Scottish serial killer who murdered four people and was dubbed ‘Australia's Charles Manson' dies in agony in Edinburgh

Scottish Sun

19 hours ago

During a drug-fuelled visit to his son's grave, he believed he heard his baby say he would be reborn if his dad killed seven people
MONSTER GONE Scottish serial killer who murdered four people and was dubbed 'Australia's Charles Manson' dies in agony in Edinburgh
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A NOTORIOUS Scots serial killer has died in agony, we can reveal.
Archie 'Mad Dog' McCafferty, 74 - who murdered four people in Australia in the 1970s - passed away in Edinburgh.
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Archie 'Mad Dog' McCafferty returned to Scotland in 1997 after being deported from Australia
Credit: PA:Press Association
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The killer murdered four people in Australia in the 1970s
Credit: Les Gallagher - The Sun Glasgow
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His multiple causes of death included pneumonia, acute kidney injury, covid and lung condition COPD
Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
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Mad Dog went on his killing spree after the death of his son
Credit: Les Gallagher - The Sun Glasgow
His multiple causes of death included pneumonia, acute kidney injury, covid and lung condition COPD.
It was also noted on his death certificate he died after falling and being unable to get up at his flat in the capital's Broughton district.
Glasgow-born McCafferty - dubbed Australia's Charles Manson - died last year but details of his death and its causes has only recently been lodged.
A source said: 'He died in lonely agony.
'But after what he did to all his victims and the pain he inflicted on their families, he deserves to rot in hell.'
In an interview with The Scottish Sun in March 2006, McCafferty, said: 'The truth is murdering people meant nothing to me. It was the same as picking my nose.'
McCafferty, whose family emigrated to Australia when he was ten, went on a five-day killing spree after the accidental death of his six-week-old son Craig in 1973.
During a drug-fuelled visit to the tot's grave, he believed he heard his baby say he would be reborn if his dad killed seven people.
He began his killing spree in 1973 by stabbing a newspaper seller, George Anson, 50, seven times.
Two days later, dad-of-seven Ronald Cox, 42, picked up two of McCafferty's gang who were out hitch-hiking.
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They abducted him at gunpoint and took him to McCafferty.
Ronald pleaded for his life, asking the killer to think of his children, but McCafferty shot him in the back of the head.
Hours later, McCafferty claimed his third victim.
He ordered one of his gang to blast driving instructor Evangelos Kollias to death with a sawn-off shotgun.
McCafferty was caged for life, and in 1978 he got a further 16 years for butchering fellow inmate Edward Lyon.
But after 23 years in a Down Under jail, bearded McCafferty, who never got Australian citizenship, was deported to Scotland.
McCafferty, who has lived in 30 different locations since his arrival, was then jailed for holding first wife Mandy hostage after she told him she would take their two kids back to Australia.
During a tense siege in 2004 he taunted riot cops, yelling: 'Don't f*** with me - if you want a Mad Dog, you have got one.'
In 2007, McCafferty claimed he turned down the offer of £15,000 to kill a drug lord's gangland rival.
Two years later he insisted he turned his back on crime to become a toymaker after completing a woodwork course he'd been sent on as part of a community service placement for driving a car with dodgy licence plates.