Bank robber’s final mystery after death
EVEN in death, notorious bank robber Leslie Maurice Green left police with a job to do.
But this time, they were investigating an allegation that Green was the victim of an assault.
Green was 82 when he died in Middlemore Hospital on October 25, 2019, primarily from metastatic oesophageal cancer. Career criminal Green, once described as New Zealand’s most wanted man, and a ‘‘villain’s villain’’, was an audacious bank robber.
His most serious crimes included making off with
$105,000 (equivalent to more than $1 million today) in the 1970s by blowing a jeweller’s vault, and robbing seven banks between Wellington and Auckland in 1991-92, while carrying two pistols.
Green was given a 20-year sentence for his robberies, but was living out in the community in recent years.
He died shortly after being discovered by fellow career criminal Arthur Taylor at Green’s Papatoetoe flat, after a report that Green hadn’t been seen in weeks. Taylor found him in a bad state and emergency services were called.
According to a coroner’s report, Green was cachectic (physically wasted), dehydrated, malnourished and hypothermic when discovered; his death was directly caused by oesophageal cancer, and pneumonia and cardiovascular disease were contributing factors. Green had considerable health issues including diabetes, asthma, osteoarthritis, hernia and dementia.
According to the report, a friend noticed Green was becoming increasingly confused in the weeks before his death. John Murphy said Green had forgotten his age, claiming to be 92.
Green told ambulance staff en route to hospital that he had been assaulted twoweeks beforehand, and knocked out. As a result of that report, Counties Manukau police investigated the circumstances of his death.
They interviewed a case worker from the complex where Green lived, who said she had seen him just over aweek before his death. He never mentioned an assault, and appeared ‘‘alright and not disoriented’’.
Based on a scene examination, post-mortem examination findings, and witness accounts, police deemed there had been no assault, and
Green told ambulance staff en route to hospital that he had been assaulted two weeks beforehand, and knocked out.’
that he was probably confused from being so unwell.
Police ruled the death not suspicious and Coroner Katharine Greig decided not to hold an inquest. Police said they had contacted a relative of Green’s.
More recently Green has been linked to the disappearance and presumed murder of Wellington woman Marion Granville, who vanished in 1980 from Naenae.
Her former partner, convicted killer Michael Sneller, issued an unusual public plea in December for information in relation to Granville’s disappearance.
Police reportedly had their sights on Green in relation to Granville’s vanishing, as he reportedly disliked her intensely. During a coronial inquiry police admitted Green was a suspect, but had never been interviewed. The coroner ruled Granville had likely died from misadventure shortly after she was last seen.
Green gave a rare, final interview in 2015, lamenting new-age criminals were ‘‘ratbags and lowlifes’’.
‘‘We weren’t snatching old ladies’ handbags or anything like that.’’