2020-02-01_Fortean_Times

BOOKS

62 FT389

Britain’s Forgotten

Serial Killer

The Terror of the Axeman

JohnLucas

Pen&Sword2019

Pb,213pp,£14.99, illus,bib,ind, ISBN

9781526748843

Britain’sForgottenSerial Killer

tells thestory of PatrickMackay,

whowent onarampageinthe

mid­1970s,murdering at least

threepeople.

As ayoung man, Patrick

Mackaymadeacareer ofmugg­

ingwealthyold Londonladies.

Sinceat thetime,suchacowardly

crimewasquite uncommon,

the trusting oldwomen allowed

Mackaytocarrytheirshopping

homeforthem,and invited him

intotheir flats.Thepsychopath

repaid thembyknocking

themdownand stealingtheir

belongings.One

of hisvictims

was84­year­

oldIsabella

Griffiths,whom

he robbed

andmurdered

in 1974.The

followingyear,

he dispatched 89­year­old widow

Adele Price,beforemurdering

Fr AnthonyCrean,akindbut

foolishRomanCatholicpriest, in

abloodbath.

John Lucasrightly points

out that therewas asurprising

number ofmysteriousunsolved

murdersinLondonand the

provincesduring Mackay’s reign

of terror, andit seemslikelythat

his tally of victimsis agooddeal

longerthan the three counts of

manslaughterfor whichhewas

convicted. InMurder Houses of

LondonIhavespeculatedthat

Mackayholds the macabrerecord

of no fewerthan sixmurder

houses stillstandingtoday.

Mackaywas bundledinto a

prison cell; thekey wasthrown

away. Fast forward44years.The

keywas retrievedin2 019 and

Mackaywas dustedoff and put

in anopen prison.Therewas an

outcryinthe press that such a

fiendish serial killershouldbe

on theroute tofreedom, however,

anditappearsthat at thepresent

time, the 66­year­old Mackay

is stillbehind bars.Thisbook

containseverythingyouneed

to knowabouthis sanguineous

careerin the1970s;itbelongsin

anylargertruecrime collection.

JanBondeson

HHH

Protect andSurvive

Fall-out shelters made from soft furnishingsand terrifyingly bland

graphics:awonderful visualhistoryof the attackthat nevercame

Nuclear War in

the UK

Taras Young

Four Corners Irregulars 2019

Hb,128 pp,£10, illus,ISBN9781909829169

Manyyears

ago,Iwas

fortunate

enough

to enjoya

tour of RAF

Scampton,

then partially

mothballed,

an historicsite thatwasonce

home to 617 Squadron (the

famous ‘Dambusters’) and later

to Britain’sVbombers, armed

with Blue Steel missiles. Aswe

faced the runway, myguide, the

late Mervyn Hallam,alifelong

RAFman,mentioned thatthis

waswherethe Vulcans had been

on 15 minutes’readiness “during

WorldWar III”; hequickly

corrected thisto “theCold

War”, but he’dalreadyplunged

us intoaweirdhauntological

space where ruralLincolnshire

had been at the centre of a

devastating thermonuclear global

conflict.Forthe then­busy station

and theVulcancrews, thewarhad

evidentlybeenvery real,evenif

hostilitieswere neverannounced.

TarasYoung’sexcellent little

book takesus to asimilar space,

providingarichvisual historyof

preparednessforanattackthat

nevercame.Whileoutlining the

Government’spoliciesfordealing

withanuclear onslaught,the

book isprimarilyconcerned with

theways thesewere imagined

in aseries of printed materials

issuing from the CentralOffice

of Informationand otherofficial

bodies.Thenotorious ‘Protect

and Survive’campaignofthe

1980s isthe best­remembered.

Planned from the mid­1970s as

part ofaco­ordinatedcampaign

using film andradiomaterials

producedby the COI, the

infamous bookletwaspublished

after public pressurein1980.

Releasedoutsideofits intended

context, asYoungremarks, the

bookletseemed at once“sinister

and quite pathetic”,and it met

withawitheringreception from

everyone from RaymondBriggsto

TheYoung Onesandwasparodied

inBen’sBunkerBookandEP

Thompson’sProtestand Survive.

Theterrifyinglybland graphics

arereproduced here alongside a

wealth of lessfamiliar material

fromthe early1950s to the mid­

1980s.Thereare survivalguides

producedby District andParish

Councils,promotional literature

from bodiessuchasthe Royal

Observer Corps, andsome truly

bizarrecommercialefforts such

asProtect andSurvive Monthly

(“WillYour PetSurvive aNuclear

War?”andvariousadsfor private

nuclearbunkers.

It’shardtolook atthisstuff

without thinkingofRichard

Littler’sScarfolk.Itembodies

preciselythe samemixture

of supposedlyreassuring, but

deeplysinister,official blandness

and unthinkable terror: just

look atthe Ladybird Book­like

mushroom cloudengulfingHull

shown below. Four Corners

Irregularshaveproduced a

handsome book withexcellent

reproductions ofrarely seen

material, whileYoung’ssuccinct

account provides thenecessary

context. At £10,it’s abargain.

Davi dSutton

HHHHH

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