DESTROYED BY FIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 October 1941, Page 4

DESTROYED BY FIRE

HOUSE OF THE KOITERANGI KILLER UNEXPLAINED OUTBREAK. DISCOVERY OF HUNTED MAN’S HIDEOUT. (By Telegraph-Press Association.) GREYMOUTH, October 26. The mysterious destruction by fire last night of the house of Stanley Graham, the Koiterangi killer, and the discovery of his hideout during the period of the man hunt were anticlimax sensations at the weekend in this extraordinary episode. The fire occurred late on Saturday night, and the police are investigating. Detec-tive-Sergeant H. E. Knight,. -Sergeant E. Hay, and other police officers visited Koiterangi today to pursue inquiries. The residence owned by Graham, a fcur-roomed farmhouse, has been unoccupied since. October 8. Nothing was saved. Graham's hideout was found to be in a huge hollow bottom of a dead black pine tree, at the furthermost fringe of Doughboy Hill, a mile to the rear of Growcott’s homestead. Interviewed this morning Mr Henry Growco“tt, farmer, who accompanied Constables Quirke and Ross when Graham was fatally shot, gave a detailed description of the finding of cooking utensils and other articles in the vicinity of and under the tree where Graham had apparently spent a. large portion of his 13 days of liberty following the tragedies at his homestead. Graham is known to have stated quite definitely on his deathbed at Westland Hospital that he had had plenty of food and had in fact treated himself to egg flips cooked in milk. The milk, Graham stated, he got by milking a quiet old cow in the vicinity. Destined not to remain a grim, reminder of tragedy, the modern fourroomed house of Graham has now been' effaced from the landscape. The house, which is just opposite the hall, school and church, was razed to the ground by a fire within a few minute at 8.30 o’clock on Saturday night. The cause of the outbreak is unkown. Until Friday night, a police guard was maintained on the property, but on the arrival of Mrs Graham’s relatives control of the property was handed over to them. When the outbreak occurred there Was a keen wind blowing and the fire rapidly enveloped the house. Berceuse of lack of water for fire-fighting, attempts to save the building would have been futile. The house was built nine years ago and was in good order. All that now remains is the chimney, a stove at the rear of the building, and a mixture of twisted roofing iron. Other incidental buildings remain, including a dilapidated cowshed within 30 or 40 feet of the home.

It is now revealed authoritatively that Graham was actually in a tottering state when shot. He was suffering severely from the accumulating effects of blood-poisoning, and it was consided from a medical viewpoint that even had he not received the fatal bullet wounds, he could not have lived beyond a couple of days more. It is not yet known if the house was insured.

The condition of Mr G. S. Ridley, an agricultural inspector, who was shot in the hip by Graham on the first day of the tragedy, is unchanged.