A mass murderer who shot dead six people and two unborn children in a killing spree on NSW’s central coast more than 30 years ago has died behind bars.
Malcolm George Baker, 76, died Saturday in palliative care while serving six life sentences for a shooting known as The Central Coast Massacre. Daily telegram reported.
He used a double-barreled shotgun to smash the window of the Terrigal apartment of his ex-girlfriend Kerry Gannan and her sister Lisa on October 27, 1992.
A friend of the two women, Chris Gall, 22, who was visiting the home, was the first victim shot.
Baker then shot and killed his ex, Kerry. Six weeks earlier, she had ended the long-term relationship.
Baker then found Lisa – eight months pregnant – sleeping on the couch and shot her in the face. She and her unborn child could not be saved.
Malcolm George Baker, 76, died in palliative care on Saturday while serving six life sentences for a murder spree on the NSW Central Coast
The woman’s father, Thomas Gannan, 43, was found dead in the street with a bullet in his head.
Baker then drove to his son David Baker’s home in Bateau Bay, shot him in the back of the head and left his son for dead in the backyard.
From there, Baker drove to Wyong, intent on taking revenge on 35-year-old Ross Smith, who he blamed for a failed business deal that cost Baker a deposit on his house.
After breaking down the door, he killed Smith in the bath before shooting pregnant Leslie Read, 25, who died in hospital shortly afterwards.
Baker used a double-barreled shotgun to smash the window of his ex-girlfriend Kerry Gannon (left) and her sister Lisa Gannan’s Terrigal apartment (right) in 1992
The woman’s father Thomas Gannan (pictured) was also shot dead by Malcolm George Baker
Not yet done with his killing spree, Baker planned to go to Sydney and kill the rest of the people on his list.
Instead, he visited a friend, John Thompson, who convinced him to turn himself in at a police station.
At 11pm that evening, Baker went to Toukley police station, handed over his shotgun and told police where they would find the trail of bodies.
He was charged with six counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
On the 25th anniversary of the massacre, the mother of the killer’s ex-girlfriend, Ann Gannan, spoke of her last encounter with him.
Malcolm George Baker was sentenced to six life sentences without parole
Baker, who was 43 at the time, tried to run over Ms Gannan before making a chilling threat to her and her family.
“Then he shouted something like, ‘I’m going to take you all with me,’ and that’s when I really panicked.” she said news.com.au in 2017.
“I went back to Lisa and told her, and we were all scared.”
She was right to fear the unemployed mechanic, who only continued his killing spree weeks later.
“He was the type of person he had to be in charge of. You just get the feeling that something is wrong and when you see that, you know trouble is coming,” she said.
‘I already knew it, I had seen it with the girls. I had seen the girls getting scared.”
In August 1993, Baker was sentenced to life in prison for each of six murders without parole, which he was serving when he died.
He was one of the first six prisoners sent to the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Supermax prison in 2001.
Leslie Read (pictured) was 25 years old and pregnant when she was shot by Baker with a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun. She died in hospital two hours later