculated that someone travelling on a passing train may have witnessed the murder, in a scenario that would have mirrored the plot of the 1961 film “Murder She Said” which was in turn based on a popular Agatha Christie novel. 

In order to jog memories and generate leads the murder and the events surrounding it were restaged by police. Andrew and Stephen had to relive their traumatic experience on the train as they pointed out the exact location where they had witnessed Heidi being thrown onto the tracks. A female police officer, in a blonde wig and dressed identically, played the role of Heidi.

Following the reenactment twelve uniformed police officers questioned passengers on the train and asked them to think back a week to Sunday July 8th to see if they recalled seeing anything suspicious. Questionnaires were also given out for people to compete and return to Tower Bridge police station. 

The response from the public was promising and an early theory was that the killer may be a hotel worker. Hotels along the railway line, including the Charing Cross Hotel, were visited by detectives. 

Ten days after the murder police interviewed a man aged around 40 who was a patient at Mayday Hospital in Croydon, south London. The man had been found in his home the previous night suffering from knife wounds. He was one of six men police said they wanted to talk with in order to eliminate them from their inquiries. The names of these individuals had been put forward by members of the public after the publicity surrounding the reenactment.

A week or so later Detective Chief Superintendent Bill Ramsay, who was leading the murder inquiry, announced that new leads had developed. Information had come to light that some people interviewed about their movements at the time of the murder may have given inaccurate statements. These people were being reinterviewed. In turn this had led investigators to speak with a woman who gave them the name of a potential suspect, a man from the town of Haverhill, Suffolk, 47 miles, 75 km north east of central London. 

According to reports this man had been sheltered in the home of a friend, though the friend was unaware he may be a killer. They were said to have known each other for some time. After thorough questioning the man was eliminated as a suspect, though the Cambridge Evening news reported on August 8th 1973 that information the man had given was being checked out by investigators.  

Two months into the investigation there was an apparent breakthrough when a woman came forward to tell of an incident that took place in March 1973, 4 months before Heidi's murder. The new information gave a possible explanation behind the motive for Hedi’s murder.

A middle aged woman from a Scandinavian country was travelling on a train from New Cross to London Bridge. That's the same stretch of track as Heidi but in the opposite direction. Just before the train left the station a man carrying a haversack boarded the train into the same non-smoking compartment as the woman. This woman's identity was known only as Mrs A or Mrs X depending on the news publication. I will refer to her as Mrs A. 

As the man stepped into the compartment he tripped over Mrs A’s feet before taking the seat opposite her. Mrs A spoke to the man saying “you were lucky to make the train” He replied “yes, I'm always lucky”.

After hearing Mrs A speak the man began acting nervously. He then pulled out a knife and leaned forward, holding it close to her neck. He asked Mrs A if she was German and said he hated Germans, especially German women. Mrs A was terrified but tried to play along saying she wasn't German but understood how he felt. She said didn't like Germans either.  

The man began trimming his finger nails with the knife but eventually put it down, though he kept it close by. For the rest of the journey Mrs A attempted to keep the man in conversation in the hope it would distract him and put him at ease.

During the conversation the man mentioned he liked Spain and roses. He told her he was going to visit an art gallery and that he was taking a refresher course in catering in order to become a chef. At one point Toronto, Canada, was mentioned and the man became agitated which made the woman think he had had a negative experience associated with the city. He also mentioned that he was having to “lay low” but did not explain why this was the case.

Mrs A said the man smelled of diesel oil and boiled onions. His shoes were splattered with cooking fat and she thought he may have worked at a hamburger stall. Physically he was eerily similar to the suspect description given in Heidi’s case by the sixth form boys, Andrew and Stephen. The man had dark, swept back hair and his face was badly pockmarked. He looked around 40 and was around 5ft 10, 178cm. His hands were filthy dirty and his eyes appeared to squint. Mrs A thought she may have seen him before, possibly selling shoe polish at her doorstep. 

Mrs A had not come forward sooner because she had been away over the summer and missed the news about Heidi's murder. It was police officers carrying out door to door inquiries that caused her story to surface. Mrs A explained that she had not reported the matter to the police at the time as she thought the man may have been the son of someone who had fought defending her country during the second world war. I'm guessing she thought this must explain his hatred for Germans. She felt she owed him a favour. 

The description of the knife the man had with him matched the one believed to have been used to kill Heidi. It was a cheap looking kitchen knife with a 12.5 cm blade and wooden handle. 

To investigators the evidence suggested this had been the same man who went on to murder Heidi four months later. Heidi could well have been murdered because of the man’s severe hatred of German women.

In October 1973 the naked body of 16 year old Jacqueline Johns was found on railway tracks at Spicers Wharf, Battersea, in south-west London. Jacqueline had been attacked and strangled while travelling back from a wedding. She was last seen at Upminster station waiting for a train to Victoria. It is believed Jacqueline missed the last train home and began walking. Police working Jacqueline’s murder met with the team investigating Heidi’s case to discuss possible links. There didn't appear to be many similarities and no connection was made. Jacqueline’s case remains unsolved and her family are still pursuing justice. Deceased child serial killer Robert Black has been put forward as a potential suspect. 

While there did not appear to be a link with Jacqueline John’s murder in February 1974 there was another incident reported on a South London train that bore similarities to Heidi’s case.

A man with a knife exposed himself to a woman travelling between Ladywell and Waterloo. The description tallied somewhat with the suspect in Heidi’s case. descriptions. The man had black, brushed back hair, an unkempt appearance and tanned complexion. This time the age of the man was estimated as a little younger at around 33.

A few months later in May 1974 a 23 year old woman with honey blond hair was threatened by a thick set man with a pair of wire cutters on a train traveling between Clapham Junction and Battersea Park. The man held the wire cutters to the woman's throat and told her he had killed before and would do so again. He then asked for money and a struggle ensued. The woman was able to pull the emergency cord and the train abruptly came to a halt. The man then fled. Within a day or so it was reported police were looking to speak to a man in St Thomas Hospital who had broken a leg jumping down a railway embankment. I do not think this attack was related to Heidi's case. 

The summer of 1974 saw an alleged confession to Heidi's murder. It came about after a man was detained on an unrelated matter in South London. The man who worked as a porter in Covent Garden was picked up in his home in Deptford, Kent and on the way to the station had leapt from the police car and tried to escape. The man was quickly re-captured. 

After his arrest a woman known to the man gave police information that he had driven a van to Farnborough in Kent on the day Heidi was killed. After leaving Farnborough he visited a London train station. It was reported that this man had been questioned in relation to Heidi's case just two days after her murder. 

The man appeared in Camberwell Court and was charged with malicious damage from an incident that had happened several weeks before. While he was detained he allegedly confessed to Heidi’s murder and detectives were desperately trying to fathom his movements on the day in question and work out whether what he shared stood up to scrutiny. From my research it seems this lead went nowhere and the man was never charged in relation to Heidi's murder. 

This had not been the first confession in the case. A different man deemed to be suffering from a mental illness had confessed early on, but this was dismissed as false. 

November 1974 saw the inquest into Heidi Mnilks death. By this stage 80,000 statements had been taken and a staggering 20,000 premises had been visited by officers. Two men had been questioned as major suspects but both had been eliminated from the investigation. At the inquest it was stated that police were due to interview another man within a couple of days but for whatever reason they did not think charges were likely to be brought against him. 

It was noted at inquest that Heidi's blue and white houndstooth coat had not been recovered. While there was a possibility it had been destroyed, investigators thought it likely it still existed.

The testimony of Mrs A, the scandinavian woman who had been threatened on a train by a man with a knife, was gone over in great detail. Coroner Dr Gordon Davies commented that there was a remarkable resemblance between this man and the photfit of the suspect in Heidi’s case. 

The coroner Dr Gordon Davies concluded that what had happened to Heidi had been a particularly nasty crime. While there had been no sexual assault he intimated that there had been a sexual aspect to the motive, coupled with the killer’s paranoic hatred towards German women. Dr Davies said it was unfortunate that railway staff had not responded to the information sixth former Andrew had brought them on the platform. A verdict of murder by a person unknown was given. 

The following summer witnessed another teenage girl being stabbed on a South London train. The 17 year old office worker from Mitcham, Surrey, felt unwell at work and caught the Sutton train at Holborn station in central London shortly after 4pm in late July 1975. A man got on at Tulse Hill and demanded money from the girl before proceeding to stab her in her neck, back and under the heart. One of the girl's lungs was punctured in the attack but she was able to fight back and bit down hard on the man's fingers when he forced them into her mouth. The man then told the survivor to get off the train at Tooting Junction, which she did, and, covered in blood, went to find medical help. Her attacker remained on the train.

The Daily Telegraph reported that due to this attack the police looked at Heidi’s case again, but as far as I can see they were deemed to be unrelated. The suspect in this instance was said to have light blond hair, and the attack was linked by police to the murder of Hector Fisher, a homeless man found dead on a bench in a Clapham churchyard a couple of weeks earlier. In 1984 Irish national and homeless person Kiernan Kelly was found guilty of this murder and the 1983 manslaughter of William Boyd. 

There is much controversy surrounding Kelly and several books have been written about him in recent years. The controversy revolves around alleged confessions he made in custody to having killed dozens of people during the 1970s by such methods as pushing people onto train tracks. At the time many of these deaths had been marked as suicides. There is no time to go into this here, but you can look up the two books written about Kelly, one by former London detective Geoff Platt in 2015  and the other by Irish journalist Robert Mulhern in 2019. Kiernan Kelly died in prison in 2001. I can't see any evidence linking him to Heidi's murder. 

At least five similar violent incidents were reported on trains in south London over the next couple of years. In one attack in August 1976 the suspect was described as 6ft, 183cm, with blond hair and blue eyes and with a pockmarked complexion. Another occurrence was in May 1977 when a 24 year old was knifed on a train near London bridge. Ultimately, though, this spate of attacks were deemed to be unrelated to Heidi's murder.

We now move on to a person whose name has been brought up in connection with Heidi's murder since 1975.  This individual is currently one of the longest serving prisoners in the UK. Only the infamous Robert Maudesly and Charles Bronson have spent more time behind bars. 

In November 1975 then 23 year old Patrick Mackay pleaded guilty on the ground of diminished responsibility to three counts of manslaughter. While in custody he allegedly confessed to several other unsolved murders around the London area, including that of Heidi Mnilk. The confessions were withdrawn by Mackay before he went to trial. He said he was mentally ill when they were made. Patrick Mackay, who is 72 and now goes by the name David Groves, continues to deny involvement in any unsolved murders.

Patrick Mackay was born on September 25th 1952 in Middlesex but grew up in Deptford and Gravesend in Kent. His mother Marion was from Guyana of creole heritage and his father Harold was from Scotland and worked as an accountant in London. Life was anything but peaceful in the Mackay family home and Patrick had a difficult childhood from the start. Harold was a violent alcoholic and kicked his wife in the stomach when she was pregnant with Patrick. The violence continued as Mackay grew up and he experienced physical abuse at the hands of his father, who was a controlling and threatening presence in the home. When Patrick was ten his father died suddenly due to heart problems exacerbated by his alcoholism. Apparently his last words to his son were, “Remember; be good”.

The young Patrick struggled to come to terms with the loss of his father and would often tell people that Harold was still alive. In the following years Mackay began displaying concerning and often violent behaviour. At 13 years old he set fire to a catholic church. Shortly after this he was institutionalised for the first time after smashing furniture in the family home and attacking his mother and sisters. 

During his teenage years Mackay was in and out of special schools and various psychiatric facilities. The troubled Mackay displayed acts of animal cruelty, including pulling the wings from birds and setting fire to a pet tortoise. He also had angry outbursts that would turn violent. There are reports of him attacking and almost killing a neighbourhood boy. In 1967 he was diagnosed as a psychopath and soon after he was committed to Moss Side Hospital (now Ashworth High Secure Hospital) in Liverpool. 

Mackay spent four years here before being released against the recommendations of staff. On more than one occasion psychiatric professionals warned there was a risk that Mackay would go on to kill. 

Over the next few years Mackay lived at various locations including a hostel in north London and with a family in Stockwell, south London. This family had found Mckay when he was just 11 huddled in a ball on a site designated for demolition. They took pity on Mackay and over the years he would often return to stay and find refuge in their  home.

After his release from the secure hospital Mackay developed a fascination with Nazism and began referring to himself as “Franklin Bollvolt the first”. This period saw Mackay turn to drink and drugs and begin to engage in increasingly escalating criminal behavior. Eventually Mackay began to implode and things came to a head in March 1975, though the events leading up to this began 18 months earlier.

In 1973 Mackay was living in Kent near his mother’s home when he was befriended by a local catholic priest, Father Anthony Crean. The two men would often meet to drink and talk together. Mackay took advantage of the priest's friendship and on one occasion broke into his home in the village of Shorne, Kent, and stole a £30 cheque. Mackay was caught by the police and ordered to pay back the money. He never did and the friendship with Father Crean subsequently broke down. Shortly after this incident Mackay moved back to London, but he obviously nursed a grudge against Father Crean. 18 months later he returned to Shorne and brutally murdered the 63 year old priest.

Mackay attacked the priest inside his cottage with his fists, a knife and an axe. After the savage assault he then placed the dying man in the upstairs bath and filled it with water. He watched the priest die. Before leaving, Mackay left the axe under the stairs by the front door. Father Crean’s body was discovered later that evening by nuns. The alarm was raised that something was amiss after Crean’s dog was seen wandering alone. 

A police officer remembered the incident with the stolen cheque and Patrick Mackay immediately became a suspect. Two days after the murder police used the electoral roll to track down Mackay and found him at the house in Stockwell belonging to the family he sometimes stayed with. 

A former area commander in Kent, Police Detective Inspector Ken Tappenden, told Kent online in 2019 that at the time of his arrest Mackay had been employed in a roast chicken shop in Leicester Square.  

After officers had put Mackay in handcuffs but before they had got him into the police car Mackay admitted to killing Father Crean.

After his arrest, Mackay’s fingerprints were matched to the crime scene of another murder which had happened less than a fortnight earlier. 

On March 10th 1975 the body of Adele Price was found at her flat in Knightsbridge, London. The elderly woman had been strangled and her body left in the kitchen. It was discovered that Mackay had managed to blag his way into the house after asking for a glass of water. He then stayed at the house for some time and even fell asleep there. He awoke when the murdered woman's granddaughter called the intercom, and fled the scene.

When police searched a hostel in north London where Mackay had been staying, amongst a lot of Nazi era memorabilia they also found several stolen items. These included a spoon which had belonged to 87 year old Isabella Griffiths, who was found murdered in her Chelsea flat on February 26th 1974. The door to the flat had been forced and Isabella had been strangled and bludgeoned. The body was then moved and placed in the kitchen before being covered. As a final act of degradation the body was knifed through the chest and pinned to the floor, where it lay undiscovered for 12 days.

While under arrest for Father Crean’s murder, Mackay confessed to the additional two murders. 

The family in Stockwell who Mackay had stayed with off and on for years spoke to the Sunday Mirror after his arrest. For the purpose of this section I will refer to them as Mr and Mrs C. They both spoke of how they had become increasingly concerned about Mackay’s behaviour over the previous months. He would bring jewellery back to the home and his explanations about where it came from did not ring true. According to Mr C, Mackay smoked cannabis and drank vodka daily.

After Mrs C heard about the murder of Adele Price she came out and accused Mackay of the crime. She claims he flew into a rage and tried to strangle her. Her son heard the commotion, came downstairs and punched Mackay, knocking him out.

Mrs C said she had gone to the police in the past about Mackay’s behaviour, but they told her they couldn't do anything unless he actually hurt someone. Mrs C said she believed that if Mackay had not been caught her and Mr C would have been his next victims.

Police also suspected Mackay was responsible for a spate of robberies that took place in 1974 which targeted older people in south-west London. Scotland Yard also wondered if Mackay may be connected to other unsolved murders from around the London area. 

After his arrest Mackay was sent on remand to Brixton Jail. In the hospital wing he is alleged to have confessed to a fellow prisoner to killing 11 people in total. The Sunday Mirror reported on November 23rd 1975 that he later repeated these alleged confessions to Detective superintendent John Bland.

Before Mackay went to trial he withdrew the majority of his confessions, saying that he was mentally ill at the time. He pled guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility in the deaths of Father Anthony Crean, Isabella Griffiths and Adele Price.

Despite recanting his confessions, police were determined to continue to look into the other murders that Mackay had originally confessed to. These were:

• Mary Haynes. The septuagenarian was found battered to death in her flat in Kentish Town on July 20th 1973. Mackay was originally ruled out as a suspect as he had been in a remand centre at the time. Police were working on a theory that he had committed the murder and then returned to the centre. Mackay was charged with this murder, but as he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the three other cases it was decided it was not in the public interest to pursue Mackay on this. The case would have gone on for a long time and there was no guarantee of a conviction. The case was left on file to potentially be prosecuted at a later date.
• Leslie Goodman. The 62 year tobacco shop owner  was beaten to death on June 15th 1974. The aforementioned Sunday Mirror article reports that Mackay took detectives to a cemetery in Paddington where a pair of blood stained shoes were found. Allegedly the blood matched the same blood type of Leslie Goodman. While Mackay was not prosecuted for this crime the case was also retained on file.

Other murders that Mackay allegedly confessed to were:

• An unknown homeless man who Mackay said he threw off Hungerford Bridge into the Thames in January 1974. According to retired Kent police Detective Inspector Ken Tappenden Mckay had done this because the man had coughed as he walked past him. The man's body was never recovered and there is no evidence to prove this killing happened. 
• Stephanie Britton 58 and her 4 year old grandson Christopher Martin who were stabbed to death in Stephanie's home in Hadley Green, Hertfordshire in January 1974.
• Sarah Rodwell. The 92 year old was battered to death inside her house in Hackney just before Christmas 1974. Sarah had been robbed of her Christmas pension and her handbag was found burned nearby. 
• Ivy Davies, 48. In February 1975 Ivy was strangled with a ligature before being dragged downstairs and beaten in her home in Holland Road, Westcliff on Sea in Essex. Mackay had been a patient at a nearby psychiatric facility at the time.

Then there is the murder of Heidi Mnilk. If Mackay was responsible, this would have been his first murder. However in November 1975, of all the alleged murders this was the only one that police said they were satisfied Mackay had not done. Investigators came to this conclusion because of a matter concerning Heidi’s missing blue and white checked houndstooth coat. 

Again according to the aforementioned Sunday Mirror article, clever questioning by DCS Bill Ramsay showed that Mackay had no knowledge of the coat. From this it was concluded he was not responsible for the murder. 

It should also be said that the description of Heidi's killer put him at 5ft7, 170 cm. The Scandinavian woman was possibly accosted by the same man, said he was taller at 5ft10, 178cm. Mackay was a tall man, standing at 6 ft 2, 188cm. Though as a general principle from researching other cases people are often not very good at estimating height, particularly when the person is seated or they themselves are seated. At the time of Heidi's murder Mackay would have been 20. The description the sixth from boys gave was a man aged 37-45. Again, it can be difficult to gauge a person's age based on appearance alone. 

Despite DCS Bill Ramsay appearing to be satisfied Mackay wasn't responsible Heidi's case continues to be mentioned in various media sources in connection with the serial killer, whenever a parole hearing approaches. It’s unclear if police have reassessed DCS Bill Ramay’s 1975 assertion. 

Patrick Mackay's minimum sentence was twenty years, so since 1995 he has been eligible to request parole. Due to concerns over his behaviour he remained in category A prison for 27 years until 2002. Then in 2014 he was transferred to an open prison following the recommendation by the parole board. Mackay had difficulties adjusting to this new way of living and was transferred back to a more secure prison in 2015. In 2017 he was again moved to an open prison where he is now able to spend time out in the community. 

In 2019 journalist John Lucas authored the book “Britain's Forgotten Serial Killer”, which encouraged police to re-examine the unsolved crimes that have historically  been connected to Mackay. In part the book was prompted by fresh bids by Mackay and his legal team to gain release. 

The publication of the book in turn did lead to several police forces (Essex police, Kent police and, I presume, the Met), to reexamine the killings. The renewed interest in Mackay caused Deptford MP Gareth Johnson to voice his opinion that Mackay should never be released as he continued to be a danger to the public. As long as he was under suspicion for other deaths he should remain in prison. Some family members of the unsolved murder victims also expressed concern about the possibility of Mackay being released.

All these developments led to Mackay’s parole hearing being delayed, and it wasn't until 2021 that it finally took place.

1700 pages of documents were poured over by the board, and Mackay’s probation officer and a psychologist and psychiatrist were questioned. Mackay himself gave evidence and a victim statement detailing the long term effect of his crimes was read. At the end of proceedings the board deemed Mackay was not suitable for release but that he could live out the rest of his life in an open prison. 

The parole board released a statement to the Mirror newspaper that said in regards to the unsolved cases it could not make findings of fact due to a lack of substantive evidence and the amount of time that has passed. Author John Lucas on the true crime blog “Pen and Sword” writes that the panel released information that said some of the allegations detailed in his 2019 book were considered but others were disregarded. From this it would seem that at least in some of the unsolved cases Mackay has been completely cleared of involvement. John Lucas goes on to say it's not clear what evidence was available to the panel as this had not been made public. It is not known if Heidi’s case was brought up during the hearing.

Mackay came up for parole again in April 2023. He was given two days for his hearing. Most prisoners are given just one but it was deemed more time was needed to properly examine all the details concerning other criminal behavior he may have committed before his detainment. It was reported by Kent Live in February 2023 that the board would look beyond his current behavior in prison and indeed any remorse that he may feel and look at prior criminal activity. This implied that Mackay would be questioned about unsolved cases again. The board was adamant that risks would be assessed and keeping the public safe would be the number one priority steering the decision. 

At the parole hearing on April 12 and 13th 2023 Mackay stated he felt remorse for his crimes and was no longer a danger. As he has done since before his trial in 1975 Mackay says the initial confession to additional killings was due to him being mentally unwell. 

Mackay was denied parole. One of the reasons given was that, despite generally displaying good behavior, he had for a short time taken drugs in prison, and this was a concern. Ultimately the board decided he was still too dangerous for release.  

It is worth mentioning that in 1988 Heidi's case was officially reopened after a similar murder on a London train. On 23rd March, 26 year old Deborah Linsley was attacked and killed as she traveled in a single compartment on the 2.16pm train between Orpington and Victoria station. Deborah, a hotel manager who lived in Edinburgh, had been back in London visiting her parents. Deborah was stabbed multiple times with a long blade knife which has never been found. 

A fellow passenger in an adjoining compartment heard a commotion and thought someone was being raped but did not pull the emergency cord. A sexual motive is likely and Deborah fought back hard against her attacker, drawing blood. Over the years there are four individuals seen on the train who police have failed to locate, including a scruffy man with dirty blond hair and a short stocky man seen jumping from the train. In 2002 a DNA profile was taken from the blood left by the killer at the scene. This has never been matched to anyone in the DNA database. I have not read much to link this murder with that of Heidi Mnilk but I thought it remiss of me not to mention it.  

Heidi Mnilk was laid to rest in Freidhof Kasse-Bettenhausen, in Kassel, Hessen Germany. Her killer has as yet not been brought to justice for the crime.

If you have any information about the unsolved murder of Heidi Mnilk you can call crimestoppers anonymously 0800 555 111.

Sources 

https://tinyurl.com/47fp7ka6