Murder of Muriel McKay

Muriel McKay (1914–1970) was an Australian woman who was kidnapped on 29 December 1969, and presumed murdered soon after.^[1][2] She was married to Alick McKay, then Rupert Murdoch's deputy, and targeted after being confused with Murdoch's then wife, Anna Murdoch.^[3]

Disappearance

McKay's abductors were Indo-Trinidadian brothers Nizamodeen and Arthur Hosein, who were short of cash after buying the Rooks Farm near Stocking Pelham, Hertfordshire, on a mortgage in 1967. The farm, originally established in the 17th century, covered eleven acres and was considerably rundown. Arthur kept a number of pigs and chickens there.

The Hoseins decided to kidnap Anna Murdoch after watching David Frost interview her husband on television.^[1] The confusion arose when the Hoseins followed Murdoch's company |Rolls Royce to a home in Wimbledon's 20 Arthur Street, which they assumed to be the residence of the Murdochs, but it was actually the McKays. Murdoch had lent the car to his deputy while he was with his wife in Australia.^[4] On 29 December 1969, the Hoseins broke into the home and abducted Mrs McKay. Her husband reported her missing at 8pm, after he returned home and found the telephone ripped from the wall and the content of his wife's handbag scattered on the stairs.

At 1am, a caller identifying himself as "M3" contacted Alick McKay and demanded a £1million ransom. Over the next few weeks, M3 made eighteen more calls and sent three letters demanding the money and threatening to kill Mrs McKay. Some letters written by Mrs McKay were also sent as proof that she was alive. However, two successive attempts to deliver half of the money were unsuccessful. The first one was abandoned due to a coincidental large police presence in the area. The second attempt was made on 6 February 1970. Following M3's indications, Alick McKay and his daughter (actually two police officers disguised as them) placed £500,000 in two suitcases and left them at a telephone box in Church Street, Edmonton. The police conducted surveillance in the area and noticed that a blue Volvo with a single occupant passed four times near the box between 8pm and 10.30pm, usually slowing down. At 10.47pm it passed again, this time carrying two men.

However, a resident couple, the Abbots, noticed the suitcases and became concerned. The woman kept watching while her husband reported the cases to the police, who had them moved to the local station and abandoned the operation at 11.40pm. The Volvo was traced back to the Hoseins and their farm was raided by police the next day at 8am. A notebook was found with torn pages that matched the paper used in Mrs McKay's letters, and Arthur Hosein's fingerprints also matched those found in the ransom letters. However, no further trace of Mrs McKay was found at the farm, even after it was searched for several weeks.^[2]

In spite of this, Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein were convicted on the charges of blackmail, kidnap and murder without a body at the Old Bailey on 6 October 1970.^[2] Giving them life sentences, plus 25 years in Arthur's case and 15 in Nizamodeen's, the trial judge, Mr Justice Shaw, said their "conduct was cold-blooded and abominable".^[5] It was never established what happened to McKay's remains, though there was speculation that the Hoseins had fed them to their pigs.^[6] They served 20 years in prison.^[7] Nizamodeen Hosein was deported to Trinidad after his release.^[3]

Ink

In 2017, Kelvin MacKenzie's review of Ink, a play about the history of Murdoch's British tabloid, The Sun described the portion of the play about McKay's kidnapping as it "most dramatic moment".^[4] Jane Martinson, in her review for The Guardian, described that portion of the play as its "most uncomfortable moment".^[8] Martinson quoted playwright James Graham on how to decide how to "ethically and morally report on these difficult stories", like McKay's kidnapping and murder.

References