A burglar who died while wrestling with a pharmacist was a convicted killer driver with an extensive criminal history.

Cameron Slater denied he had identified people with name suppression on his blog when he appeared in court today.

Police have confirmed the identities of the three people whose bodies were found in a Feilding farm house on Monday morning.

Convicted double murderer John Barlow said 15 years in prison was "like going into retirement" and hasn't changed him a bit, as he walked free from Rimutaka Prison this morning.

Police have named the man who died in an Auckland pharmacy after a struggle early yesterday morning.

The Herald understands a pharmacist struggled with an intruder and was holding the man down before he went into cardiac arrest.

The three bodies found in a Feilding farmhouse were removed last night as detectives try to piece together how the apparent murder-suicide played out.

Days away from release, convicted double murderer John Barlow has spoken out of his fight to clear his name.

A $465,000 house has been seized from a commercial cannabis grower as punishment instead of an 18-month prison sentence.

John Barlow was jailed in 1995 for the execution-style killings of Wellington father and son businessmen Eugene and Gene Thomas.

Calls to change procedures after a notorious killer was able to write a letter to a juror have been called into doubt by the Law Society.

Simon Power is considering whether jurors' addresses should ever be handed out, amid reports a convicted killer was able to contact a juror.

One of NZ's most notorious killers allegedly contacted a woman on the jury that found him guilty this month of kidnapping.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority has supported the police investigation of the murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope.

The man accused of the stabbing death of NZ-born nurse Michelle Beets allegedly held a knife to his brother-in law's throat to practise the killing, a Sydney court was told today.