True Crime Tonight: The Death of a Crime Matriarch

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Warning, this is a true crime segment and not suitable for children. It contains references to sexual violence and suicide, which some listeners may find distressing. If you need support, you are not alone. Contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, or visit lifeline.org.au for 24 hour support.

**Meshel Laurie** (0:17)
Around Australia, this is True Crime Tonight. I'm Meshel Laurie, and I'm joined by my producers, Matthew Tankard and Ruby Bartzis. Hello. Hello. We have a book recommendation coming up for you. It's a very, very topical book this week because we have lost a matriarch, a crime matriarch in Australia.
That's a clue as to the title of the book as well. And we'll talk about all of that soon. And also an interview with Lyndon Blake, our podcaster from the States, talking about the TikTok murders. But first, here's Michael Adams from Forgotten Australia, the podcast, talking to us about Australia's Charles Manson. Archibald McCafferty, who with his followers, went on a murder rampage in 1973

**Michael Adams** (0:56)
It sounds like a big call, but Archie McCafferty was very much like Charlie Manson. From the creepy tattoos, right down to the followers, who'd kill on his command. Archie McCafferty was born in 1949 in Scotland, and he came to Australia with his family as a kid. Cops in the early 60s said they'd never seen a tougher juvenile. He was into everything. So he was put into the same notorious boy's home that produced the likes of Nettie Smith and Lenny McPherson. What could possibly go wrong? Well, Australia was about to find out.
After he turned 18, Archie was out and racking up dozens of convictions. He also sometimes killed animals for fun. Never a good sign. In 1972, Archie was also a violent husband, in and out of psych wards, and fuelling himself with smack, angel dust and plenty of booze. When his wife gave birth and the baby died soon after, Archie blamed her and vowed vengeance. To help him on his mad quest, he collected young lost souls as his followers. On Friday the 24th of August, Archie was in a stolen VW in Sydney with three of these disciples. There was a young 17 year old bloke named Rick Webster, a 16 year old girl named Julie Ann Todd, and a 26 year old woman named Carol Ellen Howes. Carol was Archie's girlfriend, and she was pregnant with his child. They pulled up in Canterbury that night, and Archie and Rick attacked a 49 year old former soldier named George Anson. Rick said he thought this was a robbery, but Archie stabbed the bloke seven times, and the guy died soon afterwards. Archie showed off the bloody knife to the gang, which included a 17 year old named Mick Meredith, and a 17 year old named Dick Whittington. They all seemed to dig what he'd done. Three nights later, they went to Leppington Cemetery in Sydney. Archie was there visiting his son's grave. If it wasn't already creepy enough, the kid's ghost was telling Archie to kill seven, kill seven, kill seven.
Once dad had done that, the boy would be somehow kind of reincarnated inside Archie, as if he didn't have enough problems already, without having a demon child as a dark passenger. So that same night, two of the teens used a hitchhiking ruse to lure a man named Ronald Cox to the cemetery. Archie and Mick shot this bloke dead while he was pleading for his life. A few hours later, they murdered a 24-year-old named Evangelos Collius, who'd just been driving home to Newtown when he'd stopped to pick up hitchhikers.
Archie's plan was then to kill his wife, her mother and her mother's boyfriend. That had made six. But first, the ghost demon baby supposedly ordered him to murder young gang member, Rick Webster.
Killing Rick would make for the seven.
17-year-old Rick's spidey senses were working overtime, and on the 30th of August, he spilled on Archie and the gang.
All of them were arrested, charged and sent to trial. In February 1974, Archie was convicted of three murders and got three life sentences. Gang members Mick and Dick got 18 years apiece. Rick got four years for manslaughter. Carol, who was soon to have Archie's baby, was acquitted. She said she'd wait for Archie.
Even more tragically, 17-year-old Julie Ann Todd, who was sentenced to 10 years, hanged herself in jail within weeks of the trial.
Behind bars, Archie was one of Australia's worst prisoners. He dealt drugs, violently assaulted people, and was involved in the fatal stabbing of at least one other inmate, which got him another 14 years. But he also turned informer, which saw him bounced around various jails and earn enough leniency that he got day release in the late 80s so he could hang out with the woman, not Carol, who he'd married while serving his sentence. In 1997, Archie was actually granted parole, but immediately deported to Scotland. There, he reunited with his prison wife, and they'd have two children. Archie reckoned he was a changed man. But not so much. Over the next seven years, he'd get drunk, drive without a license, threaten to kill his wife, but only face minor punishments for these. In 2004, he slashed his wife with a knife. She escaped with their daughter, but Archie then held their son to the blade in a police siege. Archie did give himself up, was charged with attempted murder, abduction and assault, but was only convicted on far less accounts and served just six months.