Bill Wogan was killed by a mystery gunshot wound to the head at the Hermitage, the luxury resort hotel at Aoraki/Mt Cook in the Southern Alps. Photo / Malcolm Ross, Alexander Turnbull Library
Bill Wogan was killed by a mystery gunshot wound to the head at the Hermitage, the luxury resort hotel at Aoraki/Mt Cook in the Southern Alps. Photo / Malcolm Ross, Alexander Turnbull Library
When a chef at the famous of 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/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana at 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 other side of the mountains.
On the day of the tragedy, Wogan returned to his room in the staff quarters at the back of the hotel 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 with his back turned to deceased, 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 Hermitage staff member that Wogan had shot himself accidentally.
But that theory was discounted by the magistrate at Whalley's preliminary hearing, after evidence was given by an expert who ran tests with the rifle. The magistrate also ruled out suicide.
A number of staff and a hotel guest who had inspected Wogan's dead body in the 6-½ hours before the constable arrived from Fairlie gave evidence 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. His test shots against blotting paper found powder marks around the entry points when shooting within a range of 60cm, and burning when the range was closer
Tisdall found the maximum distance 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.
Herald report, July 28, 1932 on William Whalley's acquittal on the charge of murdering Bill Wogan
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. In court, Young reported three witnesses' statements about this: Whalley was said to have stated Wogan was variously on a chair, on a bed and on a settee.
Whalley, however, asserted to Young that he had only ever said Wogan was sitting on a chair.
The prosecutor added a fourth position of Wogan's, attributed by a witness to Whalley: Wogan was standing by the door.
The prosecutor noted that Wogan was described as a cheerful man.
The detective had asked Whalley about a remark he was said to have made to a bus driver: "If Bill [Wogan] asks whether you have taken down any money, say 'yes'." Whalley had replied that he couldn't account for the driver's statements.
Chief Justice Sir Michael Myers in 1932 took a dim view of people applauding the acquittal of William Whalley on a murder charge. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library
Whalley's lawyer, Mr 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, which was greeted with applause from the gallery, prompting the judge, Chief Justice Sir Michael Myers, to order the police to bring forward anyone they saw applauding. The police saw no-one applauding.
