Case 276: Claire Acocks & Margaret Penny
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In 1991, the old London Coiffure was well known to the people of Portland, a small harbourside city 350 kilometres south-west of Melbourne. Located on the corners of Julia Street and Bentinck Street, two of the main shopping strips in town, the hair salon had been servicing residents of the community for 20 years. But it hadn't always been that way.

Just a stone's throw from Portland Bay, the two-story bluestone building was built in 1844. It had once served as a hotel called the Old London Inn, offering residential accommodation, meeting rooms, and a boarding stable. The ground floor had since been converted to the hair salon and various office spaces, while the upper level housed a dental surgery.

Despite the many changes the Old London building had gone through over the years, it retained its original Georgian-era charm and was still considered one of the most distinguished buildings in Portland. 49-year-old Claire Aycox could be found working two days a week at the Old London Coiffure. She was incredibly well-liked around town, with her warm and generous nature affording her a loyal client base.

Her work days were relatively uneventful, save for the odd piece of town gossip and, more recently, petty theft. Around April 1991, the owner of the salon had arrived at work to discover that a chair behind the reception desk had been overturned and approximately $30 in coins had been stolen from the register. The salon doors were all locked and there were no signs of a break-in.

Police were notified, but there was little they could do and it was brushed off as a minor incident. A few weeks later, on the afternoon of Wednesday April 17 1991, Claire was working alone when she turned around to find an unfamiliar long-haired man standing behind her. His presence in the salon hadn't triggered the bell which was attached to the front door handle, giving Claire a significant fright.

The man didn't have an appointment, but he requested that Claire give him a trim. Something about his eyes and the way he carried himself completely unnerved Claire. As they spoke, the man made several derogatory and abusive comments, telling Claire that he didn't like hairdressers. He eventually left without getting a haircut. As soon as he was out of sight, Claire locked the salon and closed up shop for the day. The interaction completely rattled her.

Claire was typically a calm and confident person, but when she told friends about the incident, her demeanour changed completely. She described the would-be customer as a "horrible man with creepy eyes" and said she'd never been so frightened in her life. "Out of sight" didn't necessarily mean "out of mind". Just before the man left, he had warned of his intentions to return.

Roughly two weeks after the encounter with the horrible man, May 3 1991 started out like any other Friday for Claire. After a typical morning at home, she made lunch for her husband Peter and one of his friends before leaving for her shift at the salon. She brought with her a jumper she was in the process of knitting for her soon-to-be-born grandson. Claire's daughter lived in Melbourne and was about to give birth to her first baby.

Claire had been diligently saving to visit her new grandson and shower him with gifts. She'd managed to save $500, which she carried around in an old wallet, and she worked on her knitting project whenever she got a spare moment between clients. Claire Aycox had lived in Portland for 15 years.

With a population of roughly 9,000 residents, it was not only considered a safe place to live, the laid-back lifestyle was also a perfect fit for Claire's personality. She was passionate about three things above all else: her family, animals, and gardening. The Aycock's three children had since flown the nest, giving Claire more time to focus on her hobbies and work.

Claire had three appointments scheduled for Friday afternoon, one of which was with her regular client, 58-year-old Margaret Penny. Margaret and her husband of 36 years had relocated to Portland only seven months prior, having lived in town previously before moving elsewhere to raise their two children.

Margaret was a house-proud woman who prided herself on her appearance. As such, she had a recurring appointment with Clare Aycox every Friday afternoon to have her hair set and styled. On this particular day, Margaret was also scheduled to have her hair coloured in preparation for a week-long trip visiting her daughter Jacqueline in Melbourne the following morning.

For several weeks, Margaret and her husband Robert had been looking after Jacqueline's five-year-old daughter, Alice. Not her real name. Margaret was a doting grandmother and she spent the morning entertaining Alice at home while Robert did some yard work and ran errands around town. Margaret usually took Alice with her to the salon to have her hair braided, but on this particular day, Alice was going to stay home to help Robert build a swing in the backyard.

As Margaret's 2pm appointment approached, she was running behind schedule. This stressed her out as she prided herself on being punctual and organised. By the time Robert moved the car onto the street for her, Margaret was in a hurry. She rushed off, making a quick stop at the Ocean Pier Tea Rooms. The café was just a few buildings down from the old London Coiffure.

Margaret had made plans to meet her friend Shirley Endersby for afternoon tea there after her hair appointment at 3:15. Worried that the staff would stop preparing food by that time, Margaret ducked in to pre-order some sandwiches before hurrying down the street to the salon. The old London building backed onto a communal courtyard shared by multiple businesses. This space could be accessed via large iron gates which were kept open during office hours.

At around 3:30, two men who worked in the office across the courtyard heard high-pitched screams coming from outside. They peered out the window. One of them saw the rear screen door to the salon fling open as the wooden door behind it slammed closed. The screams then stopped as quickly as they'd started. Assuming it was just kids running around, the office workers didn't give it any more thought.

At 3:40pm, Shirley Endersby sat watching the clock at the Ocean Pier Tea Rooms. Margaret Penny was 25 minutes late. This was incredibly unlike her. Shirley decided to duck to the old London Coiffure to see what the holdup was. When she arrived at the salon and pushed on the front door, she was surprised to find it was locked. This was strange given that the salon wasn't scheduled to close until later in the evening. Shirley knocked loudly,

There was no answer. She knew Margaret couldn't be too far away. She could see her car parked on Bentink Street nearby. Shirley walked to the courtyard at the rear of the salon, but the back door was locked too. Shirley banged on the door. There was no response. Shirley returned to the tea rooms, keeping an eye out for Margaret on the streets. By this point, it was nearing 4pm.

It was completely out of character for Margaret Penny to be 45 minutes late and Shirley was unsure what to do next. She got in her car. As she drove past the old London Coiffure, she saw that the lights were on inside. Shirley wondered whether she had gotten the times mixed up. Perhaps Margaret had said 4.15 and was still mid-appointment. Maybe she'd brought her granddaughter Alice with her and the young girl had locked the door while playing around.

Shirley drove the short distance to her house and called Margaret's husband, Robert Penny. Robert was home with Alice. He recalled that Margaret had rushed off to her hair appointment in a hurry, but he hadn't heard from her since. Shirley drove back into town, keeping an eye out for her friend. She checked in a couple of shops before walking back to the salon. By this point, it was 4.15pm.

Both the front and back doors were still locked and again Shirley's knocks went unanswered. As she passed the window to the shampoo room at the rear of the building, she noticed that the lights were off. Assuming this meant the salon was closed for the day, she drove home once more and called the salon owner, Kay Edwards, to see what was going on. When Kay heard that the salon was locked, she was puzzled.

She worked at the salon most days, except Wednesday morning and Friday afternoon, when Claire was rostered on. Kay knew that Claire had several appointments scheduled for that afternoon, including one for 4:30pm. It made no sense that the salon doors would be locked or the lights to the shampoo room would be off.

Both the front and back doors were always left open during business hours as clients used both entrances, and the lights to the shampoo room were always kept on. Kay hung up her call with Shirley and dialed the salon twice. The phone rang out both times. She made the two-minute drive to see for herself what was going on. As soon as Kay arrived via the rear courtyard, she knew something wasn't quite right.

The screen door, which was always kept closed, was wide open, while the solid wooden door was locked. Kay walked around to the front entrance and unlocked the main door. The salon had three rooms: a reception area, the main hairdressing space, and a small shampoo room. When Kay entered the reception area, she noticed several items were out of place. A stool behind the front desk had been turned on its side.

The cash register was closed, but a 20 cent transaction had been rung up on the till. This alone was odd. Nothing in the salon cost 20 cents. K peered into the main salon, which was separated down the middle by a mirrored partition with three chairs on either side. One chair had been moved from its usual spot and three magazines sat in its place.

A trolley that usually sat against the back wall had been moved to the archway leading to the shampoo room. Kay was too afraid to venture any further. She ran upstairs to the dental surgery and told the receptionist, "There's something strange downstairs." The receptionist agreed to accompany Kay to check it out. As the two women entered the main salon, Kay noticed a black handbag lying on the floor with its contents strewn about.

Her anxiety peaked. The two women apprehensively made their way towards the entrance of the shampoo room. It was a small, dark space positioned towards the rear of the building containing three black chairs and a hair washing basin. That's when Kay saw it. Two pairs of legs sprawled out on the ground.

Junior Constable Tim Acox had just arrived at work and was manning the desk at the Portland police station when a colleague told him that something major was unfolding down the street. Two women had been found dead in the old London coiffure. Constable Acox froze. While Portland had its fair share of smaller, mostly drug-related crimes, murders were unheard of.

Worse still, Claire Aycox was his mother and he knew that she worked at the Old London Coiffure on Friday afternoons. As Constable Aycox continued to field calls in a state of shock, investigators examined the scene. Just inside the doorway to the shampoo room, the bodies of Margaret Penny and Claire Aycox lay head to toe, covered with black hairdressing capes. Blood pooled on the floor around them.

Margaret lay on her stomach with her throat slit. There were numerous stab wounds and abrasions to her back and abdomen, and five of her ribs were fractured. Her hands rested at her chest, bound together with a black towel. A grey electrical cord had been used to bind her ankles together, and the cord was also looped around her neck and tied to a nearby chair. Claire Aycox lay alongside her.

Like Margaret, Claire's throat had been slit and her torso was peppered with stab wounds and abrasions. Although Claire had fewer wounds than Margaret, hers were significantly deeper. A clear wrap had been tied around her neck and the electrical cord of a curling wand had been loosely tied to a nearby chair. The contents of Claire's handbag had been dumped in the nearby basin, while the contents of Margaret's bag were scattered near the shampoo room door.

Both women were fully dressed, except for Margaret's eyeglasses and one of Claire's shoes, which were lying nearby. While there were no signs of sexual assault, it was clear that a struggle had taken place. Both women were covered in defensive wounds and blood spatter covered the walls. The forensic evidence indicated that the women had been attacked while forced to sit in the shampooing chairs.

They eventually dropped forward and bled out on the floor where the killer covered their bodies. A majority of the injuries had been inflicted using a sharp-edged knife, which was nowhere to be seen. But on Margaret's back and chest were also a series of narrow, round puncture wounds. The weapon that caused these injuries wasn't immediately clear.

What was obvious was that this had been a cold-blooded and vicious attack, unlike anything many of the officers had ever seen before. All up, the perpetrator had taken off with almost $900 in cash. This included the $500 that Claire had been saving for her grandson and approximately $180 that Margaret had been carrying. Money had also been taken from the salon till, along with a cheque and a few miscellaneous items.

But this didn't necessarily mean that the attack had been motivated by robbery. If the perpetrator had simply wanted money, it seemed odd that they'd gone to such extreme lengths. Both Claire and Margaret were also wearing several items of valuable jewelry. Margaret alone wore four gold rings, one of which contained a diamond. But the killer had made no attempt to remove them.

Inquiries quickly revealed that both Claire and Margaret were well-liked, upstanding citizens with no known enemies. Both were happily married and each of their husbands had alibis that checked out. Peter Acox was playing golf with friends at the time of the crime, while Robert Penny was home with his granddaughter. Who would want to kill these two harmless innocent women, and why? As Robert Penny expressed when delivered the news:

How can you go to the hairdresser and not come back? The police soon learned about Claire Aycox's recent encounter with the so-called "Horrible Man". There was no mention of him in the salon's appointment book. Although the Old London Coiffure did take the occasional male customer, their clientele were predominantly women. Other than the man's horrible eyes, the only thing Claire had mentioned about his appearance was that he had long hair.

Identifying him would be no easy task, but for investigators, finding the horrible man was a priority. They considered the possibility that he could have visited Claire Aycox at the salon to assess the location and to scope out the building layout. His comment about disliking hairdressers could be significant. Was this just an off-color remark or did he have a genuine hatred of this profession and deliver on his threat to return?

The only discernible clue that the offender had left behind was a partial bloody shoe print found near the entrance of the shampoo room. The defensive wounds on Claire and Margaret's hands suggested the killer might have been injured during the attack, but it was difficult to distinguish between the large quantities of blood found at the crime scene. Inquiries were made with hospitals and healthcare facilities, but no one had presented seeking treatment for Kurtz.

Given that the murders had occurred within a salon, hair samples were everywhere. The salon was painstakingly vacuumed and the contents held in evidence, but identifying whether any of the hair belonged to the killer was near impossible. Hundreds of customers who had recently visited the salon were asked to volunteer their fingerprints to be eliminated from the investigation. When each print was accounted for, only one remained - a partial print near the front door.

While this was a promising lead, it didn't contain any blood and investigators couldn't say for sure whether the print belonged to the killer. Claire Aycox had tended to two clients earlier in the afternoon. Neither of them had noticed anything unusual about her demeanour nor had they seen any suspicious activity at the salon. One recalled that a man had arrived via the rear door and asked Claire something.

But the client had only heard the man's voice and didn't hear what he asked or get a look at him. A friend of Claire's had driven past the old London coiffure at around 3:05. Claire was standing on the opposite side of the street, holding her bag of knitting. The two acknowledged one another with a quick wave. This was the last time she was seen alive.

Investigators deduced that while Margaret's hair was setting, Claire had likely run across the street to retrieve the knitting from her car. This would have only taken her a couple of minutes. Based on the time that the bodies were discovered, this meant the crime occurred sometime between 3:05 and 4:30 pm. Two other people had gone past the salon during that crucial 90-minute period.

Margaret's friend Shirley Endersby at both 3:45 and 4:15 and another of Claire's clients at 4:30. Neither had seen or heard anything suspicious. Two office workers had heard high-pitched screams at 3:30pm, but they hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. A dentist who worked upstairs also recalled hearing the sound of a woman crying out in disgust, but he couldn't be sure exactly what time.

Investigators could only speculate over what occurred inside the old London Coiffure. They believed the killer had acted alone. He likely entered the salon via the front door, possibly while Claire was retrieving the knitting from her car. Perhaps he intended to rob the place and was caught off guard upon finding Margaret inside. He could have ordered Margaret to the shampoo room, bound her to the chair, and then overpowered Claire upon her return.

Or maybe the killer had burst in unexpectedly, ordering both women to the shampoo room where he launched his attack. While it couldn't be determined how long the women were held for, it was possible that the killer had spent up to 90 minutes on the scene. Claire's 4:30 appointment had arrived via the front door and seen nothing, making it likely the killer fled by the salon's rear door.

There were only two possible escape routes. Either the killer had run through a dozen backyards to make a stealth getaway via a back lane, or he'd had to cross at least two main streets during peak hour. The savage attack had happened in broad daylight at one of the busiest times of the day. A school was located just a few hundred meters down the road, and the crucial time period had occurred when students were knocking off for the weekend.

Dozens of parents and children passed right by the Old London Coiffure around the time the attack was thought to have taken place. Given the amount of blood at the crime scene, it was indisputable that whoever had killed Claire and Margaret would have been covered in blood. Yet, no one had witnessed anything suspicious. With no concrete sightings of the perpetrator, investigators queried who could be motivated to pull off such a violent and brazen crime.

Was this a random opportunistic attack or had someone deliberately targeted the two women? Case file will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors. Hey small businesses, Sentera Health Plans has a team dedicated to answering your questions, leaving time for other business thoughts like... How did an action figure get stuck in the air vents? Or... What is the ideal human to goat ratio for my yoga class?

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Given that Margaret had a recurring appointment with Claire every Friday afternoon, it was possible that the killer could have known this and visited the salon with the intention of carrying out the attack. Alternatively, investigators also considered the possibility that the salon owner, Kay Edwards, could have been the intended target, and Margaret and Claire were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But K2 was a well-liked, law-abiding local with no enemies or nefarious connections. The possibility that any of the three women could have been specifically targeted just didn't make sense. In the days before computers, each piece of information had to be recorded by hand and then prioritised accordingly. The police quickly became overwhelmed.

Pressure was on to solve the case quickly, but with very little evidence to go on, one investigator said they were, quote, "...shifting bricks and hoping something turns up." Known criminals were looked into and checks were made with psychiatric hospitals around Victoria, but no prime suspects emerged. An alert was placed on the check number stolen from the salon during the attack.

If an attempt was made to cash the cheque, various banks were told to contact the authorities. An extensive search of the area surrounding the old London building came up dry. But dozens of knives were recovered across the Portland foreshore and surrounding bushes. Each was ruled out as the murder weapon, with investigators concluding they had most likely been thrown away or lost by fishermen. This wasn't unusual for a seaside town.

Portland Harbor was a busy space and commercial fishing was one of the town's main industries. The deep-sea port facilitated a direct link between the ports of Melbourne and Adelaide and was a hub for international shipping. It also paved the way for a growing drug problem in the local community. Investigators therefore considered the possibility that Claire and Margaret's killer could have come from one of the ships.

On the day of the murders, only one ship was docked in the harbour - the MV Portland. Interestingly, the MV Portland had also been docked at the same time that Claire Aycox encountered the so-called "Horrible Man". The crew members were looked into, including their whereabouts on Friday May 3. No obvious suspects emerged, but police couldn't discount the possibility that the harbour might have played a role.

Yachts and small boats could dock in Portland Bay without any formal registration. It was therefore possible that a lone yachtsman or fisherman had stopped by Portland, committed the murders, and then sailed away without anyone attributing them to the area. One of Portland's other major industries was the local abattoir. At peak times, the abattoir employed upwards of a thousand staff.

It wasn't unusual to see an off-duty abattoir worker walking around town with blood on their clothes. The hairdresser murders could have been committed by an abattoir worker who was skilled with knives. Maybe he had a particular hatred of hairdressers or older women, or had simply snapped. Another theory was that the murders could have been retaliation.

While neither Claire Aycox nor Margaret Penny had any enemies, rumours swirled that someone might be out to get revenge on Claire's son, Constable Tim Aycox. As a cop, he might have angered the wrong person through his line of work. There were whispers that Tim had been involved in a serious drug raid in the weeks before the murders. But Tim shut down the retaliation theory completely. He hadn't been involved in a drug bust or anything that would single him out.

Tim was also married with an infant son. If someone was out to get him, it seemed strange that they'd target his mother and an innocent bystander. Investigators took the possibility of a grudge killing seriously and looked into the criminals Tim Aycox had crossed paths with on the job. But no ties were drawn. For one member of the Penny family, Margaret's death wasn't the first time their life had been affected by murder.

Just eight months prior to the Portland slayings, a couple had been murdered in a violent home invasion in the Victorian town of St. Andrews. Margaret's daughter Jacqueline was driving to her shift at a pub in St. Andrews when she passed the slain couple's home. Oblivious to the horrors that had just taken place inside, Jacqueline noticed a red ute go by. She recognized the driver as a customer who frequented the pub where she worked.

When Jacqueline heard about the St Andrews murders, she was reluctant to tell the police what she'd seen. The customer in the red ute was a heavy drug user who had an extensive criminal history. Jacqueline didn't want to get involved or be wrongly viewed as casting suspicion, but she knew she had to do the right thing and eventually made a report.

By the time Margaret Penny and Claire Aycox were killed, the St Andrews murder remained unsolved, but the driver of the red ute was a prime suspect. Investigators considered whether Margaret Penny could have been targeted as revenge for her daughter cooperating with the police in relation to the St Andrews case. They looked into it, but the suspect had a verified alibi for the time Margaret and Claire were killed.

It seemed an unfortunate coincidence that Jacqueline's life had been touched by these events within such a short period of time. As the days turned to weeks with no arrests in the Portland case, community fears heightened. The once laid-back town had changed overnight. Women became too afraid to leave their homes alone. Some were even too afraid to hang out the washing and avoided social events entirely.

Many turned to self-defense classes, while others took their young children to stay elsewhere. Locals who once left their doors unlocked had security systems installed, with sales increasing tenfold. Portland's former mayor Robert Menzel told reporters: "We all know one another. When somebody gets hurt, the whole town gets hurt." The host of a community radio station told listeners:

"We must all realize that Portland has changed. The words 'nothing happens in Portland' or 'it won't happen to me' are phrases that we can no longer afford to utter." It was a sentiment shared at Claire Aycock's funeral. The priest overseeing her service told the gathering mourners: "We can still barely believe it has happened. It leaves you numb and devastated.

You ask yourself, why Portland? Why then? Why at all? We are accustomed to such acts taking place in Chicago or New York, but now they have spread to our beautiful small city. For Claire's husband, Peter, mending the community spirit was a priority. He told one investigator: "Nothing we can do will bring Claire or Margaret back, but we can do a lot to put Portland back together."

Peter and Claire had loved their laid-back life in Portland. Peter believed the townsfolk were the best in Australia, but as the years ticked by and his wife's murder remained unsolved, the town Peter so deeply cherished became a constant reminder of his torment and suffering. He relocated to Queensland but never stopped missing Claire for a second, telling the Warrnambool Standard newspaper:

I still get into the car and sit there, waiting for someone else to get in." By the time three years had passed with no breakthroughs in the case, the investigation was restarted from scratch. The new detectives assigned to the case were eager to speak with Portland's former mayor, Robert Menzel. In the initial stages of the investigation, Robert had reported an incident that occurred on the afternoon of the murders.

At around 4.41, Robert said he was driving past the Old London Coiffure when he noticed a man running from the direction of the rear courtyard. The man was carrying a small satchel and looked to be aged between 25 and 30 years old. Robert stopped his car at the pedestrian crossing. The man raced directly by, continuing past the nearby Richmond Henty Hotel and then onto the foreshore until Robert lost sight of him.

At the time, the police had mostly palmed this sighting off because Robert hadn't noticed any blood on the running man. The time of the sighting was also questionable. By 4:41pm, Claire and Margaret's bodies had already been discovered. Police were more interested in the sightings that occurred within the crucial 90-minute window between 3:05 and 4:30pm. With the passing of time, detectives were curious to know more about this sighting.

Formerly interviewed for the first time, Robert Menzel said the report was wrong. He'd actually seen the running man sometime between 3:30 and 4:00 pm. Robert still remembered what the man looked like. He was approximately 170 centimetres tall and of medium build. He was white with a fair complexion, collar-length dark hair, and wearing dark-rimmed round glasses.

Robert helped create a photo fit sketch which was released to the public. Despite a long-standing $100,000 reward for information, no one was able to identify the running man. By 1995, approximately 5,000 people had been interviewed in relation to the double homicide, yet not a single arrest was made.

22 witnesses were called during a one-day inquest into the murders of Margaret and Claire, but the coroner was unable to identify a motive or a suspect. They simply concluded that the two women had been stabbed to death by a person unknown. A former Portland resident named Megan was living in Canada when she heard about the result of the inquest.

She obtained a copy of the Running Man sketch and as soon as she laid eyes on the bespectacled face, it triggered a memory. On Friday May 3 1991, Megan had been walking her dog about 300 metres from the old London building. In a street behind the Richmond Henty Hotel, she crossed paths with a barefoot man who stopped to pat her dog.

As he did so, Megan noticed that the man had what appeared to be blood stains wiped on his jeans. When Megan heard that two women had been murdered nearby, she called the police to report the sighting, but never received a response. She therefore assumed the sighting wasn't significant. But looking at the suspect sketch created by Robert Menzel, Megan was certain they had both seen the same man.

She contacted the authorities in Australia who showed her a photo line-up of potential suspects. Given the amount of time that had passed, Megan couldn't identify any of the individuals with certainty. Investigators weren't entirely sure what to make of Megan's statement. Moments after her encounter with the barefoot man, Megan said she saw police and paramedics gathered outside of the old London coiffure.

Investigators ultimately concluded that her encounter had occurred too late in the sequence of events to hold significance. It was also possible that her memory had been influenced over time. Given the varying times of Robert Menzel's account, investigators ultimately doubted the running man was involved with the killings. Regardless, this mystery man was still of interest.

Having been around the area at the time the crime occurred, it was possible he held crucial information. And he wasn't the only one. Gordon Smith had grown up in Portland. He'd been an outgoing student and a confident athlete until his late teens when he accepted an apprenticeship with the army. Within two years, a significant change in Gordon's behaviour led to him being diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression.

He was medically discharged and spent the next few years struggling to accept his diagnosis. Gordon turned to drugs to cope. This interfered with his medication and led to further behavioural changes. Gordon's family noted that he could become withdrawn, uptight and aggressive.

At 2:40 on the afternoon that Claire Aycox and Margaret Penny were killed, an old classmate of Gordon's had spotted the then 25-year-old about 200 metres from the Old London. He appeared to be mildly drug affected. The police were made aware of Gordon Smith's presence near the crime scene, not because he was particularly suspicious, but in case he witnessed something of interest.

They knew he couldn't be the horrible man that Claire Aycox had encountered. Claire and Gordon knew one another and she would have easily identified him when telling her friends about the experience. When questioned, Gordon gave vague answers. He couldn't give an exact time for his movements, only saying that he'd walked the two and a half kilometres home and fallen asleep.

With no one to verify Gordon's alibi, he remained a person of interest, but there was never anything to definitively tie him to the crime. Then in April 1998 came an unexpected revelation. The now 32-year-old Gordon had always been close with his cousin, Russell Smith. The two were the same age and had both gravitated towards drugs in their adult years.

While they'd always looked out for each other, with almost seven years passing since Claire Aycox and Margaret Penny were killed, Russell had something he wanted to get off his chest. Russell contacted police and told them that on the day after the attack at the Old London Coiffure, he received a phone call from Gordon. Gordon allegedly confessed that he was responsible for the attack at the hair salon and needed help disposing of his blood-stained clothing.

Russell lived in Melbourne at the time but travelled straight to Portland and allegedly helped his cousin throw the evidence off a cliff and out to sea. The police were wary of Russell's claims. He had an extensive criminal history of his own and it was possible he was making the story up in the hopes of securing a lighter sentence for unrelated charges. Regardless, his report was taken seriously. Gordon Smith was put under the microscope,

Further attempts to verify his alibi continued to fail and no incriminating evidence surfaced. Despite some drug-related charges, he still had no criminal convictions. It was possible that Gordon Smith had been viewed suspiciously due to his mental health issues and drug use. Police also considered whether Russell Smith was involved in the murders and was throwing his cousin under the bus to deflect attention from himself.

Russell had a rap sheet dating back to his teenage years, including a jail sentence for his participation in the unprovoked fatal group bashing of a 46-year-old man. He too suffered from various mental health issues exacerbated by illicit drug use. Whatever the truth, the renewed police interest took a toll on Gordon Smith. In the wake of the hairdresser murders, the initial public scrutiny had fueled his paranoia.

Under scrutiny again seven years later, Gordon's mental health suffered and in June he moved to Melbourne to stay with a relative. Ten days later, the caretaker at a city church found Gordon's body hanging from inside the cathedral. He didn't leave a suicide note. By September 1998, Russell Smith was being held in remand for various offences.

Days after his 33rd birthday, he used a shoelace to hang himself from the bunk bed of his cell. With that, the inquiries into both men reached an inconclusive end. Former journalist turned school teacher Leonie Wallace had been fascinated by the Portland murders ever since she heard about the case in 1991. As the years continued to tick by with no resolution to the case, Leonie started researching the crime herself.

She spent years gathering information and interviewing investigators, family members, and townsfolk. Her hard work led to the 2012 publication of a comprehensive book titled Horrible Man, which publicly revealed intricate details about the hairdresser murders for the very first time. Leonie hoped the book might compel someone with information to come forward and finally get some resolution for the families.

During her inquiries, Leonie received a text message from a mysterious source who claimed: "I know who killed those two women. I have a story that has never been told." The sender then seemingly had a change of heart and went silent. When Leonie finally managed to get through to them, she found it was a woman. The woman said she was concerned about the repercussions of speaking up and no longer wanted to discuss it.

Whether the woman had a genuine lead remains unknown, but either way, the publication of Horrible Man propelled the case back into the news and led to renewed public interest. In 2013, the investigation into the murders of Claire Aycox and Margaret Penny was reopened once again. With fresh eyes, new investigators trawled through the available evidence and thousands of reports on file.

The more they learnt, it became clear that one particular individual had been curiously overlooked.

Within days of the Portland Hair Salon murders, the husbands of both Claire and Margaret had been ruled out as suspects. Peter Acox and Robert Penny had confirmed alibis and there was no evidence implicating either of the men in the crimes. Both claimed that their marriages were loving and stable. However, as the new investigators looking at the case in 2013 discovered, this wasn't necessarily true.

The Pennys had two adult children, a daughter named Jacqueline and a son named Anthony. In the wake of the crimes, Anthony was tormented. While he never witnessed any violence between his parents, he recalled that their marriage was particularly volatile. When Anthony was growing up, Margaret and Robert argued often. His mother had once confided in him that Robert had, quote, "beaten her black and blue."

Anthony was also aware that his father had cheated on his mother at least once. At the time of the murders, Anthony was living overseas. While he wasn't aware of any problems in his parents' marriage, he felt that his mother was unhappy. Every time Anthony spoke to Margaret, she mentioned feeling alone and isolated. But it wasn't just this past behaviour that concerned Anthony.

After Margaret and Claire were murdered, Robert Penny told the police that he didn't have access to a car at the time the crime was committed. The couple shared a vehicle and Margaret had taken it to her hair appointment. But this wasn't true. While Anthony was overseas, he'd left his car with his parents, urging them to drive it whenever they needed.

Back in 1991, Anthony called Claire Aycock's son, Constable Tim Aycocks, to get this information off his chest. Tim reported it to the original investigators working on the case, but they saw no reason to suspect Robert Penny. For starters, at the time of the murders, Robert was a 59-year-old retiree with an unblemished record.

It didn't seem likely that he was capable of pulling off such a violent and frenzied attack, especially while taking care of his five-year-old granddaughter. Secondly, Robert Penny was known around Portland. It seemed absurd to think that he could have driven to the middle of town on a busy afternoon, committed the brutal crime, and then gone straight home without attracting any attention. One detective remarked,

If you're going to kill a member of your family, you wouldn't do it in the middle of the afternoon. You'd do it in the confines of your own home and concoct a story or accident or otherwise." A search of the Penny's home after the bodies were discovered hadn't uncovered any blood or anything else incriminating. Furthermore, when Margaret's friend Shirley Endersby had called the Penny's home looking for Margaret at around 4pm, Robert had answered the phone.

This proved he was home during at least some of the crucial 90 minute time frame in which the murders were believed to have occurred. But the couple's son wasn't the only one with suspicions. One of Robert Penny's nephews had also called the police in 1992 to suggest they look into Robert more closely. During his working years, Robert had been the managing director of a successful car park company.

This led to him and Margaret temporarily living in Southeast Asia. According to the Penny's nephew, Robert had shady business dealings and some, quote, "skeletons in his closet" from overseas. Additionally, questions had been raised about Robert's behaviour following Margaret's death. Some believed that he didn't grieve appropriately,

In their view, he seemed to be handling things incredibly well for someone whose wife had just been killed so brutally. The owner of a Portland General Store told 60 Minutes that on the weekend after the murders, Robert Penny came into his store. He was in a jovial mood and allegedly asked for something that could help remove bloodstains. The shop owner found Robert's behavior so unusual that he called the police to report the encounter. But they never followed him up.

Investigators ended up interviewing Robert Penny in 1993 and didn't uncover anything tying him to the murders. Regardless, suspicions remained and were heightened further when Robert chose not to attend the inquest in 1995. While Robert Penny might not have killed Margaret and Claire himself, some wondered whether it was possible he'd hired someone to do the deed on his behalf.

For Margaret and Robert's daughter Jacqueline, having her life touched by murder twice within an eight-month time span took its toll. Months after her mother was killed, Jacqueline still held concerns about being a potential witness to the St Andrews case. She wondered whether her mother could have been targeted as a message to keep Jacqueline quiet about the individual in the red ute she saw near the scene. Jacqueline told her father that she feared for the safety of her own family.

According to Jacqueline, Robert Penny turned to her and said, "Well, why don't we just get him hit?" Referring to the suspect in the red ute. Jacqueline was shocked. She told her dad she didn't know how to do such a thing. Robert allegedly responded, "Well, I do." From that point on, Jacqueline suspected that her father was involved in her mother's death.

Four years after the murders, Jacqueline attended a séance with some friends. She asked the guiding spirit who was responsible for killing her mother. The response was that her father had paid a hitman named Graham $20,000 to get rid of his wife so he could be with another woman. Unlike Peter Acox, who never remarried following Claire's death, Robert Penny moved on quickly.

Within just months of Margaret's murder, Robert moved in with a family friend named Kim. The two soon entered a romantic relationship and were married in September of 1992. Robert vehemently denied that he'd had an affair while Margaret was still alive. He claimed that Kim had comforted him in the wake of Margaret's death, and the relationship blossomed from there.

But one of Kim's neighbours claimed to have seen some affection between Robert and Kim as early as April 1991, the month before Margaret was killed. The exact date that Robert and Kim became intimate was unclear, but the speed at which Robert remarried definitely raised some eyebrows. It also added further weight to some strange comments that Robert had made shortly after his wife's death.

Whoever had killed Claire Aycox and Margaret Penny had done so with a knife. However, they'd also used a smaller, narrow object to inflict puncture wounds into Margaret's back and chest. This object had never been identified, but police had considered the possibility that it could have been either a pair of scissors or a tail comb. Used by hairdressers, a tail comb is a plastic comb with a tapered metal handle.

The metal portion is used to separate and part hair for styling, and it has a sharp tip that could potentially pierce through skin. One such comb had been found on one of the chairs in the shampoo room at the Old London Coiffure. But the pathologists who conducted Margaret's autopsy were ultimately unable to determine what caused the puncture marks to her body. Police had made no mention of the comb when breaking the news of the murders to Robert Penny or Peter Aycox.

However, when Robert told Jacqueline that her mother had been killed, he allegedly said that a knife and a hair comb were used. He then allegedly told his son that the killer had used a knife, scissors, and the sharp end of a metal comb. Robert made a similar comment when visiting Peter Aycox shortly after, while also saying something along the lines of: "At least Claire died very quickly." This raised the question:

How could Robert Penny have known these things unless he was directly involved with the crime? Robert's alibi for the time of the crime was that he was at home making a swing with his five-year-old granddaughter, Alice. By the time investigators re-examined the case in 2013, Alice was aged in her early twenties.

She provided a statement for the first time, recalling that on the afternoon of Friday May 3 1991, Margaret had tried to take her to the hair salon. Robert disagreed and an argument ensued, with the couple fighting over Alice like a tug of war. Given that two decades had passed, investigators weren't sure how much weight to put on this statement.

But if there was any truth to it, it implied that Robert had fought to keep his granddaughter at home that day because he knew what horrors were about to unfold at the salon. What if he had hired a hitman after all? It would explain why Margaret had received more injuries than Claire. Perhaps a contract killer had snuck into the salon while Claire had ducked out to grab the knitting from her car.

They might have only intended to kill Margaret, not realising that Claire would be back so soon. With the suspicious elements stacking up against Robert Penny, the decision was made to place covert listening devices in his home and on his phone. Several attempts were made to engage Robert in conversations that might lead him to reveal something incriminating, but he didn't say a single word that implied any level of guilt.

In 2014, Robert Penny voluntarily agreed to a series of police interviews. He had admitted he'd been unfaithful to Margaret while they were living overseas, but strongly denied having an affair leading up to her death. Robert outright rejected claims there had been any animosity between the couple in 1991, saying that he loved his wife dearly and was devastated by her death.

He acknowledged that his marriage to Kim happened quickly, but explained that his minister had advised him to get on with his life and put himself back together. The interviewing detectives asked how Robert could have possibly known that a tail comb was potentially used during the attack. He said he couldn't remember, but that he'd possibly been told by someone or had arrived at the conclusion himself.

As for the alleged comments about hiring a hitman, Robert flat out denied this, saying, He urged investigators to check his bank statements if they didn't believe him, saying he had never associated with outlaws. When asked if he was involved with Margaret's death in any way, Robert became exasperated. He questioned how anyone could think he had a motive for killing his wife, saying,

By 2015, Robert Penny was 83 years old and living in Melbourne. Given his age, investigators knew that time was of the essence.

Although they didn't have any physical evidence tying Robert to the double murder, the circumstantial evidence mounted to a point that the decision was made to place him under arrest. In April 2015, almost 24 years after the fact, Robert Penny was formally charged with the murders of Margaret Penny and Claire Aycox. Seven months later, a committal hearing was held with 50 witnesses scheduled to give evidence.

However, on the first day something happened that turned the case against Robert Penny on its head. One of the major pieces of physical evidence that had been taken from the old London Coiffure crime scene was a piece of tissue paper. It had been found next to the tail comb on a chair in the shampoo room and was lightly stained with blood. In the early days of the investigation, DNA technology was in its infancy.

But recent advances had revealed that the tissue paper returned three DNA profiles: Margaret Penny's, Claire Aycox's, and the partial profile of an unknown male. The partial profile was compared against several persons of interest in the Portland case, including Robert Penny. There were no matches.

Presented with this information, the magistrate overseeing Robert's committal hearing adjourned the proceedings to give the prosecution an opportunity to reassess their case. The fact that no match was identified didn't necessarily eliminate anyone from the investigation. The scope of the testing was limited given it was only a partial profile, and there was nothing to definitively confirm that the profile had come from the offender.

Regardless, it weakened the prosecution's argument significantly. The hearing was rescheduled for May the following year, but it never went ahead. In March 2016, Robert Penny passed away from natural causes. Some assumed this meant the case was closed, but as Robert's lawyer pointed out, his client had died an innocent man. A police spokesperson said,

This investigation remains active and the Victoria Police Homicide Squad is committed to finding the person or persons responsible for these deaths. A request was approved for a new inquest to be held into the deaths of Claire Aycox and Margaret Penny. Unlike the original inquest conducted in 1995 which only lasted one day, the 2016 inquest was comprehensive.

Over ten days, 28 witnesses were called to give evidence as the coroner went over thousands of pages of official reports and investigative notes. Robert Penny's comments about the tail comb were a major focus. First and foremost, the coroner wanted to establish whether a tail comb could have actually caused the injuries inflicted on Margaret Penny's torso.

The forensic pathologist who attended the crime scene back in 1991 said the wounds hadn't penetrated deep enough to determine what type of weapon had been used. Whatever it was, he was of the opinion that the tail comb found in the shampoo room wasn't a match. However, an expert from the United Kingdom studied Margaret's injuries and determined that a tail comb was a, quote, "...possible and plausible explanation for the unusual injuries."

The mysterious items had pierced through Margaret's clothing. A forensic expert who analysed the clothing said she couldn't rule out the possibility that a tail comb had caused the damage, but it also could have been any other thin blunt instrument such as a screwdriver or knitting needle. No evidence was presented that put Robert Penny at the scene of the crime or indicated he'd arranged for someone to carry out the murders on his behalf. Focus was therefore placed on a possible motive.

Witnesses were called to ascertain the exact dates that Robert began a romantic relationship with his second wife, Kim. Kim claimed the relationship didn't become intimate until several months after Margaret's murder, which was verified by her daughter who was living with the couple at the time. No evidence was forthcoming to indicate the two had been romantically involved while Margaret was still alive.

While various witnesses expressed their opinion that Robert Penny didn't grieve appropriately following his wife's death, evidence was also presented to the contrary. Some believed that Robert was clearly traumatised and had grieved intensely for a long period of time. Counsel appearing for Claire Aycock's family described the circumstantial evidence against Robert Penny as "extraordinary". Summing up, they said:

Robert Penny was either involved in the murder of his wife and Claire Aycox, or he was the victim of the most remarkable confluence of misfortune and his own strange behaviour that it strains credibility. The coroner agreed that some comments made by Robert were highly unusual, but that overall, a majority of the circumstantial evidence was open to different interpretations.

The coroner concluded that Robert Penny was not involved in the murders of Claire Aycox or Margaret Penny in any capacity, stating: "The prosecution of Mr Penny gave great hope to the Aycox and Penny families about the prospect of closure or finality to a pain so immeasurably etched into their hearts. The threads of circumstantial evidence, when woven together, have given the perception that Mr Penny was a plausible suspect.

However, those threads begin to unravel and as they are analysed alone and as a whole, as has been done in this inquest, the likelihood of Mr Penny's involvement fades and many of the questions remain painfully unanswered. The coroner couldn't determine whether the man Robert Menzel had seen running from the scene had anything to do with the crime and said that other persons of interest, including Gordon and Russell Smith, could not be excluded.

Her report concluded, "This was a heinous and violent crime committed against two innocent women whose lives were tragically cut short. I acknowledge these crimes have immeasurably impacted the lives of the friends and family of Mrs Penny and Mrs Aycox and cast a dark shadow over the community of Portland. Based upon the available evidence, I am unable to identify the person or persons who murdered Mrs Penny and Mrs Aycox.

Therefore, the murders remain unsolved and this homicide investigation remains open. As of early 2024, the murders of Claire Aycox and Margaret Penny are still unsolved. The building on the corner of Julia and Bentink Streets has since been repainted, the old London signage covered up,

But paint can't cover old wounds. After 32 years, some residents of Portland still go out of their way to avoid walking past the old London building, haunted by the memories of what happened inside. Theories remain about who was responsible for the grisly crime. Other convicted killers have been considered and ruled out over time.

The identity of the so-called horrible man remains a mystery, although it is possible he was an innocent individual who was too embarrassed or fearful to come forward to clear his name. The cheque stolen from the salon on the day of the slaying has never been cashed,

The bloody footprint found at the scene remains a key piece of evidence, although investigators can't say with certainty whether the print was left by the killer or someone who sullied the crime scene prior to it being cordoned off. The existence of DNA and fingerprint evidence means there's a possibility this case could one day be solved, and the reward for information still exists.

Until that day comes, the families of Claire Aycox and Margaret Penny will continue to seek answers. Claire's son Tim told the Age newspaper that he wouldn't wish the experience on anyone, saying: "It's consumed the latter half of our lives. It's daily. It's confronting. It wears you down. What it is about now is closure." Someone held to account. Speaking to author Leonie Wallace, Tim said:

"The last thing I can and need to do for Mum is to witness justice being carried out. Until then, we will always be wondering: who? Why? What if?" The murders led to an irreparable fracture between the Penny family. Not only had Jacqueline and Anthony lost their mother, their suspicion against Robert changed their relationship with their father.

The relationship between the siblings also suffered in the wake of the crime, and Anthony eventually changed his name. Margaret's daughter Jacqueline told Leonie Wallace: "You never get over it. There's not one day where you don't play detective in your own head. It just never goes away." Claire's husband Peter spent years wondering what his wife's last words were. A few years after the murders, he told the Warrnambool Standard that he'd love to have a few minutes of the killer's time.

Peter said, "I'd like to speak with him, even if he just called me up and told me he did it. I would like to know how he feels knowing about the pain he's inflicted on others and the hurt that others have got to endure because of his actions." While Peter was thankful for all the support he received from the Portland community following Claire's death, he felt like no one could understand his pain and suffering unless they'd been through something similar. Peter said,

I know of people who used to complain about people snoring, but snoring can be the best music in the world. Ask any widow.