The Great New Zealand Robbery

by Scott Bainbridge

  Malcolm Churches was acting detective and cut his teeth on the Waterfront payroll robbery. Churches transferred to Christchurch in 1965 to head up the Armed Offenders Squad. Later he studied with the Bureau of Narcotics and FBI National Academy in the United States and returned to help establish the police undercover programme in response to the drug-trafficking problem that arose in New Zealand during the 1970s. In 1977, he was made the first commanding officer of the Anti-terrorist Squad established by his mentor, Bob Walton. Churches was commissioner of police from 1987 to 1989, and awarded the CBE. He died in 2003.65

  Many of the major Auckland criminal and murder investigations in the 1960s had Walton as lead detective with Detective Senior Sergeant Leslie Schultz as his second in command. As during the Waterfront payroll robbery investigation, Schultz utilised his extensive knowledge of the Auckland underworld and squeezed his informants to solve many crimes. Schultz never believed the Waterfront payroll robbery was committed by Nash acting alone, and the investigation file contains at least half a dozen memoranda sent at different times throughout the 1960s requesting authorisation to head across to Perth to interview Harold Kendall. All requests were rejected, citing budget restraints, although Schultz believed his superiors were ‘willing to brush it under the carpet’ as Nash was secure in custody serving the maximum sentence. It remained a bugbear throughout his career. In June 1970, Walton directed Schultz to head to Pukekawa to lead an investigation into the suspicious disappearance of a local farmer and his wife. Schultz was several weeks into what would become the Crewe murder investigation when he was taken ill and forced on extended sick leave. He died a year later.

  Although not on the robbery investigation team, Detective Constable Bill Brien was drafted into the three-man team to follow up enquiries when Trevor Nash escaped in 1961. Regarded as a forward-thinker, Brien was sent to Police College for further training to prepare him for a return to a senior position in the uniform branch when enquiries died down. Just a few months earlier, in December 1960, Brien had been present when detectives were called out to Manurewa to confront a criminal named Arthur McQuoid who had escaped from Papakura Courthouse and who was on the roof of a tower at a local timber yard taking pot-shots at people with a high-powered rifle. Brien noted that police were reluctant to return fire, probably because it risked attracting negative publicity. It was his idea to try knocking McQuoid down with fire hoses. After severely wounding Detective Sheehan, McQuoid turned the gun on himself. Then in January 1963, Brien was one of several detectives called out to Bethells Beach (Te Henga), where a self-styled novelist named Victor Wasmuth had shot his neighbour. As detectives tried reasoning with him, Wasmuth opened fired, killing respected detective Wallace Chalmers and Neville Power, son of the then assistant commissioner. These two events, along with the murders of Constables Bryan Schultz (the son of Les Schultz) and Jim Richardson in Lower Hutt a month later, prompted Brien to write a report on the need for a dedicated Armed Offenders Squad, which was established a year later.66

  After retiring from the police force in the 1970s, Brien became publican of the Brunswick Arms in Wellington, and later the Rose and Crown for nineteen years, an establishment adorned with sports memorabilia and a popular watering hole for All Blacks. Apart from being a well-liked publican, Brien was a member of the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, the Halberg Trust, Wellington Rugby Union and Athletics Wellington. Noted for his community work, he was awarded Rotary International’s highest award in 2000 and made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2008. He died in 2010.67

  The junior member of the three-man Nash escape investigation team was CIB Constable John Hughes, who was a renowned light-middleweight boxing champion and who joined police in 1959 after serving in the New Zealand Navy. Following Nash’s recapture, Hughes was promoted to the CIB as a detective and throughout the sixties and seventies was revered as a tough, no-nonsense cop, unafraid to go head-to-head with the toughest of mobsters, who both feared and respected him. He often bent the rules to suit his purposes, but he had a high arrest rate. One of his more notable cases was the arrest of David Wayne Tamihere for the murder of two Swedish tourists on the Coromandel in 1989. Hughes’s funeral in 2006 was well attended by police and criminals alike;68 Anna Hoffmann made a grand entrance, riding into the church on the back of a Harley-Davidson motorbike driven by a Mongrel Mob member. In many ways, this was a recognition that when John Hughes died, the last of the cast of rough diamonds with which the New Zealand crime scene—both mugs and Jacks—was studded had passed on. With him died an era—you hesitate to call it an age of innocence—and with the rest, colleagues and crims, he became part of folklore.

  — — —

  The Waterfront payroll robbery has largely been forgotten, and nowadays many have not even heard of it. Trevor Nash was a household name during the 1960s because of his escape and record time on the run, but many were unaware what crime had put him there in the first place. The Establishment at the time were desperate to keep news of the robbery suppressed for several reasons, some political, but this was due to pressure from the commission, which could not sustain the loss or save face. The robbery hit the pocket and also the solid reputation that Arthur Bockett had worked hard to build up after the 1951 confrontation and which he was so desperate to maintain. Those in positions of power to whom he turned had their own agendas. It is likely there was a fear—quite well founded, it has to be said—of other, similar organisations being hit. Barry Shaw stated, ‘There was a bit of competition going on among some of the safe-breaking firms. Some bozos would try to outdo each other—you know, who could swipe the largest amount of dough, that kind of thing. But when they ripped off the fuckin’ Waterfront Commission payroll… well, that was always gonna be a fuckin’ hard one to top.’

  Johnny Angel has similar recollections about the way the heist was viewed. ‘At first it was all about the money,’ he recalled in May 2016, ‘but when they realised how much they got away with, it was viewed by the underworld as a kind of “up yours” to the Establishment.’

  No one did top it, not for many years.

  By the time Nash and the other usual suspects were released from prison for their respective crimes, it was the mid to late 1960s. Times had changed. Inflation saw a rise in unemployment and the advent of drugs and rising poverty saw desperate criminals resort to more aggravated robberies, once regarded as an aberration. A number of high-profile bank robberies, murders and drug trafficking would dominate the headlines well into the next decade and beyond.

  As security systems modernised, the classic era of safe-breakers came quietly to an end and those who once proudly claimed the seat at the head of the table of the criminal underworld were usurped by the next generation. Crooks like Nash, Parsons, Tattley and Banks would no longer occupy the front pages of Truth, and crimes such as the Waterfront payroll robbery were relegated to the footnotes of criminal history books—probably a position Nash, in his own quiet way, would gladly have accepted.

  Quay Street from the wharves, with the Northern Steamship Company building at the left, ca 1950s.

  The rear of the Northern Steamship Company building viewed from Tyler Street in 2016. It was the first-floor window on the left that clerk Edward Lumley noticed smoke billowing from. In 1956, this was commission accountant Garth Gill’s office, where the safe was situated.

  The Auckland Bus Terminal viewed from Tyler Street in 1961. On the right is the rear of the Northern Steamship Company building. It was from this position that, shortly before the robbery was discovered, Eric Thomas witnessed two men carrying bags from the building and hop into a car, which then sped away.

  After a failed attempt to blast the safe with gelignite, the robbers performed a ‘soup-job’ by burning it open with a combination of oxygen, acetylene and a welding torch. The gauges on the gas bottles discovered at the scene were set to the precise pressure levels necessary to cut it open, and this led police to believe the robbery had been carried out by a gang of pro
fessionals. Here locksmith Mr C. Hyauiason is opening the safe door. At this point, the full extent of the amount stolen was not yet known.

  Exhibits of the equipment found at the crime scene, including three oxygen bottles, one acetylene bottle, a cutting torch and hoses, a 9-inch shifting spanner, a 10-inch pipe wrench with the threaded end and wooden handle removed, one short screwdriver, one red-handled bread knife, the distinctive brick-bolster, a gas cylinder drill and a 10-inch Wigan rubber cloth.

  The distinctive Brades brick-bolster (left) found at the scene. The end and sides had been shaped and welded to a piece of inch-thick pipe. So unique was this modification that police took the unprecedented step of publishing a photograph of the tool, in the hope that someone in the building industry might recognise its owner. On the right is an oxygen key with a wooden handle fixed by a brass ferrule. The name ‘Boneham and Turner Ltd Mansfield’ had been cut into a straight chrome pipe. A hexagon nut had been filed square inside and welded to a curved metal shank, which in turn had been filed and fitted in the chrome pipe.

  Attorney-General (and future Prime Minister) Jack Marshall, Minister of Justice in 1957, with a display of disapproved-of comics that allegedly corrupted youth. Marshall abhorred crime and was a crusader for the return of capital punishment. With the prime minister ailing, Marshall was first to receive news of the robbery and took it upon himself to place pressure on police to make arrests. When Nash came to trial, it was alleged Marshall had input behind the scenes and pulled strings to ensure Nash serve the maximum penalty for the crime.

  Retired Waterfront Industry Commission Chairman Arthur Bockett (left) in 1975 at his investiture of the CMG for recognition of services in the field of industrial relations. On the right is his twin brother, Herbert, the former Secretary of Labour, who received the same award in 1961. Arthur considered the Waterfront payroll robbery a personal affront, and utilised all his powers and resources to find those responsible.

  Detective Sergeant Thomas Irving, who was in charge of the Waterfront payroll robbery investigation and led the hunt for the fugitive Trevor Nash.

  This identikit composite sketch of the suspect as described by staff at various businesses who recall him purchasing equipment later found at the crime scene. The sketch was drawn for police by Herald cartoonist Gordon Minhinnick.

  Premier safe-breaker Ronald Tattley was identified by an ANZ bank clerk while trying to change £5 notes for larger denominations in the weeks following the heist. Tattley quickly went on the run and was the first major suspect.

  Detective Constable Bill Brien led the field enquiries in the national hunt for Nash.

  Augustus ‘Gus’ Parsons in 1969. Truth described him as a criminal underworld figurehead, and police suspected he was instrumental in Nash’s escape and evasion.

  George ‘Knucklehead’ Walker was responsible for moving Nash between safe-houses in the weeks following his dramatic escape. Two years later, Walker would be gunned down at his illegal beer-house at 115 Bassett Road in Remuera.

  Australian gangster Robert Lawrence ‘Jacky’ Steele talking to reporters from his hospital bed after he was gunned down in a Sydney street by a rival in 1965. Steele was one of many Australian criminals who would sneak in and out of New Zealand during the 1950s and ’60s to commit safe-breaks. It has been suspected he was behind the unsolved Custom Jewellery heist in July 1956, and assisted in Nash’s passage to Australia.

  The wanted poster of Trevor Nash.

  Shortly after his historic arrest, Nash is placed in the back of a police car by Detective Davy for his court appearance.

  The cover and inside of the notorious ‘Carrico’ Christmas card found in Nash’s cell after his escape. The inscribed message ‘See you soon, Trev’ was believed to have been from someone involved in his escape.

  CIB Constable John Hughes pores over the Trevor Nash file in July 1961. The file contained hundreds of statements of alleged sightings.

  Detective Sergeant Leslie Schultz of Auckland CIB’s tough Consorting Squad. He applied pressure on the Auckland criminal underworld throughout the robbery investigation and later pleaded with his superiors to round up the rest of the gang after Nash was deported.

  Melbourne Senior Detective Reginald Henderson (left) and his partner Detective John Davy. The detectives were on their way to investigate stolen antiques in central Melbourne when Henderson spotted a man resembling the wanted poster he had seen and memorised five months earlier.

  Curious onlookers crowd Vulcan Lane in 1960 to catch a glimpse of the scandalous Anna Hoffmann, whose exploits were regularly reported in Truth. In February 1961, she provided a safe-house to Nash and played Scrabble while the rest of the country was looking for him.

  After police failed to find any proof to link Tattley to the Waterfront heist, they turned their attentions to evasive professional safe-breaker Harold Kendall, who had been seen in Auckland immediately before the robbery but disappeared immediately afterwards. Thomas Shortcliffe made a deathbed confession admitting his involvement in the Waterfront payroll robbery.

  Nash (right) arrives back in New Zealand, handcuffed to Detective Sergeant Thomas Irving.

  GLOSSARY

  NEW ZEALAND GANGSTER-SPEAK

  average Joe: a regular person or innocent bystander, person not connected to crime; also ‘straight Joe’.

  biff: to be beaten up; also scrap.

  Big House: Mount Eden Prison.

  big-noter: a criminal who takes a situation and embellishes it to make himself look better than he actually is.

  big-shot: a criminal with a long record who is highly revered by other criminals; also known as a ‘hard case’ or ‘hard-arse’.

  blue: an argument; also referred to as a ‘stink’.

  bookie: a bookmaker; a shady character who takes illegal bets on horse races and fights.

  bootleg: to make and distribute alcohol illegally.

  bully: inside information; also known as ‘skinny’.

  clean money: illegally gained money that has been laundered, often by transforming it into legitimate assets, in order for it to be reintegrated back into circulation.

  cosh: to be hit or struck violently with a weapon.

  dog: to recant a police statement or court testimony at the last minute; to get another fellow in trouble.

  drink: a financial reward or favour.

  fencer: someone who buys or acquires stolen goods and sells them on to unsuspecting buyers.

  firm: the core members of a particular criminal organisation or gang; also known as ‘crew’.

  fit up: to incriminate on a false charge; also ‘stitch up’.

  fix: a criminal heist; also known as a ‘job’.

  fizz: a police informant; also known as a ‘stoolie’, ‘rat’, ‘nark’, ‘canary’ or ‘tipster’.

  form: criminal record or status.

  fruit: a homosexual.

  glom: to take, steal, seize; to appropriate for one’s own use.

  goof off: to provide misinformation or exaggerated recollections.

  hard-arse: a tough and fearless gangster; also ‘hard case’ or ‘big-shot’.

  Jack: a detective.

  jazz: to talk animatedly.

  juice: courage; also ‘guts’ or ‘balls’.

  kite-flyer: a cheque fraudster or cheque bouncer.

  moll: a female companion or associate of a criminal organisation; a prostitute.

  mouthpiece: a lawyer.

  mug: a criminal; also a fool, as in ‘Don’t be a mug’.

  pop: to arrest; compare with ‘shop’.

  QT: quiet or off the record; although British in origin, this term was commonly used in 1950s North American crime movies and adopted here in New Zealand.

  rat’s arse: a fifties term used to describe a quiet or unexciting backwater town.

  riff: to talk freely.

  ring-bolt: to gain illegal passage out of the country, usually on a boat and organised by criminals with the knowledge of the crew.


  rort: to rip someone off; an illegal scheme.

  safe-blowing: shattering, bursting or destroying a safe using explosives.

  safe-breaking or safe-cracking: the process of opening a safe without the combination or a key.

  scoop: a newspaper reporter or journalist.

  scrape doctor or scrape nurse: a practitioner of illegal abortions.

  screw: a prison guard.

  shank: a prison-fashioned knife or blade; also ‘shiv’.

  shitcan: to willingly or inadvertently set someone up for a fall; to screw someone over.

  shop: to arrest and charge; compare with ‘pop’.

  sly-grog: a private premise selling alcohol without a licence after legal trading hours; also ‘beerhouse’.

  snitch off: to inform on someone else; also known as ‘welching’, ‘goosing’ or ‘jerking the nod’.

  soup-job: North American Prohibition-era gangster slang for blowing a safe with nitroglycerine that was adopted in Australia and here New Zealand in the late 1940s to refer to cutting into the top of a safe using oxyacetylene and a cutting torch, which resulted in safe that resembled an opened soup can.