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 he was the victim of an assault.
Green was 82 when he died in Middlemore Hospital on October 25, 2019, primarily from metastatic lung 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 in the 1970s (equivalent to more than $1m today) by blowing a jeweller’s vault, and between 1991 and 1992 he robbed seven banks from Wellington to Auckland, while carrying two pistols.
Green was given a 20-year sentence for his robberies, but had been 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 discovered Green 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 numerous health issues including diabetes, asthma, osteoarthritis, hernia and dementia.
According to the report, a friend noticed Green had become 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 two weeks 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 a week before he died. 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 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.
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, in December issued an unusual public plea for information in relation to Granville’s disappearance.
Police reportedly had their sights on Green in relation to Granville’s vanishing, as Green reportedly intensely disliked her. 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 to the Sunday Star-Times in 2015, lamenting new-age criminals were ‘‘ratbags and lowlifes’’.
‘‘We weren’t snatching old ladies’ handbags or anything like that.’’