There is no evidence, documented or anecdotal, that there has ever been a murder at Karori Cemetery, although those who have watched Peter Jackson’s movie Brain Dead may dispute this. There are however buried within the cemetery eleven men who were found guilty of murder and were executed by hanging.
Between 1840 and 1957 there were 85 judicial executions in New Zealand, all by hanging. With one exception – Minnie Dean, the so-called Winton baby farmer – all were men. Five men were also executed under military regulations in World War I. All those hanged were convicted of murder, except for Hamiora Pere, convicted of treason in 1869.
Capital punishment in New Zealand first appeared in a codified form when New Zealand became a British colony in 1840, and it was first employed in 1842.
When the Labour Party formed its first government following the 1935 general election, it commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment. In 1941, the Crimes Amendment Act changed the penalty for murder from death to life imprisonment with hard labour. The only crimes for which the death penalty still applied were treason and piracy. However, when the National Party became government in 1949 capital punishment was reinstated, and of 36 people convicted of murder between 1949 and 1957, 22 were sentenced to death. 14 death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, and eight men were hanged
Capital punishment was last used in 1957, abolished for murder in 1961, and abolished for all crimes, including treason, in 1989.
All the executed men buried at Karori were interred in unmarked graves, usually in the more inaccessible areas of the cemetery. Several were buried in consecrated ground, presumably because they had the last rites before they were hanged. One plot, in the first Public section, was used twice, 17 years apart. Frank Philpot(t), executed 1898, and Arthur Rotman, 1915, were eventually disinterred and their remains reburied nearby in another unmarked area.
Etienne Brocher (aka Stephen Bosher) (1897), John Tuhi (1923), Edward Tarrant (1933) and Charles William Price (1935) were all buried in unmarked plots in various locations throughout the first Catholic section, some of them on the outskirts in what was probably unconsecrated ground.
James Ellis (1905) and Frank Edward Bennier (1918) were both buried in Anglican areas, while Daniel Cooper (1923) and George Edward James (1933) were buried in somewhat inaccessible areas designated as Public.
The only man who was cremated after his execution was George Coats. His ashes were taken away by his family. Unusually, his victim was buried at Karori, in an unmarked plot. In all other cases, victims were buried elsewhere, such as Taita or Bolton Street.
One man who escaped the hangman’s noose by committing suicide at the scene was buried after dark the next day in an inaccessible plot, sharing a pauper’s grave with a former asylum patient who had drowned himself in Wellington Harbour. However, his victim is also buried at Karori, and in her case she has a fully formed plot with an attractive headstone which states “erected by her loving sister Lena”.
One of the sadder stories is of Louis Chemis, who though found guilty of murder on specious and racially biased grounds in 1888 and sentenced to be hanged, never was, and eventually, in 1897, he was released and resumed family life in Wellington. Unable to find steady work and support his family, he committed suicide in 1898. Unusually though he is buried in consecrated ground in the first Catholic section. He is in a fully formed plot, with a headstone which includes details of his wife and daughter who died in 1906 and 1939 respectively.
Seven of the men were executed at the Terrace Goal in Wellington. The site of the gaol is now Te Aro School. The governor of the prison from 1885, Patrick Garvey, died in 1906 and he too was buried at Karori Cemetery. His plot, in the first Catholic section, is not far from three of the men whose executions he organised and witnessed (Philpot, Brocher, & Ellis). After the Terrace Gaol was closed in 1925, and then demolished, Mount Crawford prison was opened, and four men were hanged there between 1931 and 1935 (Coats, Tarrant, James, and Price).
There had to be a doctor attend each hanging to confirm and then certify death. Several of them are also buried at Karori, along with the ministers of religion or priests who often accompanied the men to the gallows
By Barbara Mulligan
Thank you Barbara I found this very interesting . I am a former staff member responsible for the operations at Karori cemetery. I at the time documented a cemetery walk of all the executed and buriedat Karori.. Are you aware that those executed and buried at the Terrace jail have a record of their interment but I could find no documentation of their disinterest when the jail was demolished . Indicating that the bodies of these souls remain presumably near or in the school grounds. Kindest regards Andy