Thomas was identified by a Pukekohe jeweller as being the man who brought in a rolled gold watch to be repaired which was covered in blood and mucus. 5. A woman claiming to be a close friend of Jeanette’s testified that Arthur had ‘pestered’ Jeanette at local dances, and that he had a ‘passion’ for her. In their case against Thomas theCrown also presented snippets of information such as the fatal bullets being marked ‘8’, relating this to the finding of one, and o n e o n ly No. ‘8’ bullet on Thomas’ THOMAS farm; one of five pieces of wire being sim ila r in composition to some wire found on his farm; and comments allegedly made by Arthur Thomas which were supposed to be sinister. RIFLING MARKS On the first point, that of the rifling marks, there was also another rifle of the 64 tested from the area which could have fired the bullets. The testing of the rifles was by no means exhaustive - at least fifteen .22 rifles in the nearby districts were untested. The other rifle whose rifling coincided with the markings on the bullets was, strangely enough, owned by a family whose father was murdered thirty odd years ago. They live approximately half a mile away from the Crewe farmhouse. Compare this with the eight miles between Arthur’s and Crewe’s. T H E A X L E S The Crown tried very hard to prove that the axle had been tied to the body of Harvey Crewe, but obviously the only way this could be done was to have a diver look. With the precision one has come to expect from the police in this case, the wire allegedly attaching the body to the axle was pulled out of the water before tive held any attempt to ascertain whether or not they were joined was made. ions weii It seems highly unlikely that Harvey’s \6V i stone body would be ■tersenwi weighted, when that of his wife (presumably 9-10 stone) was not. made. The The other point is that the 371b. axle was 2001b too light to weigh lfidence ii the body down at all. It seems more likely to me that the axle was told about part of the river-bed debris, and the body just happened to be in its MJ.W.SA vicinity when found. ive part® This axle was sim ila r to one owned by Thomas’ father, but ced for tlx which had not been seen since 1965. Nevertheless, the police I from tk produced from Arthur’s tip after fourteen hours searching by several student! men, helped by Arthur for eight hours, two stub axles which apher fot allegedly belonged to the axle from the river. However, neither innouncei Arthur nor Vivien were shown these stub axles when the police left their farm, as were neither of them present when they were found >nst ration Board fot THE CARTRIDGE CASE ie meeting The cartridge case found in a garden bed at the Crewe farm ary of the was identified as possibly having been fired from Arthur’s gun, s context, although evidence on this point was confused; the ‘expert’ ng of two testimony was given by a graduate in chemistry who has, to my ;r, twice a knowledge, no special qualifications in ballistics. He was the Dr. r, Roger Nelson whom Kevin Ryan, in a recent bombing case, proved to have cted the been inaccurate and far from thorough in his examination of fibres. is, as the However, he could well have been correct about the cartridge case for any having come from Arthur’s gun. The cartridge case was found on the fourth search of this particular garden bed, four months after the ecided to original search, and a matter of days after Arthur’s rifle had been that taken for testing for the second time. In the first application for a its funds re-trial, an old friend of Harvey Crewe’s who was managing the farm day, the after the Crewe’s disappearance says in his affadavit that he helped e fashion with the first searches of the garden bed in question, and in his d prevent opinion, it was impossible for the cartridge case to have not been ke Jack found then, if it were there at all. It is my belief that it was planted rotect its there at a time when there was not quite enough evidence to justify ive was, an arrest. POSITIVE IDENTIFICATIO N out this Also in the first application for a re-trial, are affadavits lishing a concerning the rolled-gold watch. Arthur’s uncle, who is not unlike out. The Arthur in appearance, took a stainless steel watch in to Eggleton’s to ive at its n embers nber of rut there f a total foreover ank, did recurred tudents, iolence, te seems can see, in’t be ered as “Bitter H ill” is the translation of Pukekawa. because it puts tne circumstantial evidence against Thomas into be repaired several months before the murders. After many Pukekawa is where Jeanette and Harvey Crewe lived until general context. The drama of a double murder trial, and the grouping of muddles, Mr. Eggleton handed him a rolled gold watch, a matter of 17 June 1970. Pukekawa is where A rthur Thom as lived trations personalities took the facts out of context, and thus the days after Harvey and Jeanette Crewe were reported missing. The with his wife Vivien until his arrest on the charge of predict circumstances of the trial and investigation were against Arthur also. uncle protested that this was not his watch, and eventually did get e at the murdering Jeanette and Harvey Crewe. N ow , m any people Basically, the case against Arthur rested on five points. his own watch back. The ex-mayoress of Tuakau also made an ecisions who live in Pukekawa and the surrounding districts pull 1. The rifling marks on the pieces of bullet extracted from the affadavit concerning Eggleton’s ‘positive’ identification of Thomas. fidence their curtains and lock their doors at night. They believe skulls of Jeannette and Harvey Crewe c o in c id e d with the Just after Arthur’s arrest, when his photo appeared in the Photo tudents there is still a m urderer at large. “ B itte r H ill” is the story o f rifling marks made by Arthur Thomas’ .22 pump-action news, on the same page as one of Eggleton’s off-spring, Mrs. repeater Browning. ier left Arthur Thom as’ tria l, appeal and applications for a re-trial. MacGuire says that Eggleton claimed at that time to have never seen 2. An axle found Close by the body of Harvey Crewe in the olence’ 1 believe Arthur Thomas is innocent - not only of the crime, the man before. This may seem quite unimportant, but in the Waikato River was sim ilar to one used on a trailer owned by nts at but innocent, - naive, and harmless. And it is because of this context of a lengthy and tediously technical trial, this surprise Arthur’s father. people innocence that he is now doing time in Paremoremo. He was witness with a human interest testimony would no doubt have 3. A cartridge case found in the garden of the Crewe house had convicted on circumstantial evidence, and because circumstances affected many people who may have been having doubts about firing pin marks consistent with having been fired by Thomas’ Franks conspired against him. ‘Bitter Hill’ is a valuable book not only Arthur’s guilt. Indeed the newspaper reports were delighted with the gun. because it puts the case for a retrial very forcibly and clearly, but appearance of the Surprise Witness, the drama was revived tor u The Assistant Com m issioner of Police, Central Police Station, Cook St., f AUCKLAND, 1. D e a r S i r , It is with much hesitation and regret that I request yo investigation into the following incident at the Central Poll Station, Auckland, on Wednesday, 25th August, and the refusal P f f p f f Detective Inspector Brian Stewart to give the assistance -fc. » . law-abiding citizen of good repute could expect. i I M y son, Roger Bastion, w ho is an inm ate of Oakley Hospital, been a drug addict now , for five years. He is 5ft 3ins tall, very li| and because of his addiction, his liver is perm anently damaged ar -Lv his life expectancy, very lim ited. I w ent to the'Police Station to report that his guitar which I been left for repairs at F. Zettwitz & Son, Karangahape Rd Auckland, had been collected by another person without ;A knowledge. I knew the probable location of the instrum ent, sinceii had been seen at a particular address by his girlfriend, Pam Tucker,I m asked Detective Stew art if he w ould recover it for Roger as he kne« the young people involved. My son was also known to the police short while by his identification reference point — the black singlet to have been done. The Association has of course been plagued by since it was Roger who, some m onths ago, nearly jum ped from the which Arthur was ‘wearing’ when he allegedly brought in the rolled people trying to use the Association for their own dubious ends. Pat same office from four floors up. gold watch covered in blood and mucus. Arthur Thomas has not Vesey, Chairman of the Association, said to me the other day that I explained to Detective Stewart that until recently, because of only never owned a rolled gold watch, but neither does he wear a he feels it is primarily on the shoulders of these hahgers-on that the circumstances, I had seen little of my son because he was in his black singlet to Pukekohe.