The bull fighting painting by notorious Bassett Rd machine gun killer Ron Jorgensen. Photo / Supplied
The bull fighting painting by notorious Bassett Rd machine gun killer Ron Jorgensen. Photo / Supplied
Helen Turbott never told her parents about her secret visits to Mt Eden Prison to meet one of New Zealand's most infamous killers.
If she did, her dad "would've had a hissy fit" she says - reminiscing over 50 years later.
In the mid-sixties, a 20-year-old Turbott was training asa nurse at Middlemore Hospital when she began visiting Ronald Jorgensen - a man she only knew for his interest in art and his polite nature.
Turbott was asked to visit Jorgensen by a fellow prisoner who she treated for injuries, and as a young woman who'd never been to a prison, she thought "why not".
"I'd done a social work degree and worked with men's groups for domestic violence, so I had a reasonable social conscience and always been one for the underdog," she said.
"I didn't know what he had done until my friends told me and I thought 'oh crikey', but the main thing I thought was if my mum and dad knew they would kill me.
A young Helen Turbott in the mid-sixties befriended notorious killer Ron Jorgensen Photo / Supplied
"I never let them know that I visited him, but my friends knew and they agreed that my mum and dad wouldn't understand," she said.
Turbott visited and exchanged letters with Jorgensen for about three years, but says they never spoke about what he had done or why he was in there.
"Instead we talked about his art work, what he was doing, and what life was like in prison.
"He talked a bit about his mother, I think he missed his family. He also asked me about my nursing, and everyday things like what was going on in the outside world," she said.
In 1965, Turbott's final year in nursing training, Jorgensen told her that he was doing a painting for her.
"I thought little of it at the time, then came the Mt Eden Prison riot of July 1965 and I got a call from an officer at the jail asking me to come and collect a painting.
"He said that it was slightly smoke damaged from the fire and I had to sign for it. It was interesting to go into the prison at that time amid the ruins, smoke and debris," she said.
Jorgensen became infamous when he and John Frederick Gillies gunned down two rival bootleg alcohol dealers in Remuera in December 1963. Photo / File
"On the painting itself there were finger marks from the officers that got it out of the fire – so it has a bit of a history to it."
Fifty-four years later the painting still hangs in Turbott's son Matthew's "Man Cave" in Northland.
The large colourful signed artwork shows the dramatic moment a bull is speared by a horseman with blood spilling out of the beast.
"The painting is of a bull fight, and I hate anything bad happening to animals – so I never really liked it," Turbott said.
"So I gave it to my son and he's had it in his man cave for quite some time."
While Turbott doesn't like the painting, she said she kept it for it's sentimental value.
"I just kept it all these years because he painted it for me, which is nice," she said.
The bull fighting painting by notorious Bassett Rd machine gun killer Ron Jorgensen. Photo / Supplied
The pair kept in contact right up until Turbott got married.
"He did send me a letter to congratulate me for getting engaged, and I think I recall he sent me a wedding present – like a crystal vase or something like that," she said.
"But after that I got busy with my own life and things like that and it fizzled out."
After years of no contact, and having lived in Western Australia for almost 40 years, Turbott said the last she heard of Jorgensen was in newspaper articles.
"I did hear things and people sent me little clippings from the paper when he disappeared and when there were sightings of him. But it didn't ever really stick in my mind," she said.
The painting, depicting an ocean scene, had a $2500 asking price and was viewed by more than 300 people - but never sold.
A police party leaving the house at 115 Bassett Rd, Remuera, in December 1963. Photo / File
Turbott said she would be happy to sell her painting "if anyone was keen" but she didn't know whether it would have much value.
Jorgensen was largely self-taught, however some of his paintings have sold for as much as $10,000. Other prison artwork includes portraits and still life.
Bassett Rd machinegun murders:
Jorgensen became infamous when he and John Frederick Gillies gunned down two rival bootleg alcohol dealers in Remuera in December 1963.
At the time the murders created a huge stir, with the machinegun massacre being likened to gangland-style killings.
Both Gillies and Jorgensen were sentenced to life imprisonment. Jorgensen was freed in 1974 but soon recalled for selling cannabis.
Jorgensen hit the headlines in 1984 after he was bailed to live with his elderly Danish father in Kaikoura. His car was found at the bottom of a cliff but Jorgensen's body was never found and police believe he faked his death.
There have been several unconfirmed sightings since. Some even believed police allowed him to flee in exchange for information on his criminal associates.
A suspected sighting in Perth led to the theory that he became a police informant in Australia.
Jorgensen, who would now be in his early 80s, was declared legally dead in 1998.
The mystery surrounding his disappearance has made his prison paintings sought-after by collectors.
