The Granny Killer

The Granny Killer, John Wayne Glover, was a serial killer in Australia.  He molested and killed older women in their 60’s to 90’s.  Glover bludgeoned the women, groped them, then tied and strangled them with their panties.  Glover was a local pie salesman and he would go to the nursing homes where many of his victims resided in the course of his work selling pies.  Based on incorrect profiling, police were looking for a teenaged offender.  Glover, however, was middle aged and appeared to be very friendly and respectful.  He had a wife and family, did charity work, and socialized with senior groups.  Glover had committed some sexual assaults about 25 years prior to him starting to kill.  Killings started after a series of stressful events in Glover’s life.  First, Glover and his wife moved into his wife’s parents home.  Second, Glover’s mother moved into the house with them as well.  Living with his in laws and mother caused him a great amount of stress.  Third, his mother died of cancer.  Finally, Glover himself came down with cancer; the treatment left him impotent. The attacks began in 1989.  Glover began molesting, attacking, and killing elderly women in and out of nursing homes.  When police got a break in the case and realized that Glover was a main suspect, they noted that since he was older, he had blended into his environment.  He had actually had been there all along (Keppel & Birnes).

Glover attempted suicide after police contacted him about a reported assault at a hospital, leaving a note that there wouldn’t be any more grannies killed.  Feeling that Glover was the murderer, but still not having enough concrete evidence to convict him, the police followed Glover every place he went.  Police were outside of his final victim’s house while he killed her and attempted suicide again.  When Glover didn’t leave the house for a long time, the police on duty entered the house and found the gruesome scene.  Glover’s subsequent confession provided the proof needed to lock him away for the rest of his life (Keppel & Birnes).

Works Cited

Keppel, Robert D., and William J. Birnes. The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations The Grisly Business Unit. Academic Press, 2003.