An Australian native, born in 1951, Catherine Birnie was the product of a lonely, miserable childhood. Sent to live with her grandparents in Perth, following her mothers death, Catherine would later watch her grandmother die in the throes of an epileptic seizure. Neighbors recall that the child rarely laughed and had few pleasures. She never had a playmate and other children were not allowed in her grandparents house. Finally, in her early teens, she met David Birnie and fell hopelessly in love. The eldest of five children, David had watched his family disintegrate when he was ten years old, siblings farmed out to foster homes and institutions. He showed an early taste for crime, and Catherine fell in line with anything he wanted. She was carrying his child at age sixteen, helping David burglarize a string of shops and factories in Perth. He was arrested and convicted, but escaped from custody, rejoining Catherine for another spree of theft before they both wound up in separate reform schools. On release, Catherine went to work as a domestic servant, marrying the son of her employers in 1968 and producing six children. David, meanwhile, was back on the street and regretting his own failed marriage, working as a jockey until he was fired for attempted rape. It was 1984 when his path crossed Catherines again, and they made up for lost time by commencing a steamy affair. In early 1985, Catherine abandoned her husband and children, moving in with Birnie and soon becoming his wife. By this time, David Birnie was lost in a world of bizarre sexual fantasy , stockpiling pornography , demanding intercourse six times a day, dreaming of compliant sex slaves. It seemed to run in the family: brother James had also done time for sex offenses, and when David moved in with James, during a brief separation from Catherine, he sodomized his brother as a substitute for pussy. Later, on Jamess twenty-first birthday, David provided Catherine as a sexual gift to his younger sibling. Mary Beilson, a 22-year-old psychology student at the University of Western Australia, visited the Birnie home in Willagee on October 6, 1986, hoping to buy some tires that David had advertised for sale. On impulse, David pulled a knife and forced her into the bedroom, where she was chained to the bed and repeatedly raped. Catherine watched the attack without complaint, taking snapshots for posterity, going along for the ride when David drove his victim to the Glen Eagle National Park, thirty-four miles south of Perth. There, Neilson was raped again, finally strangled by David with a nylon cord. Catherine and David took turns slashing the corpse to prevent it from swelling in its shallow grave as it decomposed. The first experiment with rape and murder had been a smashing success, leaving the Birnies anxious to try it again. On October 20, they found 15-year-old Susannah Candy hitchhiking near town, driving her back to their home on Moorhouse Street. Held and sexually abused for several days, the schoolgirl was forced to write two letters home, telling her parents that she was safe and well. The end came with another drive to Glen Eagle Park, where Catherine strangled Susannah and helped dig her grave. The couples third victim was an acquaintance, 31-year-old airline hostess Noelene Patterson. The Birnies had helped Noelene wallpaper her home, and she was glad to see them on the afternoon her car ran out of gas. Instead of helping her, however, David Birnie pulled his trusty knife and drove his latest hostage back to Willagee. Chained to the bed and raped over three days, Patterson was so alluring to David that Catherine became violently jealous, insisting that the woman must die. David finally relented, dosing Noelene with sleeping pills and strangling her to death as she lay unconscious. (Later, leading police to her grave in Glen Eagle Park, Catherine would spit on the ground where her rival was buried.) Victim number four was Denise Brown, a 21-year-old computer operator, picked up while hitchhiking in Perth on November 4. After two days of rape and abuse, she was driven to a pine plantation near Wanneroo, forty miles south of the city. There, Brown was raped again, stabbed twice in the process, while Catherine snapped photos. Still she lived, and Catherine handed Dave a bigger knife. When all else failed, his victim sitting upright in her grave, Birnie shattered her skull with an ax. The killer couples last victim, a teenage hitchhiker, was abducted and driven to Willagee on Sunday, November 9. Monday afternoon found the girl unchained and unguarded, giving her the chance to slip out through a bedroom window. Bruised and barely dressed, she staggered into a Freemantle shopping mall, crying for help. Police were summoned, and she led them back to Moorhouse Street, where the Birnies surrendered without a fight. In custody, David and Catherine confessed everything, gloating over the details of their crimes and leading police to the sites where their victims were buried. Charged with four counts of murder and numerous other felonies, they were briefly suspected in the disappearance of three more women, but the free-flowing confessions persuaded detectives of their innocence in cases they denied. The couples trial, on March 3, 1987, took a short half-hour to complete. They offered no defense and were promptly sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum of twenty years before parole. In Davids case, at least, the judge expressed his hope that you should not be let out of prison--ever.