squeal: to confess; also ‘sing’ or ‘spill [his or her] guts’.
stair-dancer: a burglar who loiters in the stairwells of buildings, waiting for doors to open and provide them with the opportunity to sneak inside.
stir: prison sentence; also ‘lag’ or ‘stretch’.
swish: to harass or be harassed.
top dog: status given to the highest-ranking criminal within an organisation or in the hierarchal structure in a prison.
trusty: a prisoner accorded certain duties by virtue of having been recognised as trustworthy.
vamoose: to depart hurriedly before being caught.
wild bug: a criminal who is anxious or paranoid.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During my research into the book that eventually became The Bassett Road Machine-gun Murders, the name Trevor Nash kept cropping up but I paid little attention to it. I remembered from skimming old Truth articles that he was a bloke who had escaped from Mount Eden Prison and evaded capture for a long time, but it wasn’t until some time later, when I was interviewing retired detectives from the 1950s and 1960s and asked them who the worst gangster or crook they’d dealt with was, that I received the universal reply ‘Trevor Edward Nash’ and I began to take real notice.
I’d firstly like to thank John Reece, who spurred me on to write this book. John asked if I had heard about the Waterfront payroll robbery, and mentioned that his father had been acquainted with Nash and his brothers on the wharf railways after the war. Some of my retired underworld sources had also mentioned the Waterfront robbery, but it was only then that I made the connection and I began to do some research into whether the case would warrant a book or not. It wasn’t long before I realised this was one hell of an interesting story.
I am indebted to Gill Tongue and Ian Bradshaw of the Office of the Commissioner of Police for granting me permission to access the mammoth robbery file, and to the staff of Archives New Zealand in Auckland for their prompt service and for going out of their way to accommodate my frequent research visits. I certainly could not have written such a full or in-depth account without their cooperation.
Similarly, I wish to thank Linda Turner and Gordon Sulliman from Auckland High Court for providing access to the Nash robbery trial and bankruptcy hearing transcripts, which helped me to expand on some complex details about the case.
I have dedicated this book to three people who selflessly helped me in my research, not just for this story but also for providing an insight into the crime scene of 1950s and 1960s Auckland. All three have now sadly passed away.
Barry Shaw was a mob enforcer turned politician who gave me snippets of information on the Waterfront heist, and was the first to allude to a crew of guys having knocked it off.
Anna Hoffmann was a young Bohemian who associated with those involved in the criminal underworld, and her scandalous exploits were often on Truth’s front page. Anna steered me in the right directions with Bassett Road and I wasn’t entirely surprised to see her name mentioned in the robbery files. I am grateful for her frank and often humorous recollections, and loved hearing about her naughty exploits. Anna passed away in December 2014.
Claude ‘Pooch’ Quintal was a great storyteller who was very knowledgeable about the shady side of Auckland during the 1950s and 1960s. When I called him to say I was going to write this book, he insisted I meet him in the dark corner of some little pub underneath the Auckland Harbour Bridge. I’ll never forget walking in and seeing Pooch standing there with two older guys in suits and hats, looking every inch the Godfather and staring coldly back at me. I was acutely aware that I was less than a metre away from the water and had the feeling I was being sized up for concrete boots…
Pooch did a grand job of introducing me to people and filling in the gaps in my research. He called me in March 2016 to ask for a lift to Anna Hoffmann’s memorial at Shanghai Lil’s, and he died the next day.
Pooch introduced me to Ray Jennings and the man I have called ‘Johnny Angel’, who was a member of the Angels motorbike gang alongside Pooch and Rainton Hastie in the 1950s. Both Johnny and Ray were old-time safe breakers, in their eighties today and still tough, rugged old guys riffing on the bad ol’ days out of the corners of their mouths.
I thank Ray and Johnny for being open about their memories of the time. Many years have passed and I could tell these men had led hard lives and survived. As I listened to them, I wondered what other interesting stories they must have stored away. Both were reticent, but I noticed a twinkle in their eyes as they relived their reckless years, and it wasn’t always simple to tell what was exaggerated, embellished or fact. These are not bad men. Both are doting great-grandfathers, and I wish them well.
I will never forget meeting Len Evans and am eternally grateful to him for sharing the story of his involvement in assisting Nash with his escape—something he had kept secret for 56 years. Like the other men I talked to, Len led a hard life but came out the other side embracing a new holistic lifestyle. Though reluctant to relive his past, Len patiently answered my questions. I respect the fact he gave me more than he ever would have given anyone else in the past, and that he also stopped short of spilling the beans on everything.
No one from the original police inquiry team from the robbery or escape investigation remains alive, so I knew I was clutching at straws when trying to find anyone who might have had some knowledge from a police perspective. I placed an advert in Police News magazine and was surprisingly overwhelmed with calls from retired police who either knew about the case or had some involvement with Nash during the 1960s or 70s. I thank everyone who contacted me. Even though many of the recollections were from a later period, the stories were still helpful and extremely interesting. In particular, I wish to thank Norm Sowter, Peter Faulkner, Ron Chadwick, Joe Sheehan, Bob Loader and Murray Gallagher. An enormous thanks to Peter Goodyear, who was present on the day Trevor Nash was arrested in Newmarket, and who told of going from shop to shop to uplift the ten-pound notes Nash had tendered.
Thank you also to ‘Diamond Jim’ Shepherd, Robyn Tattley, the Shortcliffe family, Judy Wood, Hamish Keith, Russell Peters and Tony Nash. I was also fortunate to track down Herbert Blumenthal, who possibly came face-to-face with one of the robbers in the weeks after the heist. In 1956, Mr Blumenthal worked as a teller at ANZ and called police after a suspicious character asked for change in 50-pound notes. While he was unable to give a description, his colleague identified Ron Tattley—a turning point in the investigation, causing police to focus closely on the Auckland firms. Mr Blumenthal explained to me the methods tellers employed when coming across stolen or suspicious banknotes, and this certainly helped to paint a picture of banking in the era before computer technology.
Although my initial plan was to focus on the Waterfront payroll robbery, it was never going to be complete without telling the story of Trevor Nash who, in life, refused to divulge to anyone what really happened. I often wonder what he would think of this book if he were alive. Would he approve? I doubt he would be thrilled; I imagine he would most likely be uncooperative and obstructive. In some respects, I feel uneasy about ‘stripping him bare’ and exposing his notorious life when he is no longer alive to defend himself. I am also at pains not to glorify his exploits; after all, a crime or crimes were committed and I don’t condone what he or his cohorts did. Nonetheless, it is an incredible story and, for the purposes of history, should be told.
Trevor and Maria Nash had four children; three are alive at the time of writing. By all accounts they are not interested in reliving this part of their lives, which cannot have been easy. Nash’s two sons changed their names and left the country many years ago. Out of respect for their privacy, I have chosen not to name them or their locations. I am ever so grateful to have talked and corresponded with Warren Nash, the son of Trevor’s older brother, Brian, who provided frank and candid recollections from a family perspective of the impact of Trevor’s crimes.
At the time of writing, 60 years
have passed since Nash’s arrest in Newmarket and subsequent trial. Due to archiving, there is not a great deal of images existing from that era or about this case. I wish to thank Rowan Carroll, Director of the New Zealand Police Museum, for kindly providing some of the rare images included in this book. Thanks also to Jude Tewnion from Fairfax Library and Ellie Hutchinson from Herald Library for painstakingly searching for and providing their respective photographs, to Newspix Australia, to Auckland Library and to the National Library of New Zealand for providing scanned copies of those for which I could not track down the originals. Also to the families of some of the players mentioned, for sharing precious images from their personal collections.
All my love to my wife, Puna, and to our boys, Raea and Rafael, for their tolerance over those long evenings, and for giving me the space and precious time away to work on this book.
Finally, to Jenny Hellen, Kimberley Davis and the rest of the legendary team at Allen & Unwin for their encouragement and unwavering support, and for believing in me and the direction I wanted to take with this incredible story. Thanks to John McCrystal for his thorough scrutiny in editing the manuscript and helping to round out a great story.
NOTES
1. Although the number of robberies increased as the century progressed, the haul from the Waterfront payroll robbery in 1956 was not surpassed until December 2000 when $1 million was stolen from a Chubb Security van outside Willis Street National Bank in Wellington. (Sunday Star-Times, 15 March 2009; The Dominion Post, 15 April 2015; Paul Elenio, The Dominion Post: 150 years of news.)
While not a robbery in the classic sense of the term, Leo Morland swindled 3650 ounces of alluvial gold valued at £31,496 (around $2 million today) from the Arahura Gold Dredging Company and was caught trying to smuggle it into Canada in 1940. (The New Zealand Herald (NZH), 6 January 2001; NZH, 17 February 1941; The Evening Post (EP), 19 February 1941, 25 August 1942, and 19 May 1943.)
2. ‘Mug’ is a gangster expression for criminal or crook; a ‘big-shot’ is a criminal with a long record who is highly revered by other criminals; ‘Jack’ is the gangster parlance for detective.
3. The Northern Steamship Company building was built in 1898 and is one of Auckland’s finest heritage buildings. While the exterior of the building has not lost its originality, the interiors have been vastly refurbished over the years. The ground floor, which was once the offices of the Northern Steamship Company, is now Northern Steamship Mac’s Brewbar. The first floor, once the offices of the Waterfront Industry Commission where the robbery took place, now houses Generator, an executive-suite rental agency. The physical address is now 122 Quay Street, Auckland.
4. Michael Bassett, Confrontation ’51, p. 28.
5. Ibid, p. 23.
6. Ibid, pp. 28–9.
7. Barry Gustafson, The First 50Years, p. 60; David Grant (ed.), The Big Blue, pp. 24–5.
8. ‘Bockett, Herbert Leslie’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara—the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 5 June 2013.
9. John Marshall, Memoirs Volume One 1912–1960, pp. 235–6.
10. RedmerYska, All Shook Up, pp. 90–5.
11. Marshall, p. 236.
12. Yska, p. 34.
13. Dr P. P. Lynch, No Remedy for Death, pp. 99–105.
14. Yska, pp. 153–70; Sherwood Young, Guilty on the Gallows, pp. 213–22
15. Gustafson, pp. 69–70; Ron Palenski, Those Were the Days, p. 14.
16. Gustafson, pp. 56–9, 60–2; ‘Holland, Sidney George’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara—the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 22 October 2013.
17. ‘Compton, Eric Henry’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara—the Encyclopedia of New Zealand; Susan Butterworth, More than Law and Order, pp. 52–65; Sherwood Young, With Confidence and Pride, pp. 65–66.
18. Scott Bainbridge, The Bassett Road Machine-gun Murders, pp. 17–18.
19. NZH, 4 June 1956 p. 8.
20. Current-day equivalent: $293,000 (Consumer Price Index).
21. NZH, 17 July 1956 p. 11; Auckland Star, 17 July 1956 p. 1.
22. Report of Schultz dated 30 July 1956. P,1, 1956/1061; In the last six months of 1955 there were 34 arrests for counting-house, warehouse and shop breaking, but in the first three months of 1956 there were 31, with fifteen arrested facing active charges in April, which was a significant increase to that date. (NZH, 1 May 1956.)
23. The Modus Operandi group was a unit that had been pioneered in Auckland in 1937 and later introduced to the detective branches in the other main centres. It began with keeping a record of fingerprints, but the unit’s main value was in helping police keep tabs on professional and persistent criminals, including indexing crime according to its peculiarities and the idiosyncrasies of known criminals. There was a detailed card index of criminal records. Civilian staff were assigned to go through the weekly Police Gazette and manually update criminal records with recent convictions and releases from gaol. (Butterworth, p. 81; Graeme Dunstall, A Policeman’s Paradise?, p. 166.)
24. Truth, 11 and 18 September 1956 p. 1, and 2 October 1956 p. 1.
25. Paul Goldsmith, John Banks, p. 19 and 21.
26. Ibid, pp. 30–3
27. NZH, 21 July 1956 p. 17.
28. Truth, 24 July 1956 p. 17; NZH, 20 July 1956 p.19, and 21 July 1956 p. 17.
29. Truth, 13 November 1956 p. 21, 6 November 1956 p. 9, 25 September 1956 p. 19, and 30 November 1956 p. 19.
30. Truth, 20 November 1956 p. 21.
31. Bainbridge, pp. 23–4.
32. Yska, pp. 181–192.
33. Notes of conversation between Sir Graham Speight and the Hon. Justice Colin Nicholson QC, CNZMZ, in the history of Meredith Connell (undated and unpublished).
34. NZH, 14 December 1957 p. 20, and 20 December 1957 p. 19.
35. Lynch, pp. 99–105; Bruce Morris Jailbreak, pp. 2–5; Marshall, pp. 226–7.
36. NZH, 6 February 1961 p. 1.
37. Goldsmith, pp. 19 and 21.
38. NZH, 9 March 1961 p.1.
39. Ibid, 29 March 1961 p. 1.
40. James Morton and Susanna Lobez, Gangland Sydney, pp. 156–8 and 217–9.
41. Truth, 18 July 1961 p. 1.
42. NZH, 14 July 1961 p. 1.
43. Court notes; Addison, July/Aug 1961 archive.
44. Anna Hoffmann, Tales of Anna Hoffmann (Volume Three), pp. 9–12.
45. Truth, 18 July 1961 p. 11.
46. Slippery Sam is a variant on the card games Red Dog and Shoot. Players bet on the basis of the dealer’s turned-up card, without seeing the cards they have been dealt. The dealer deals three cards per player, but they must not look at their cards. The dealer continues dealing cards face-up in the centre of the table until a six or lower appears. Each player bets on having a higher card in the same suit as the card facing up. After the player has decided how much to bet, the player’s whole hand is exposed and the player wins the amount of the stake from the pot if it contains a higher card of the same suit as the dealer’s card; if not, the player’s bet is added to the pot. If the pot becomes empty in the middle of a hand, the deal passes to the next player, who creates a new pot. At the end of a hand, the dealer retains anything that is left in the pot and the deal passes to the next player. (Peter Arnold, The Book of Card Games, p. 248.)
47. On 25 October 1960, approximately one month after the bankruptcy hearing and possibly in direct response to whatever occurred behind closed doors in the lead-up to Nash’s hearing, an act to amend the Bankruptcy Act 1908 was passed in parliament amending s95 by repealing subsection (1), and substituting it with: ‘The Chairman at any meeting shall be the Assignee or some person appointed by him; but if the Assignee is not present at any meeting and no person so appointed by him is present at the meeting, the meeting may elect one of their number qualified to vote at the meeting to act as chairman during the absence of the Assignee or any person so appointed. Any person so appointed or elected while acting as chairman in the absence of the Assignee is her
eby empowered to administer any oaths which he Assignee could have administered if present.’
Having had full access to the bankruptcy hearing against Nash, the author is not clear how this amendment affected the outcome of Nash’s case. By all accounts, the original appointed assignee was present at court. When his cell was searched following his escape in February 1961, the number of legal text books and notes found suggested Nash was about to launch a legal case to challenge the findings of the bankruptcy hearing. The fact this piece of legislation was amended one month later may have been a coincidence or by design. It is equally likely Nash had been made aware of this ‘coincidental’ change so close to the conclusion of his case and was using this as a type of attack ploy, in the hope it might make some difference. Au fait with the law and issues around legislation, he may have thought a legal challenge might buy him some time or expose some loophole.
48. Owen Cherrett, Without Fear or Favour, p. 309; Morris, pp. 18–22.
49. Greg Newbold, Crime, Law and Justice in New Zealand, p. 220; Kevin Ryan, Justice Without Fear or Favour, pp. 61–3.
50. Ryan, p. 233–4.
51. Ibid.
52. Truth, 29 November 1966 p. 11.
53. ‘New Zealand adopts decimal currency’, New Zealand History website,
54. According to the Reserve Bank calculator as at 16 November 2016.
55. NZH, 21 December 1967 p. 1.
56. NZH, 15 February 1968 p. 3, 16 February 1968 p. 3, 17 February 1968 p. 3, 19 March 1968 p. 4, 20 March 1968 p. 4, 22 March 1968 p. 4, 23 March 1968 p. 5, 26 March 1968 p. 4, 27 March 1968 p. 3; Ryan, p. 234.
57. NZH, 13 June 1977 p. 3.
58. Bainbridge, pp. 252–3; Sunday News, 7 February 1965 p. 7; Ryan, pp. 41–7; James Shepherd, Mr Asia, pp. 22–3; Cherrett, p. 311.
59. Tony Williams, The Bad, the Very Bad and the Ugly, pp. 94–5; Ryan, pp. 235–6; Carroll Du Chateau, Metro, November 1989 pp. 67–8.
The Great New Zealand Robbery Page 26
