Mystery of a barman’s shooting
Hermitage Hotel chef arrested for murder five months after workmate’s death, but jury found him not guilty
When a chef at the famous Hermitage Hotel was arrested for murder five months after a barman was shot dead, he remarked: “I have been expecting this.”
The killing occurred at the luxury resort hotel in the heart of New Zealand’s Southern Alps/Ka¯ Tiritiri o te Moana just after 6pm on Thursday, November 5, 1931.
William John Thomas Whalley, 33, was arrested in Hokitika on the West Coast in April 1932. But he was found not guilty by a jury and no one else was ever charged over the shooting.
He had known something was up for weeks, after a detective began probing his statements about the gunshot wound that almost instantly killed his mate of six years William (Bill) Edward Wogan, 25, a bartender and porter at the hotel in what is now Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park.
The killing occurred at what was the second of the three hotels to be built at Aoraki/Mt Cook village. The first, erected in 1884, was destroyed by floods in 1913, the second by fire in 1957, and the third remains today.
Before he died, Wogan had been working at the Hermitage for 11 months, and Whalley had been there for six. Both men had links to Hokitika.
On the day of the tragedy, Wogan returned to his room in the staff quarters after playing tennis. Whalley joined him there and was the only one to see Wogan die.
Whalley had borrowed a 0.22-inch calibre rifle from Alf Brustad, an expert skier and former Hermitage mountain guide, to shoot rabbits.
Wogan was unfamiliar with guns, even afraid of them, according to a Hokitika grocer who knew him well.
Whalley told the police his friend had wanted to go shooting and he showed Wogan how to load the rifle. Two bullets were put in the magazine.
“As he was leaving the room . . . he heard a shot and turning round saw that deceased had been shot,” according to a Press Association report of a constable’s testimony in court, published in the Herald. “He . . . saw blood streaming from Wogan’s head.”
“Deceased had previously been sitting with the rifle between his knees. He [Whalley] was sure that after having shown deceased how to load the rifle he had emptied it again.”
Whalley told another staff member Wogan had shot himself accidentally.
But that theory was discounted by a magistrate earlier after an expert ran tests with the rifle. The magistrate also ruled out suicide.
Several staff and a hotel guest who had inspected Wogan’s body in the 6.5 hours before the constable arrived from Fairlie said they had not seen any scorching or blackening around the single bullet wound above his left ear. Nor did the policeman see any.
Christchurch gunsmith Leslie Tisdall said the gun was reliable and functioning properly. He found the furthest he could get the muzzle from his own head and still pull the trigger was 11cm — a gap at which a shot would leave powder marks.
At Whalley’s Supreme Court trial in Timaru, the crown prosecutor, Mr W. D. Campbell, said the single rifle shell found in Wogan’s room was under his bed and this indicated the shot was fired from that area.
Detective Sergeant Young had challenged Whalley on his allegedly contradictory statements about where Wogan was when the fatal shot was fired. Whalley was said to have stated Wogan was variously on a chair, on a bed and on a settee.
But Whalley asserted he had only ever said Wogan was on a chair.
The prosecutor noted that Wogan was described as a cheerful man.
Whalley’s lawyer, A.C. Hanlon, called no evidence but he contended Whalley could have held the rifle out and set the trigger on a nail.
However the prosecutor said there was no nail or protuberance in the room and it was impossible that Wogan had shot himself.
The jury acquitted Whalley, prompting applause from the gallery. Chief Justice Sir Michael Myers ordered the police to bring forward anyone they saw applauding. The police saw no one applauding.