Grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, unprecedented treatment of killer

MALCOLM Macarthur is back in the news with the report that the Parole Board has recommended that he be moved to an open prison pending his release, as the board feels that he is no danger to society.

For the past 20 years he has been a model prisoner. Even the man convicted of involvement in the Mountbatten murders served much less time than he.

But Macarthur's main mistake is being implicated in a crime that was, and still could be, used to embarrass Charlie Haughey.

If the death penalty was still in place, he would possibly have been executed, and he would have deserved it. But Haughey was responsible for removing capital punishment for such crimes as Minister for Justice almost 20 years earlier. While the death penalty was still on the statute books between 1946 and 1962 there were 82 murders. In 73 instances somebody was arrested, but most of the culprits were insane. Of these, 34 were considered unfit to plead while a further seven were found guilty but insane.

The death sentence was passed on 18 people (including three women), but only three men were actually executed one in 1947, another in 1948 and the final one in 1954. The other 15 were sentenced to life in prison, and they served an average of just six years. The longest that any of them served was 11 years and 7 months, while one of them got out after only three years. Malcolm Macarthur has already served almost 9 years more than any of them. Why?

People will tell you that it was because of the nature of the crime for which he was convicted the murder of nurse Bridie Gargan in Phoenix Park on a beautiful July afternoon. She happened to go sunbathing in the park that afternoon, when she was attacked by Macarthur, who wished to steal her car but inflicted fatal injuries by hitting her repeatedly on the head with a lump hammer. A gardener at the American Ambassador's residence witnessed the gruesome scene and he actually grappled with Macarthur, who made off in the nurse's car with her dying in the back seat. An ambulance crew saw her beckoning for help, but seeing the hospital sticker on the car they assumed that he was a doctor taking an injured patient to hospital. They cleared a way through the traffic for the car with the siren blazing.

A few days later Donal Dunne, a young farmer, was shot dead with his own shotgun, which he had advertised for sale. The two murders created a bit a sensation, but nothing like the sensation created by Macarthur's arrest at the apartment of the Attorney General Paddy Connolly, with whom he had been staying for some days. Macarthur had moved to Tenerife earlier that year. After the two murders he went to Connolly's apartment and pretended that he had just returned to this country. Connolly invited him to stay at the apartment. He had no grounds for suspecting that Macarthur had anything to do with either of the murders, but the gardaí did know that the man they were looking for had used the name of Malcolm Macarthur and had given his old address, which was a place previously owned by Connolly.

MacArthur fit the description of the man the gardaí were after, so they staked out the Attorney General's apartment. Macarthur actually accompanied Connolly to an All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park, where he chatted with Garda Commissioner Patrick McLoughlin about "that dreadful" murder in Phoenix Park. On Friday, August 13, 1982, the gardaí arrested Macarthur in Connolly's apartment. It was as if the story was right out of some far-fetched murder movie. The Garda Press Office and Government Information Service initially tried to cover up the fact that Macarthur had been arrested in the Connolly's apartment. But the rumours began circulating anyway

There was a report that Macarthur was being investigated for the murder of Charles Self, an RTÉ producer who had been bludgeoned to death earlier in the year. That murder had received extensive publicity due to the gay community's complaints about Garda harassment. It was believed that Self, a gay activist, had been killed by another homosexual.

This gave rise to unfounded speculation about a possible homosexual relationship between Connolly and Macarthur. Dublin was suddenly awash with lurid rumours. There was no gay connection. Macarthur was not involved in the murder of Self, and Connolly was not a homosexual.

The Taoiseach Haughey came in for intense criticism as a result of the initial efforts to conceal the killer's connection with the Attorney General. As the controversy was about to break, Connolly flew to New York on a planned holiday. But Haughey then requested him to return to Dublin immediately, and promptly accepted Connolly's resignation. The spotlight was then turned on Haughey himself. He excused his initial dithering on the grounds that the case was grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, and unprecedented. Those words prompted Conor Cruise O'Brien to coin the acronym GUBU.

In response to a question Haughey praised the handling of the investigation as "a very good piece of police work" as they had come up with "the right man". He had been informed by the Garda Commissioner and John Courtney, head of the Murder Squad, that Macarthur had admitted his guilt. Moreover, he wrote a note to Haughey stressing that Connolly "had no knowledge whatever of any wrongdoings of mine and must be considered utterly blameless".

The Taoiseach's allusion to Macarthur as the "right man" was clearly prejudging his guilt. The remark was an unintentional slip. He did not realise his gaffe until told by an aide. Reporters were asked to withhold the remark, as it had been inadvertent. The Taoiseach had facilitated the journalists by answering their questions, and he could feel aggrieved at the way in which his gaffe was highlighted, especially when it was later suggested that some people believed that it was a deliberate attempt to prejudice the case so that Macarthur would be let off.

The whole affair could be put down to bad luck in Haughey's case. "If Charlie had ducks, they'd drown on him," wrote columnist John Healy.

Of course, Haughey did have ducks. One day in the Dáil restaurant Martin O'Donoghue ordered duck from the menu, only to be told that the last of the duck had been served. Overhearing this at a nearby table, Haughey remarked that he had plenty of ducks at Kinsealy. A few days later a brace of duck was delivered to the home of O'Donoghue, who had long been one of the Short Fellow's most trenchant critics. There was a note attached to the effect that they had been shot at dawn on Haughey's estate.

CJ still has the sense of humour. Last weekend he started the Dingle Regatta. As he held up a flag to initiate proceedings a photographer asked him to raise the flag higher. "Do you think I'm a flagpole?" he asked.

Connolly was "entirely innocent" in the view of Garret FitzGerald, then leader of the opposition, but he was pilloried anyway in the attempt to gut Haughey. Likewise, MacArthur has spent extra years in jail because of the tenuous Haughey link. Of course, Macarthur was only getting what he deserved, but what about the others who murdered people while he has been in jail?

They have been convicted, jailed, and freed. At least one culprit has had time to kill again. This is not justice.