The case of the Bassett Road machinegun murders breaks wide open, two key witnesses come forward with critical information. But the most interesting part of the story is what happens after the conviction...
It's nearly Christmas, 1963. Detectives have identified John Gillies as their main suspect i…The case of the Bassett Road machinegun murders breaks wide open, two key witnesses come forward with critical information. But the most interesting part of the story is what happens after the conviction...
It's nearly Christmas, 1963. Detectives have identified John Gillies as their main suspect in the murders of Kevin Speight and George Walker. Both men were found riddled with .45 caliber bullets from a submachine gun inside their rented house in Bassett Road, Remuera.
The killings had all the hallmarks of a gang turf war. It was quickly proven that the two victims had been operating an illegal beerhouse at Bassett Road.
But witnesses had painted a confusing picture. They said Gillies got the gun to settle a feud with Barry Shaw. So why was Shaw alive while Speight and Walker were dead? And who was the mysterious second man Gillies says was in the room when the shots were fired?
The police didn't know it, but they already had the critical piece of evidence they need to break the case wide open: A love letter from Mary Rapira, the teenage girlfriend of 62-year-old Gerry Wilby - leader of a rival beerhouse in Anglesea Street, Ponsonby.
Archival audio courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision.
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It's 1963 and two bodies are found in a house at Bassett Road in Remuera. Detectives are shocked to discover they were killed by a submachine-gun. Newspaper headlines read "Chicago Comes to New Zealand". Black Sheep investigates a true crime story that scandalised New Zealand
Two bodies are found i…It's 1963 and two bodies are found in a house at Bassett Road in Remuera. Detectives are shocked to discover they were killed by a submachine-gun. Newspaper headlines read "Chicago Comes to New Zealand". Black Sheep investigates a true crime story that scandalised New Zealand
Two bodies are found in a house at Bassett Road in Remuera. Detectives are shocked to discover they were killed in a hail of machine-gun bullets. Newspaper headlines read "Chicago Comes to New Zealand". Black Sheep investigates a true crime story that scandalised New Zealand in 1963.
It was Saturday Morning, December 7th 1963. Bassett Road, Remuera.
The weather had been sunny and hot all week. Kids were playing in their yards, men were washing their cars. Women were packing picnic hampers for trips to the beach.
Eric Lewis drove past them on his way to number 115.
He was there to collect the rent. His tenants had moved into the house about a week and a half ago, 26-year-old Kevin Speight and 34-year-old George Walker.
Eric walked past the letterbox. He noticed it was stuffed with a couple of days worth of newspapers.
He frowned and kept walking toward the door. Bottles of milk were sitting on the porch, they'd curdled in the summer sun. Had his tenants gone off on holiday and forgot to tell anyone?
Nobody answered the door. Eric shrugged and pulled out his key.
The smell hit him first. The whole place reeked. He got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
He walked inside, the smell got stronger as he neared the bedroom. He opened the door.
"What he found inside horrified him," said Scott Bainbridge, author of The Bassett Road Machine-Gun Murders
Both Eric's tenants were dead, they had clearly been shot multiple times.
Within a few hours, Bassett Road was swarming with police.
"A murder was a rarity," Scott Bainbridge explains. "A murder made the front page back then but a double murder in 1963 was something pretty big."
Even more shocking was how these men had died. They had both been shot multiple times at close range.
Police collected six bullets from the bedroom and handed them over to Dr Donald Nelson, a firearms expert at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.
Dr Nelson looked at those bullets, then called a meeting with the detectives. He announced those bullets had been fired from a .45 submachine gun.
"You could have heard a pin drop," Scott Bainbridge said.
That announcement immediately raised images of 1920s USA, when prohibition-era gangsters like Al Capone blasted away at each other with Tommy Guns. The Truth Newspaper printed the headline "Chicago Comes to New Zealand"…
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more detailsmore