SHE died a horrible, brutal death but her story has often been little more than a forgotten footnote to lurid accounts of one of Britain’s most prolific serial killers.

Mary Hynds has instead been billed as the spinster best known in Kentish Town for enjoying an ale in the old Wolsey Arms, feeding the breadcrumbs to pigeons outside the underground station and caring for stray cats.

When the 79-year-old was found battered to death with a lead pipe at her home in Willes Road, near the Prince of Wales Baths, back in July 1973 – she had been left in a pool of blood with stockings stuffed in her mouth – nobody could even find a photograph of her, and the newspapers reported an apparent struggle to find her relatives. 

Now, more than 40 years later, Ms Hynds’ nephew has spoken to the New Journal for the first time about the effect the murder had on the family, grieving in her home town in County Down, and how he believes that notorious 1970s serial killer Patrick Mackay should have been put on trial for the murder – and convicted.

Retired builder Michael Hynds, 68, said: “My father and my uncle never got over it. They never spoke about it. There’s no doubt the killing was one of the most brutal. She was flown back to Northern Ireland and the army opened up the coffin and one of the soldiers apparently said they had never seen anything like it, and never wanted to again.”

How the Camden Journal, the newspaper which became the Camden New Journal, reported the killing in 1973

He added: “In my mind, I’m 100 per cent sure that Patrick Mackay did it. I don’t feel anything about him. I don’t think about him, but I think he should have been convicted as part of the killings he is in prison for. Maybe the fact that the family weren’t in London, the same pressure wasn’t on and they looked at other murders he was arrested for.”

Mackay, now serving a life-means-life prison sentence for three other killings, is suspected of being responsible for up to eight others. His crimes have been the subject of scores of documentaries and books, and are a constant source of fascination and analysis by criminologists studying psychopathic behaviour. 

His victims included a vicar whose head he shattered with an axe, and elderly women who he followed home or doorstepped pretending he needed a glass of water. It is thought he killed a homeless man by throwing him into the Thames, leaving him to drown.

In the case of Ms Hynds, he confessed to bludgeoning her, only to retract his statement, leading the case to be “held on file” rather than being tried in court.

A New Journal investigation on the 40th anniversary of her death revealed confusion in the police inquiry with detectives stumped by records which showed Mackay was supposedly in custody at the time of the murder.

The original police suspect photofit, and a sketch of Bridgid Hynes

Mr Hynds decided to talk about the case as his family began to compile a family tree with photographs, only to find that nobody could trace a picture of his aunt.

His research into the story has been hampered by the fact that his aunt is almost always referred to as Mary Hynes when the family name was actually Hynds, and she had grown up called Bridgid. To add to the confusion, she was known as Mollie in the luncheon club she frequented in Busby Place, Kentish Town.

In the search for pictures, there are two that exist but neither is suitable for a family album. The first is a sketch, rather than a photograph, and was released by police shortly after her death.

“I looked at it and saw she was a big woman and it reminded me of other people in my family,” Mr Hynds said. “I could see the resemblance with my grandmother, who was a big country woman.”

The second – a stomach-churning image taken by police at the murder scene – is part of a bundle of documents held at the National Archives in Kew. The yellowing file of papers, which came with a warning that a distressing photo was inside, was briefly released for public view in the mid-2000s but has since been closed again. The case papers are not due to be made available again until 2054.

Mr Hynds said: “I never met my aunt so I never knew her, but I feel sad that this happened. I’d never had a computer in my life until before Christmas. I put her name in and the story in the New Journal came up. We knew she had been murdered but the family didn’t talk about it. It was a different time. 

“She had been one of 10 and she had decided at a young age to go to London. I don’t know why, but it wasn’t like now when people were on emails and phones, and she lost contact with her family. I think she would have made money working in cafés.”

He added: “It was reported that she had no family, but she did, and they cared. It’s just not like now where everybody has a camera on their phone, are taking photos of each other all the time. 

“She was flown back to Northern Ireland and she is buried here. My father Tommy and his brother Jim went over to identify her and it had a great effect on them. They are no longer with us, but their way of dealing with it – and everybody has different ways – was to not talk about it. It was all too horrific.” 

The family had lived in the town of Strangford, while Ms Hynds was buried with relatives at a cemetery in Kilclief.

“There have been programmes on the television about Mackay but they don’t always mention my aunt,” Mr Hynds said. “I don’t really know Kentish Town well but it’s almost like she has been forgotten, and what happened has been forgotten. 

“We have a situation where nobody is down as murdering her, but what are the police going to do now? Would they go back and look at this? It hasn’t been officially solved even though it seems certain Mackay did it. He was able to describe the back door being nailed up, as it was. He was able to remember things about Kentish Town. There are too many similarities. I think Mackay was mad. You look at the photos of him and you can almost see it in him.”

He added that he did not want his aunt to go down in history as somebody who nobody cared about and wanted “the full story” to be told.

“I never met her but what I’d really love is for somebody who did know her to come forward,” he said. “The pub she drank in is no longer open but maybe there were sons and daughters of people who would go to the same day club as her, who remember being told by their fathers and mothers of what had happened to Bridgid. We’d love to hear from them and anybody who might have a photo of her.”

l If you knew Bridgid Hynds, also known as Mary Hynes or Mollie Hynes, who lived in Kentish Town, please contact the Camden New Journal.

DID HE – OR DIDN'T HE? THE STRANGE CASE OF SERIAL KILLER PATRICK MACKAY
By RICHARD OSLEY

DID Patrick Mackay kill Bridgid Hynds? At first he said he probably did, then he said he didn’t.

Amid the to and fro and a rash of mental health assessments, it was decided in the end not to put him on trial for her murder, although a judge ruled that the case would stay “open on file”.