On 12 April 1978, just before the 10am opening time, notorious bank bandit David Lawrence Hunter entered the Bank of New South Wales on Waterworks Road of Ashgrove and held up the staff with his sawn-off .22 calibre rifle. He took possession of the money, tied the staff up and then ‘walked out past customers in a queue waiting for the 10 o’clock opening, holding two bags of money.’ (Telegraph, 12 Apr 1978)
Between April and November the previous year, Hunter had robbed three banks and taken a total haul of $58,522. Prior to each raid he had made an appointment to see the bank manager. On 11 April Hunter rang the CBC Bank at Ashgrove and made an appointment. This alerted the Criminal Investigation Branch Break & Enter Squad. On the morning of 12 April they were ready and waiting. However Hunter decided to rob another bank across the street, which threw all the police planning in turmoil. “I remember clearly,” Plain Clothed Constable Barry Krosch (now retired) recalls, “Detective Pat Clancy running up the street, and saying (puffing like mad) ‘VKR* – he did the wrong bloody bank!’” Hunter fled in his gold Chevrolet Impala sedan with $29,292.
A Courier Mail mud map of the crime scene, police chase and shooting, published 13.04.1978.
The car chase that followed was “one of the most dramatic for decades. At one stage there three cars chasing Hunter.” In order to isolate bandit in an area bound by Ashgrove, Toowong, and Indooroopilly, roadblocks were sent up on main roads and the Indooroopilly Bridge. Still, it was 80 long minutes before Hunter was sighted again. In the meantime, the robber returned to his house in Kenmore changed clothes and car to another Chevrolet. By then the police already knew the details of the second car registered into Hunter’s name. On their way to his house, Detectives spotted the car and engaged in pursuit, shots were fired:
I remember it well, because I was driving during the chase, and my partner Keith Green reached down and removed my pistol from my ankle holster. Green removed my pistol and emptied it firing at Hunter in his car. So when Hunter crashed I was in fear of my life, not knowing where he was and I had a pistol empty and no spare ammo.
The police shot out the back window of Hunter’s car along with the driver’s side quarter vent window. Closely followed by police cars, Hunter panicked and failed to notice he turned into Duke Street, a dead-end street in Toowong, where he crashed into a barricade and fled on foot, leaving the money bag but taking his rifle.
More details printed by the Courier Mail, 13 April 1978.
Detective Green went under the last house on the street and made a quick scan of the gully and the backyard. At this stage the dog handler Constable Close arrived with his dog and joined in the search. Shortly, Detective Green heard gunshots:
Detectives George Sieb and O’Gorman both fired at Hunter from about two feet away. Both fired (I thought) right between his eyes. I saw a hole fair between his eyes and I thought ‘Hell, both rounds have gone thought the one entry hole.’ But later forensic tests showed that Sieb’s pistol was the one that hit him.
I drove Hunter’s car back to Police HQ. I remember pulling up at some lights at Toowong and wondering why everyone was staring at me. The car was riddled with bullet holes.
Courier Mail header, 13 April 1978.
*VKR – a CallSign issued to the Queensland Police in 1941 by the Australian radiofrequency regulatory authority, currently known as the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
____________________
This information has been provided by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available. Personal recollections of the case were supplied by retired Inspector Barry Krosch, with the article written by Museum Volunteer and Crime and Policing Historian Dr Anastasia Dukova.
The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM the VAULT – Bank Bandit and a Wild Car Chase, Brisbane 1978” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode