The accidental victim

In 1969, criminals planned to kidnap Rupert Murdoch's wife, Anna, and hold her for ransom. But Australian woman Muriel McKay was taken instead. She was never seen again, and her family is still searching for answers.

- WORDS by WILLIAM LANGLEY

On the night of October 3, 1969, Rupert Murdoch, a new and disruptive presence on the British media scene, was facing a tough interrogation from star television host David Frost. In a series of prickly exchanges, Murdoch was accused of peddling sensationalism and using his newly acquired newspaper titles to “put money before morality”.

Keenly watching the proceedings from a dilapidated farmhouse 50km away were two brothers with a very limited interest in the ethical side of the discussion.

What caught the attention of Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein were the clips about Murdoch’s wealth and, particularly, his beautiful 25-year-old wife, Anna, who had recently joined him in London from Australia. Such were the beginnings of an extraordinary, tragic and still unresolved crime.

The Hoseins’ idea was to kidnap Anna Murdoch and hold her to a ransom of £1 million – about $42 million today. The money, they believed, would finance their fantasy of becoming “English country gentlemen”. But they got the wrong woman, and 55-year-old Muriel McKay, a warmhearted housewife originally from Adelaide, vanished and has never been seen since.

A few weeks after the Frost interview, the Hoseins staked out Murdoch’s office behind Fleet Street, and upon spotting a silver Rolls Royce, which they rightly assumed to be the tycoon’s personal transport, followed it to an address in Wimbledon. What they didn’t know was that Murdoch was abroad and had given use of the car to his deputy, Alick McKay.

In the early evening of December 29, the brothers returned, and Muriel was roughly abducted from her home in a quiet residential street.

The kidnappers belatedly discovered their mistake but stuck to their £1 million release fee, and for the next six weeks tormented and terrorised the McKay family with their demands.