SLAUGHTERMAN Shoots Mother with BOLTGUN in Front of her KIDS episode artwork

EPISODE · Jul 10, 2026 · 43 MIN

SLAUGHTERMAN Shoots Mother with BOLTGUN in Front of her KIDS

from TRUE CRIME with Bratterstein · host BRATTERSTEIN

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Mary Griffith with me today. In 2009, 38‑year‑old Mary Griffiths was murdered in her home in Bury St Edmunds, England, by a man who had turned from rejected suitor into obsessive stalker. Mary had worked with John McFarlane and made it clear she did not want a relationship, but he began harassing and following her, to the point that she contacted police the night before her death to say she was scared and felt in danger. In the early hours of the next morning, while Mary and her three daughters were asleep, McFarlane broke into the house, cut the power, and stormed upstairs armed with an axe and a captive‑bolt gun of the type used in slaughterhouses.He dragged Mary from her bedroom and, in front of at least one of her children, fired the bolt gun into her at close range, killing her almost instantly. The sheer brutality of using an industrial animal‑killing device on a mother in her own home horrified the public and highlighted how quickly stalking can escalate into lethal violence when warnings aren’t acted on in time. McFarlane was arrested and later convicted of murder, receiving a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years before he can even be considered for parole. Mary’s case has since been used in discussions and legal commentary about stalking, coercive control, and the duty of police and mental‑health services to respond urgently when a victim reports escalating harassment.

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SLAUGHTERMAN Shoots Mother with BOLTGUN in Front of her KIDS

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