ONE of the notorious brothers who abducted, raped and murdered beauty queen Anita Cobby, is dying of cancer in a palliative ward.

Michael Murphy, 65, the oldest of a pack of killers who raped and almost decapitated the nurse in a field in western Sydney in 1986, has been moved from Long Bay jail, Nine News reported.

He is believe to be receiving palliative care in a secure ward at Prince of Wales hospital in the eastern Sydney suburb of Randwick.

Murphy reportedly has little time left to live.

Imprisoned since his arrest over a crime that shocked the nation more than 32 years ago, Murphy has spent most of his incarceration in Goulburn prison’s maximum security wings.

He was aged in his early 30s on the evening of February 2, 1986 when, with brothers Gary and Les, psychopath John Travers and Michael Murdoch, he spotted Ms Cobby walking home.

The registered nurse had been out for dinner with friends and alighted at Blacktown Railway station around 10pm.

The men, who spotted her from the car they were travelling in, dragged Ms Cobby into the vehicle and drove 5km to a rural farm in Prospect.

There they took turns raping the 26-year-old before Travers slit her throat and left her to die.

Two days later, a farmer found Ms Cobby’s naked body face down in the Prospect paddock.

She had been beaten, repeatedly raped and tortured, and had her fingers broken and bones dislocated.

In 1987, all five men were convicted of Ms Cobby’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

They were all “cemented in”, and denied the possibility of parole.

Ms Cobby’s father Garry died in 2008, and her mother Grace in 2013.

She is survived by a sister, Kathryn Szyszka, who reportedly has been informed about Murphy’s imminent death.

Gary Murphy, Les Murphy, Joh Travers and Michael Murdoch, who are aged around 50 and 60 years old, remain in various maximum security prisons to live out their days.