Police News Oct 06.indd - New Zealand Police Association

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PoliceNewsThe Voice of Policethe fatal belief that Graham would backdown in a crisis.ArmouryBut the Grahams had no intention ofdepleting their armoury and procureda 7mm calibre Mauser and .44 calibreWinchester repeaters and a Browning12-gauge automatic shotgun. He alreadyowned .405 calibre and .22 calibreWinchester repeaters.On 2 October 1941 the Grahams becamedisturbed at radio reports about theGerman invasion of the Soviet Unionand later the same day Mrs Grahamabused their Danish neighbours, calledthem foreign dogs and accused them ofpoisoning their dogs and cows.The Madsens complained to Best, whodecided to wait, hoping the situation wouldcool. Graham spent a lot of time indoorsnow, brooding over the inevitable sale ofhis property and his stock and having tomove away from the area he loved.Mortgage debtsOn 7 October the bank required himto take out a second mortgage to coverdebts until the sale of his farm and itseems this tipped Graham further. Therewere more runs-in with neighbours thatday including where Graham threateneda passing cyclist with a firearm and wasencouraged by his wife to “Give him thehot end of the rifle”. Best received calls ofconcern and resolved to take action thenext day.On the morning of 8 October, AnkerMadsen cycled past Graham’s housecarrying a pickhandle because of previousthreats. Graham ordered him to stopbut he rode on until halted at gunpoint.Another neighbour Bert Jamieson,driving by, placed his car between thepair, allowing Madsen to ride off andcall Best. Best now knew urgent actionwas needed and he set off to see Graham.Best found Graham excitable, pointing a.44 calibre Winchester at him while MrsGraham levelled a firearm out of the frontwindow. He tried to reason with Grahambut to no avail.Best backed off and called Sergeant Cooperat Hokitika who came to Kowhitirangilater that day with Jordan and Tulloch,two of the three constables under hiscontrol. Cooper decided Graham shouldbe disarmed.232October 2006Cooper was a distinguished cop. He hadgained considerable kudos in Greymouthby taking a loaded gun from an offender.He was good-natured and goodhumoured,but not a man to be messedwith.Gun left unloadedCooper took his police .32 calibre Coltwith him and told Best to bring his .32calibre Webley and Scott automatic,but Best didn’t bother to load his, notexpecting Graham to offer resistancewhen confronted by four policemen.It was mid-afternoon before Cooper,Jordan, Tulloch and Best arrived atKowhitirangi. Cooper stationed Jordanand Tulloch at the nearby post office,while he and Best went to see Graham.At first the conversation was amicablebut Graham became angry when Cooperquestioned him about his allegations ofcattle poisoning. Cooper and Best backedoff and drove to see Anker Madsen andanother complainant, Bert Cropper, toseek further clarification. As the policeleft, Cropper’s son Abe warned Best tobe careful but Best told the Croppers hebelieved Graham was bluffing. “When westand up to him, he’ll give up his arms”,he said.Meanwhile, Tulloch and Jordan, neitherof whom was in uniform, took it onthemselves to wander down the road pastGraham’s house. They commented toGraham over his fence, about him havingproblems with his cattle. This alarmedGraham, who didn’t know the pair werepolice officers, but probably wonderedhow strangers knew about his problems.ConfrontationCooper and Best walked up Graham’spath, while Jordan and Tulloch got intoBest’s car. Graham came out on theverandah and Cooper told him he intendedconfiscating his firearms. Graham angrilyretreated down the passage followedby Cooper, with Mrs Graham pleadingfor them to leave, as Best moved closerbehind Cooper. (It would have been farwiser for them to withdraw. Today, policeknow a frontal approach to a dangerousarmed man can be suicidal but sadlythese country coppers had neither thetraining nor specialist armed backup andworked in a culture where police did notback down.)• Sergeant William Cooper.• Constable Mark Edward Best.• Constable Frederick William Jordan.• Constable Percy Campbell Tulloch.- All photos courtesy of the NZ Police Museum,Porirua.
Suddenly Cooper was staring downthe barrel of a Mauser, but he stood hisground and asked Graham to surrenderhis weapons, then turned and called:“Come on boys!” to Tulloch and Jordan.As Cooper reached out to take the rifleGraham fired and the bullet smashedCooper’s right forearm and carried oninto his ribs. Graham next fired at Tullochand Jordan as they ran down the passagetowards him, the same bullet passingthrough both their chests, Tulloch dyinginstantly and Jordan within minutes.Seconds later Best was shot in the handas he went forward to try to persuadeGraham to put the gun down. Best wouldsay on his deathbed that soon after beingwounded, he went to help Jordan whowas moaning and Graham shot Bestthrough the stomach. Graham left thetwo wounded men in the house and wentoutside to see if more police had to bedealt with.Forced ‘confession’Cooper was in a nightmare situation withhis smashed arm and ribs, unable to gethis pistol out of his right trouser pocket.His only option was to go for help andhe got half way to the front gate whenGraham shot him in the back. As he fellto his hands and knees Graham shot himagain with the bullet passing up throughhis body, this time finishing him. Best,now the only one of the four officersleft alive pleaded with the Grahams tocall a doctor. Graham said he would ifBest signed a ‘confession’. Mrs Grahamscribbled a note on a pad, which read:“I P M Best intended to murder StanGraham.” Best signed and Mrs Grahamran for a doctor.While Graham had been wreaking hisslaughter, agriculture instructor GeorgeRidley, in the area on business, arrived atKowhitirangi and stopped at the schoolalmost opposite Graham’s property.He saw Mrs Graham run onto the roadscreaming for a doctor. He went to thepost office and ascertained medicalassistance had already been called, thenon hearing that people had been shot hearranged for police to be called. As Ridleywalked back towards Graham’s house,local deer-culler, Bert Cropp handedhim a rifle, but as Ridley went throughGraham’s gate he passed it to fellowEducation Board employee ThomasHornsby, asking him to give him cover.Seeing this, Graham shouted at Hornsbyto put the rifle down, which he did. Ridleycontinued down Graham’s front path andtold Mrs Graham he wanted to help theshot men but Mrs Graham said they weredead. He walked back towards Cooper’sbody when Graham came out and pickedup the rifle dropped by Hornsby.TussleNot wanting Graham to secure anothergun, Ridley grabbed it and the twotussled before Graham let go, and shotRidley, taking the gun from him as hefell. (Ridley was evacuated to hospitalwhere he remained for most of the next17 months, dying from his wound inMarch 1943.)Graham gathered up food, 700 roundsof ammunition and four firearmsincluding Cooper’s pistol and fled intothe surrounding bush. Police at the“I rested my rifle on a treestump. I was satisfied asto his identity and I fired.He dropped on his face. Ireloaded and on reachinghim I could see he was badlywounded. The bullet had goneinto his left side and hadcome out on the other.”- Temporary Constable James DarcyQuirke, who shot Stanley Graham.Greymouth received the shocking newsat 4.35pm and the emergency responsebegan, although slowly because of themagnitude of what had occurred and theremoteness of the district.The following morning 60 police, homeguardsmen and locals, were assembledand were briefed not to shoot Grahamon sight but to first call on him tosurrender. That evening volunteer guardswere stationed at the post office, in theKoiterangi hall and three inside Graham’shouse, against the chance he mightreturn. Initial police orders were for thesame guard to remain all night but thesewere changed by the home guard to berotated each hour, a dangerous practicein such conditions with difficulty indistinguishing friend from felon. The7.30pm shift comprised two local menand home guardsman Gregory Hutchisonwho set up a chair by the living roomNew Zealand Police Associationdoor in line of sight of the open frontdoor at the end of the passage, effectivelymaking himself a ‘sitting duck’.At about 7.50pm the guards inside thehouse saw a man in the darkness at thefront door and challenged him to whichcame the reply “What’s the bloodygame? Can’t a man go into his ownhouse?” Hutchison raised his rifle anddemanded the password. “Stan Graham”came the reply as he shot Hutchisonwho died the following day. (He said, enroute to hospital that he’d had a perfectopportunity to shoot Graham but hadhesitated.) A second guard fired butmissed and Graham withdrew to putfurther rounds through windows beforefading into the night.PanicThose in the hall had heard the gunfireand one round hit the Koiterangi Hall,causing fear and panic inside. Silencefollowed during which the men in the hallconsidered what to do until Kaniere HomeGuard platoon commander Amuri Kingasked for a volunteer to go with him to thehouse and Max Coulson put up his hand.They approached the house and Coulsonhailed the guards and told them to holdtheir fire as they were coming in. Onewarned that Graham was still about andin fact, he was hiding at the right cornerof the house, but they ran up the pathstraight to where Graham had lined upthe point where the men would step ontothe verandah. Coulson was shot, the bulletsmashing his leg and severing his femoralartery. He bled to death in minutes.King made it through the door and intothe front bedroom from where he got twoshots away, one striking the crouchingGraham’s right shoulder, tearing part ofhis shoulder blade and exiting his back.Even this did not deter Graham whoreturned the fire and a general meleefollowed with others also shooting butGraham survived and retreated.Reinforcements returned to the hallwhile police crept up to the house, but astwo hours had since lapsed, they foundGraham long gone, Coulson dead andHutchison dying.Nationwide reinforcementsFollowing the first killings, reinforcementsflowed in from all over New Zealand withPrime Minister Peter Fraser pledgingto Police, all the country’s resourcesOctober 2006233
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Police News Oct 06.indd - New Zealand Police Association

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