KEHOE KILLED BY BULLET IN HEART: McGILL SUICIDED IN ORCHARD FOLLOWING DAY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 74, 6 April 1949, Page 5

KEHOE KILLED BY BULLET IN HEART: McGILL SUICIDED IN ORCHARD FOLLOWING DAY

Murder Inquest

l A police arms expert gave evidence that the bullets that killj ed Kehoe and wounded Mr ; Arthur W. G. Wiggins, had been fired from a revolver found : with McGill’s body, but not ) from the same weapon with * which McGill himself was killr ed.

Mr Armstrong commented strongly upon the duty of the public to .hand over unregistered firearms to the Police:

“It is my duty as Coroner to as-

certain the cause of death, not the responsibility for it. But on this occasion I feel it also my duty to comment upon the possible prevention of future tragedies of this description. “The possession of any unregistered firearms similar to those exhibited is unlawful, and constitutes a very grave menace in the country. “It is evident, from the number of weapons found in McGill’s possession, that many unregistered pistols are in the Dominion. /“Such arms cannot be registered,

and therefore are unlawfully held,

to the great danger of the commun- ' ity,.. as is illustrated by the present tragedy. * “It is' possible that the tragic and

futile ending to these two young lives might well,have been prevented if the public had realised their responsibility to hand such weapons

over to the authorities.” Few New Angles Contrary to expectations, the inquest ' was brief, the whole of the proceedings taking less than an Jiour.

Detective Sergeant R. H. Waterson, of Gisborne, conducted proceedings for the Police. Most of the witnesses told angles of the story of that tragic week that ■are already well known and have Ibeen widely publicised.

Evidence was given by thir- v teen witnesses, including a young girl who stated she was with McGill some hours before he disappeared and had been taken out in the country against her will. Exhibited in court were two .38 :Smith and Wesson revolvers, and one .45 Itheca Colt pistol, the bullet taken from Kehoe’s body, the bullet from Arthur Wiggins, who was wounded, and ammunition found on McGill’s body as well as photographs of the scenes of both shootings.

Wiggins’s Story Re-Told Wiggins repeated his version of The happenings at Poroporo on the might of January 31. He said he was at home reading when he heard a crash he took to be an accident, followed by two “bangs” which could 'have been backfiring, then the sound of a traffic siren starting up twice. IHe went out to find Kehoe lying in the roadway, a motor-cycle lying mear with lights still on, and the inspector’s car a short distance along the road with its lights on and another man standing near the opened door. This man approached when ; spoken to and shot Wiggins without answering his inquiry as to what was wrong. Wiggins said he lay where he fell, fearing his assailant might fire again if he moved. He heard the other make off towards the Paper Mills road. Medical Evidence Dr Richard Akel, who performed a post mortem on Kehoe, said death would have been practically instantaneous. There was a penetrating wound with a hole about half an inch in diameter below the junction of the left second rib and sternum. The wound penetrated the upper beart sac and, in his opinion, death was due to two penetrating wounds of the main blood vessels of the heart. The fatal bullet was lodged in the vertebrae. He also attended Wiggins at th<? scene of the shooting. Dr J. J. Brunt, who examined and operated on Wiggins when he was brought into the Whakatane District Hospital where the witness • was house surgeon,, said Wiggins had had a bullet wound in the left side of the chest, and that the bullet had passed through his body to lodge in the left forearm below the elbow joint. McGill’s Quarters Searched Constable C. H. Thomassen, wno was called to the scene of the shooting about 9 p.m. on January 31,

Final curtain was rung down on the tragic drama which involved the recent deaths of Traffic Officer John Kehoe, 24, and Richard Angus McGill, 19, mill hand, when, at the double inquest yesterday, the District Coroner, Mr C. S. Armstrong, found that the former died at Poroporo on January 31 of this year as the result of a bullet wound caused by a .38 revolver, and that McGill suicided by shooting himself at Whakatane West on February 1.

said after he had spoken to Wiggins he found that the owner of the motor cycle, one “Rusty” Taylor, was away for the day and that McGill had the use of the machine. The Constable detailed a search of McGill’s quarters, where he found a .22 rifle, a .303 rifle, a shot gun, a box containing 12 .38 cartridges, and a note: “Goodbye Mum. I’m sorry in a way, but I still love my folks.” Taximen’s Story

A taxi-driver, Rowland J. Crapp, said he and another driver were on the stand at the Rock on the evening of January 31 and, from about .8.15 Kehoe was talking to them. The other driver took a fare, but Kehoe stayed on. A motor cycle passed them going at a normal speed then, about 8.45, came past again doing 50 to 60 m.p.h. Kehoe immediately gave chase, saying “I must get that fellow.” Later having taken two passengers out and dropped one of them, Crapp was passing Poroporo when he saw the cycle and a man he took to be its rider lying in the roadway. There was a man standing by the traffic officer’s car and he thought there had been an accident. Having dropped his fa;e, he returned and saw then that the man on the road was Kehoe and other cars and more people had arrived.

The other driver, Horace Leo Waite, said he was with Crapp and Kehoe until about 8.45 that night, when he took a fare to the Mill. On the way back he saw a motor cycle come over the main traffic bridge at the approach to the town, and was shortly after that stopped by Kehoe who asked if he had seen a motor cyclist. He directed the traffic officer, who followed the cycle towards Matata. McGill's Strange Conduct

Sophie Ngaropo said she had known McGill a short time, and had been out with him twice. McGill gave her a lift on a motor cycle which, he said belonged to Taylor shortly after 7 on the night of January 31. “He drove; me along Commerce Street for about a mile and then turned the machine around,” she said. “I asked him to take me home, and he rode towards the Heads. Again I asked him to take me home' and he started back in that direction. Near the Post Office, however, he gave no signs of stopping and then I.started to cry as I was getting frightened. He kept going along Commerce Street and took me to Poroporo, where I told him. that if he did not let me off I would call the police when I did get home.” Miss Ngaropo said that a car approached and McGill let her off the bike near the Poroporo bridge. She stopped the car and got a lift back to town.

“That was the last time I ever saw McGill,” she added. “The time would be about 7.30 p.m. when be left me.”

The Final Scene Detective Sergeant Waterson detailed the search for McGill following the shooting up to the finding of McGill’s body on February 5, the Saturday following the crime. The stage of decomposition indicated the body had been there about four days.

Arms Expert’s Evidence Senior Sergeant Gregory Kelly, arms advisory officer to the Commissioner of Police, who examined the weapons found with McGill’s body, described one -of the two .38 revolvers as the same pattern as used by the British Armed Forces, a Smith Wesson with a 6 inch barrel. The other, a 5-inch Smith and V/esson, in good working order, was branded ‘U.S. property” and was probably a lease lend weapon. It did not carry the N.Z. Army die marks. The third weapon, an automatic .45, Colt’s pattern Itheca made, was of standard U.S. Army type. It was in good working order and, though its barrel was fouled with powder residue, there was nothing to indicate it had played any part in the tragedy. All the bullets recovered from Kehoe’s body, from Wiggins's arm and from the roadway at the scene of the shooting were fired from the 5-inch revolver. The one that killed McGill came from the other .38. The unfired ammunition found

with McGill’s body was from the Australian Government ammunition factory, Geelong, and none of that ammunition had been sold in New Zealand except to certain banks, but quantities of it had been reported stolen from the army.