In 1971 I was a cadet journalist working on a community newspaper in West Auckland. I was paid $28.50 per week. It was a lot of fun. I lived at the beautiful, wild Karekare Beach.
But I wanted my own newspaper. A printing firm south of Auckland was looking for someone to start a newspaper for them. It seemed a logical next step. So the County News was born.
I had sucked a couple of editions out of my thumbs when former Tuakau mayor George McGuire and his raven-haired wife Ella came into the office. A few months before the County News appeared, local farmer Arthur Alan Thomas had been found guilty of murdering another farmer and his wife, Harvey and Jeanette Crewe.
George and Ella didn't believe the man had done it. If he was the murderer, then his wife Vivien had to have been an accomplice or at least known about it and helped cover it up. George and Ella wanted me to interview her. It seemed a logical step.
George and Ella didn't believe the man had done it. If he was the murderer, then his wife Vivien had to have been an accomplice or at least known about it and helped cover it up. George and Ella wanted me to interview her. It seemed a logical step.
I did the interview and ran the story. It was the first story in the country on the man’s innocence, which eventually proved to be the case, albeit he was eventually pardoned rather than found not guilty through appeal.
A few days after I ran the story, two policemen involved in the investigation visited me. They made it clear they weren’t happy with the story. Stuff happened, as it does. Soon after I left the township and my little newspaper, and headed north to other adventures.
The murders remain unsolved.
The murders remain unsolved.
Meeting the McGuires, interviewing Vivien Thomas and the subsequent events stayed with me. Furt Bent from Aldaheit is a work of fiction, but it is fair to say it was inspired by those events.
Published by PearJam Books http://www.pearjambooks.com/ and now on Amazon, the novel Furt Bent from Aldaheit will be available in trade paperback before Christmas.
For reader review:
For reader review:
http://www.amazon.com/FURT-BENT-FROM-ALDAHEIT-ebook/product-reviews/B005QMU502/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
