Where Is the Real Friday the 13th Killer Now? All About David McGreavy's Life 52 Years After He Killed 3 Children By Alyssa Davis

Before the cult classic horror movie rose to fame in the 1980s, David McGreavy was known as the real Friday the 13th killer.

Also dubbed the Monster of Worcester, McGreavy was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in an English prison for brutally murdering three children on Friday, the 13th of April, 1973. Despite the horror of his crimes, McGreavy was released from prison in 2018 — a decision the mother of the children, Elsie Urry, doesn’t support or understand.

“They said he was going in for life and then they changed it for [a minimum of] 20 years, but he hasn’t done 60 years,” she told the BBC in June 2019. “He took three lives, not just one or two; three.”

Urry added, “There’s other prisoners that haven’t done half as bad as what he did to my children and they haven’t been put up for parole, so what has made him be able to get parole?”

So, where is David McGreavy after his early release from prison? Here’s everything to know about the real Friday the 13th killer and his life today.

Who is David McGreavy?

McGreavy was convicted of murder at 21 years old after he killed Urry’s three children — Paul, 4, Dawn, 2 and Samantha, 9 months — in a supposed drunken fit of rage while she was at work. The young adult had moved in with Urry and her then-husband Clive after moving out of his parents’ house and regularly babysat the kids. Urry even reportedly said he was very doting.

On this day, though, something changed, and McGreavy strangled Paul, cut Dawn’s throat and inflicted a compound fracture to Samantha’s skull before impaling the bodies of all three children on the iron railings of a garden fence, per The Daily Mirror. He committed the crimes at their Worcester, England, home on April 13, 1973.

Soon after police found the bodies of Paul, Dawn and Samantha, they embarked on a hunt for McGreavy, who was missing. They found the murderer in the early hours of the next morning, walking out of town and attempting to hitch a ride.

McGreavy first asked police why they were arresting him, but quickly admitted to the crimes and said he killed the kids because the baby would not stop crying, per a 2013 episode of the Fred Dinenage Murder Casebook.

After a very brief trial, which reportedly lasted only eight minutes, McGreavy was sentenced to life in prison for the violent murders.

Why is David McGreavy called the Friday the 13th killer? 

McGreavy is known as the Friday the 13th killer because his crimes took place on Friday, April 13, 1973. His moniker has no known relation to the Friday the 13th movie franchise, which began seven years after McGreavy’s triple-homicide, in 1980.

McGreavy is also called the Monster of Worcester for having murdered the children in Worcester, England.

How long was David McGreavy in prison?

McGreavy spent 45 years in prison after he was convicted in June 1973. Initially sentenced to life in prison, he was cleared for release in December 2018 when a parole board determined he had “changed considerably” during his decades spent imprisoned, per the BBC.

McGreavy appealed for release from prison several times over the decades, with previous appeals having been denied in 2007, 2013 and 2016.

Amid his prison sentence, McGreavy was under an anonymity order so that he could not be named, potentially suffer violence from other prisoners and disrupt the parole process, per The Guardian. He was first granted anonymity in 2009, but several U.K. newspapers challenged the order, and a high court judge allowed him to be named in 2013.

During his imprisonment, McGreavy was threatened and physically attacked many times, preventing officials from moving him to less isolated settings.

Why did the parole board release David McGreavy?

According to the BBC, the parole board document stated McGreavy had gained “a considerable understanding of the problems that he has had and what caused them.” The document also said that a psychologist determined McGreavy was “less likely” to reoffend after being released.

They based this on “his improved self-control and the fact that Mr McGreavy has learnt to remain calm in stressful situations … [as well as] a network of supportive friends in the community.”

Where is David McGreavy now?

Over half a decade after having his sentence commuted, McGreavy is held to strict conditions of his early release.

These include a strict curfew, GPS tagging and exclusion zones, for which Urry was allowed input. After he was banned from Worcester and Andover, she told the BBC, “It gives me a bit of peace of mind, but it is still not fair he has been released after what he has done.”

If McGreavy violates any of his parole conditions, he will face additional prison time.