Name Frederick Everest | ||
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Frederick William Everest (3 December 1910 - 24 January 1977) was an Australian murderer who killed two American servicemen in Brisbane during World War II. He was known as The Man in the Grey Suit.
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In 1945 aged 34 years old, Everest shot and killed two US military officers, Lt. Allen C. Middleton and Chief Petty Officer John David McCollum, who were among the many American forces stationed in Brisbane at the time.
First murder
Evererst killed Middleton on 11 January at a lavatory near the Customs House. A man was seen fleeing the scene of the crime in a grey suit and the killed became dubbed The Man in the Grey Suit.
Second murder
He killed McCollom at Denman St Alderly on 24 January with a sawn-off shot gun. The police heard reports that shots had been fired in a house at Farrington Street, Alderley. A squad of detectives arrived but could not find anything. They went into adjoining street, Denman Street, and found McCollom had been shot in the abdomen. He told the detectives had opened the back door of a house he was renting in answer to a knock and had been shot. McCollom managed to give a description of the man then was taken to hospital, where he was operated on but died at 10pm.
Everest had been delivering bread in the local area. Police tracked him down and arrested him.
Sentencing
Everest was a mentally ill returned soldier who believed that "those Yanks" had tried to poison him. He was found to be mentally ill and spent the rest of his days in a mental hospital, initially Goodna Mental Hospital.
Frederick William Everest died in 1977 in Brisbane.