A school for serial killers

In 1997, Day was convicted for unlawfully wounding another prisoner and the following year he was convicted of strangling 22-year-old Scott Topping at Woodford prison. Topping, imprisoned for $1,200 worth of unpaid traffic fines, had three weeks left to serve when Day raped and murdered him.

On October 8, 2003, Day was murdered by Jason “Waxy” Nixon inside the MSU at SDL CC. At the time of that prison murder a guard assigned to monitor the 24-hour CCTV surveillance cameras failed to alert other guards that a murder was occurring because he was reading a book and making personal phone calls. Another disturbing aspect of the Day murder emerged when it was reported that two staff from the Queensland State Ombudsman’s Office were leaving the MSU when they saw Day pinned to the ground by Nixon but they left without telling MSU guards. That uncaring attitude reinforces the restrictive legislation that prevents media access to Queensland prisons.

It was September 28, 1994 when 21-year-old David Smith begged prison guards to place him in protective custody because he feared for his life. Prison guards refused Smith’s request and then revealed his intentions to other prisoners. Smith’s body was found a short time later in his B5 cell with multiple stab wounds. For the next 10 years Smith’s murder remained unsolved.

On September 12, 1997 Michael James “Micky” Adams, 23, was found hanging in his B7 cell at SDL CC. There was no indication Adams had been contemplating suicide but prison authorities listed his death as suicide anyway.

Prison deaths fall into two categories - natural and unnatural death. An unnatural death can be defined as murder, suicide or drug overdose. All deaths by drug overdose and suicide by hanging remain questionable because prison murders can be staged to look like suicides or drug overdoses. The term “unnatural death” is more appropriate than the official version of suicide or drug overdose.

The “sleeper hold” which cuts off blood to the brain by exerting pressure on the carotid artery is a legacy that resulted from practices employed by guards to control unruly children in Queensland juvenile institutions.

The products of state-run juvenile institutions carried the practice into the adult prison system where it is now used as a weapon for murder - a technique employed to render victims helpless before they are strung up to give the appearance of suicide by hanging.

Andrew “Mugwah” Kranz was a product of the Queensland juvenile justice system where he, and others like him, became conversant with the qualities of the sleeper hold. Kranz was also one of the first prison serial killers released back into the community after completing his sentence without being detected for committing at least two prison murders. Another suspected prison serial killer, Wayne “Spider” Fyfe, was also released from prison but died from a heroin overdose shortly after his release.

Kranz was returned to prison for rape and kidnapping. In 2004 he stabbed two prison guards at Townsville prison in an effort to remain there and not be transferred to a Brisbane metropolitan prison, where he feared members of the Angry Gang would kill him after hearing he had raped one of their women.

Shortly after the Townsville stabbing Kranz confessed to the murder of Smith and Adams. In June 2005, Andrew “Mugwah” Kranz was sentenced to double life. Without Kranz’s confession, Adams’ death would have remained listed as suicide and Smith’s death would have remained unsolved.

It is a combination of the current legislation that restricts media access and transparency of the Queensland prison system, in conjunction with the capacity for prison murders to remain undetected, that has fostered the evolving phenomenon of the prison serial killer in Queensland.

The Queensland Department of Corrective Services and its minister have an ethical responsibility that is subverted by continuing cover-ups of unexplained deaths and unsolved prison murders.

If the Queensland prison system remains shrouded in secrecy and continues to produce serial killers like Day, Nixon, Kranz and Fyfe, then it also has the capacity to create many more who could remain undetected until they are back on the street. It is that capacity that makes society a far greater killing field than those killing fields already contained within the Queensland prison system.