Anita Cobby’s killer Michael Murphy dies in prison

One of the men who brutally murdered Anita Cobby has died in a Sydney prison overnight.

Michael Murphy, 65, was serving a life sentence after he and four others killed Cobby, a nurse and beauty queen winner, in 1986.

A NSW Corrective Services spokesperson on Friday morning confirmed Murphy’s death.

The Corrective Services Investigation Unit, which is part of the NSW Police Force, is investigating and will prepare a report on the death,” the spokesperson said, according to 9News.

“All deaths in custody are subject to a coronial inquest, including deaths resulting from natural causes.”

He was moved from Long Bay Jail, Sydney, suffering from advanced cancer in September last year.

Read more: Anita Cobby’s killer Michael Murphy ‘on death bed’ with advanced cancer

Murphy was one of five men arrested for the kidnapping, brutal sexual assault and murder of Anita in Blacktown, western Sydney in 1986. The nurse and former beauty pageant winner was attacked while walking home from the train station in February after having dinner with friends.

Two days after she was reported missing, her body was discovered on a rural farm in Prospect, not far from Blacktown.

Cobby suffered severe broken bones from the savage bashing and was raped repeatedly before being dragged along a barbed wire fence. She was eventually killed by a slit to the throat that almost left her decapitated.

While her estranged husband was initially a suspect he was quickly cleared and the hunt was on for Murphy, his brothers Les and Gary, along with John Travers and Michael Murdoch.

With a history of violence the five were tracked down quickly by police and arrested only weeks later with secret tapes of the men confessing to murder leading to their sentence of life imprisonment. Murphy was 33-years-old when taken into custody.

The gorgeous brunette’s death has gone down in history as one of the most brutal and publicised murders in Australia. Her death caused outrage throughout the country and changed the way people viewed violence against women.

Two years ago, 30 years after his wife was abducted and murdered, husband John spoke out about Cobby’s death. In an emotional interview with Seven News, a distraught and angry John said his life was destroyed by her murder.

When asked how he felt about the killers all those years later he said: “I’d smash the f*** out of them”.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you remember this case?