We often hear stories of how far some people will go for family. I’ve researched a couple of cases where children will go the extra, bloody, mile for their parent. The case of Ireland’s infamous Scissor Sisters is not much different in terms of motive, but rather nuanced in terms of opportunity and means.
John and Kathleen Mulhall raised a family of three boys and three girls in the south of Dublin, Ireland. The marriage was less than happy, with reports that John routinely abused Kathleen.
In 2002, Kathleen ended her marriage with John and entered into a relationship with Farah Swaleh Noor, who was equally as abusive.
Noor had arrived in Ireland in December of 1996, claiming to be fleeing the Somali Civil War. He entered under the false name “Sheilila Salim”, and hoped to gain refugee status as he claimed that his family had all been killed. Investigation into his background discovered his true name – Farah Swaleh Noor – and that he was, in fact, Kenyan and his family were all alive and well.
As a result of this, it was ordered that he be deported. However, Noor appealed the order, and eventually was granted Irish citizenship in March of 1999. During his time in Ireland, he had fathered a child (under horrific circumstances). As such, he was granted citizenship.
By the time Noor met Kathleen, he had previous convictions for intoxication, threatening and abusive behaviour, and assault. He had also sexually assaulted and raped two women, and a teenage girl with intellectual disabilities, who gave birth to his son. He also faced 8 other charges of disorder and assault, one of which involved sexual assault with a knife.
While he was convicted on three separate occasions, Noor never served time in jail. He was described as being particularly violent towards women, bearing a deeply ingrained hatred. This hatred extended to Kathleen when they met and began dating in 2002.
While the family was no stranger to trouble, two of the Mulhall daughters would become infamously referred to as “The Scissor Sisters”: Linda and Charlotte.
Linda was a mother of four children who had gone through similar experiences as her mother – she was the survivor of abusive partners, one of whom served a 7-year prison sentence for beating her children with an electrical flex. To cope, Linda turned to alcohol and heroin, which did her no favours.
Charlotte, Linda’s younger sister, also had a history of alcohol and drug use, as well as a history of minor convictions. At one time, she was charged with criminal damage, and other public order offences. She was also suspected of being a sex worker.
On March 20th, 2005, Linda, Charlotte, Kathleen and Farah had been drinking heavily in Dublin’s city centre to celebrate the Saint Patrick’s holiday. As they drank, Charlotte and Linda also took some MDMA throughout the day.
The four purchased a bottle of vodka, which they mixed with Coke, which was cheaper than drinking in a bar. As the day wore on, they decided to return to Kathleen’s flat located at Richmond Cottages, Summerhill.
The four continued to drink, with the three women partaking in more MDMA. They offered some to Noor, who declined. Kathleen didn’t like that, and took it upon herself to crush a tablet into his drink. Her reasoning was that she wanted them all to be “on the same buzz”.
As the evening wore on, Linda found herself sitting next to Noor on a two-seater couch, with Charlotte perched on the arm. As the effects of the drugs and alcohol took hold, Noor began groping and touching Linda in a way she did not like. He leaned over, put his arm around her waist, whispered things into her ear, and refused to let her go. He told her that she was so very much like her mother, and also so like him as they were both “dark creatures”.
Seeing what was happening, Kathleen began screaming at Noor – though it’s unclear if she was screaming at him out of jealousy, or because her daughter was uncomfortable. As an argument began to get heated, Kathleen allegedly instructed her daughters to “just kill him for me”, as Charlotte yelled at Noor to let go of Linda.
Charlotte then picked up a Stanley knife (known to us as a box cutter), and sliced at Noor across the throat. This sent Noor to the ground, giving Linda the opportunity to pick up a hammer and hit Noor over the head with it over and over.
Kathleen did not participate in the killing of her partner.
Charlotte and Linda then dragged Noor’s body into their mother’s bathroom, where they proceeded to dismember him, which took a number of hours.
As this was occurring, two of Linda and Charlotte’s brothers popped in to pay their mother a visit, only to see a scene of complete horror and carnage. The two promptly fled the scene, but the damage was done – they knew what had happened in the flat.
The sisters didn’t have a moment to be distressed. They had a mess to clean up. They placed his remains in plastic bags, placing the head in a separate bag. They then took several trips disposing of the bags – save the head – in the Royal Canal.
They then caught a bus to Tallaght, walking through a shopping centre and into Sean Walsh Memorial Park. There, Charlotte dug a hole with a knife, and the three women buried Noor’s head. They then threw the knives and the hammer into a nearby pond.
A few days later, in a haze of trauma, drugs, and alcohol, Linda returned to the park and dug up Noor’s head. Using her son’s school bag, she moved it to a field, where she smashed the head with a hammer before burying it all over again.
Ten days following Noor’s murder, near Croke Park, a leg with a sock on the end was found floating in the canal. Gardaí launched a full search of the canal, retrieving most of the body from the water.
The body was still wearing clothes, allowing for Noor to be identified by a friend who recognized the football jersey he was wearing. This friend was the first to link Noor with Kathleen, Charlotte, and Linda Mulhall.
As news of the grisly murder his the media, it didn’t take long for the tabloids to start throwing theories around. As they published the connection between Noor and the Mulhall women, the Irish tabloids started referring to Charlotte and Linda as “The Scissor Sisters”, a moniker which still follows them to this day.
Charlotte and Linda did their best to distance themselves from the murder, but they were pretty clearly in the Gardaí’s crosshairs.
Unable to keep it to herself, Charlotte drunkenly confessed to her involvement in the murder to her sister. Her sister desperately tried to brush it off, but the damage was done – she couldn’t let it go.
Incarcerated for unrelated matters, Charlotte and Linda’s brothers assisted the police by providing information about what they knew of the murder. As witnesses, they gave details of what they’d seen before fleeing the flat. Neither Mulhall brother made a formal statement that would provide any leeway with their own legal troubles. It seemed they merely wanted to put distance between themselves and their sisters.
In August of 2005, Charlotte and Linda Mulhall were arrested, but they denied any knowledge of the murder to investigators.
Time after time, they evaded questioning and outright lied to investigators about their timeline, and what occurred the night of March 20th, 2005. But the Gardaí weren’t deterred – they knew they had their murderers. They just needed them to confess.
A few weeks later, Linda contacted the Gardaí. She was exhausted. She’d had enough. She voluntarily gave them a statement, and admitted her involvement.
With this new information in hand, the Gardaí searched the Mulhall flat, which had been rented to a new tenant. The new tenant allowed them in for a search, where they found bloodstains in various parts of the flat. Testing of the bloodstains later proved that the blood belonged to Noor.
Following this new information, Kathleen fled the country, leaving her daughters to fend for themselves for doing what she’d asked them to do. She wasn’t found until January 2008. She’d been living in England.
In October of 2006, the trials of Charlotte and Linda Mulhall began. Both women pleaded not guilty in the Central Criminal Court.
The jury accepted Linda’s defence of provocation, thought they found her guilty of manslaughter. She was sentenced to 15 years, which she appealed on the grounds that it was passed without psychiatric and probation reports. The appeal failed, finding that the sentence was appropriate.
Charlotte was found guilty of Noor’s murder, and was sentenced to a mandatory life sentence. Charlotte appealed on the grounds that the jury were pressured to reach a verdict despite indication that they were deadlocked. The appeal failed on the grounds that the defence did not object to the comments during trial.
In February of 2008, Kathleen voluntarily returned to Ireland after the Gardaí found her living in England. She was charged with giving false information to the Gardaí, and withholding information with would be of assistance to the prosecution.
Kathleen Mulhall pleaded guilty to helping to clean up the crime scene and concealing evidence. She was sentenced to 5 years in prison in May of 2009.
Linda Mulhall was released from prison in 2018. She was tracked down by journalists, but told them she wanted to get on with her life, and didn’t want to comment any further.
At the time of this writing, nothing is known of Kathleen Mulhall. Charlotte Mulhall is still serving her sentence.
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Sources:
Scissor Sisters murder: A look back on one of the most gruesome and brutal cases in Ireland – Pat Flanagan – Irish Mirror
The Crimes of the Scissor Sisters – Crime + Investigation
Hitched 2 Homicide podcast – Season 3 Episode 149 – Linda and Charlotte Mulhall. The Scissor Sisters.
Scissor Sisters Wikipedia page