In 1971, police waited for the coroner’s verdict on the controversial death of a Swedish national (name omitted). Did he die by his own hand, was he somehow assisted, or was he murdered?
Having sustained seven gunshot wounds to the heart, with two further bullets piercing the pericardium, the victim’s death by suicide seemed highly improbable, if not impossible to the officers who investigated the incident. The coroner ultimately decided in favour of findings by the government pathologist who performed the post-mortem.
He ruled the death as suicide.
The writer of this blog tables the following evidence collected by the chief forensic scientist, Detective Les Bardwell, and his team of investigators from Brisbane’s CIB. Their findings, together with opinions sought from renowned world experts, are offered for your deliberation.
Over fifty years later, do you agree with the coroner’s verdict. Was it suicide?
The evidence
Note: Imperial measurements have been maintained in the telling of this story.
On the morning of June 7, 1971, detectives from the Brisbane CIB were notified that the body of a male lay in a paddock at Chermside. They found the body of the victim lying on his stomach adjacent to the base of a tree. A .22 calibre Anschutz auto-loading rifle lay approximately 2 feet away from the right-hand side of the body. There was a piece of synthetic cord around the deceased’s right thigh.
After photographing the scene, the rifle was examined to determine if it was cocked and loaded. A live round was removed from the chamber of the rifle. It was then dusted for fingerprints by an expert. None were found on the rifle although a thumb print was found on a recovered empty beer bottle nearby. The rifle had a highly polished wooden stock and barrel, as per example below, which were conducive to the recovery of latent fingerprints.
Police uncover the following findings:
- Two .22 cartridge cases were located inside a tree stump.
- Three discharged cartridge cases were found at the root of a tree at ground level.
- A sixth near the body.
- A seventh between the deceased and the base of the tree.
- An eighth and a ninth cartridge were found in grass under the body.
- A .22 calibre bullet was also embedded in the trunk of a live tree. The velocity of the bullet must have been nearly spent as it did not penetrate the tree and it was not distorted.
- No persons in the vicinity heard any gun shots.
- No suicide note was found on the body or in a small bag found adjacent to the body.
- At the time there was no registration of shoulder arms in Queensland but inquiries from city and suburban gunsmiths failed to disclose any information of any value.
Examination of the body
All fired bullets removed from the body and the one found in the tree, as well as the nine discharged cartridges were examined under a comparison microscope. They were identified as having been fired from the rifle found near the body.
The length of synthetic cord around the deceased’s right thigh could not be accounted for by any of the persons involved with the investigations. A similar length of cord of the same make was found in the bag adjacent to the body.
Mechanical features of the rifle
The rifle, which was of high grade and beautifully finished, was manufactured by Anschutz of Germany. The .22 calibre auto-loading action rifle has a box cartridge magazine with a ten round capacity fitted on the underside of the breech. To load and cock the weapon when there are rounds of ammunition in the magazine, it is necessary to pull the cocking piece to the rear to allow a round of ammunition to be picked up from the magazine to enter the chamber of the rifle. This movement also cocks the rifle. The pressure on the trigger required to discharge the rifle was approximately four and a half pounds.
As the trigger is pulled, the firing pin impinges on the primer causing it to discharge. The projectile leaves the barrel and recoil causes the bolt of the rifle and its rearward movement to extract the discharged cartridge case from the chamber with the return forward movement, inserting a fresh round of ammunition from the top of the magazine while cocking the rifle ready for the next shot. The rifle is an autoloader and not an automatic so that in order to fire successive shots it is necessary to allow the trigger to return to the fire position, a distance of at least a quarter of an inch, and again to exert a trigger pressure of four and a half pounds.
It was suggested that the rifle may have fired as a fully automatic, as a result of a malfunction which can occasionally happen with a defective auto-loading rifle, however this can be ruled out for the following reasons:
- In a fully automatic function, recoil forces the weapon to react in an upward arc of fire. The compact pattern of the seven shots which pierced the heart would rule out a malfunction in an automatic mode.
- Detective Bardwell fired over 2000 rounds of ammunition from the rifle at the CIB’s test range on George Street. On no occasion did it malfunction.
- At the time of the Coronial Inquest, 600 rounds had been fired.
With two conflicting opinions being expressed – suicide or murder, Bardwell contacted several experts at his disposal, outlining the circumstances of the case. Here are their replies:
Hong Kong:
‘I have not been associated with any case of suicide which could have accounted for the injuries involved in this particular case.’
Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory:
‘I have no personal experience of a suicide where more than one bullet has passed through the heart although I have encountered suicides or attempted suicides where two missiles have entered the body. I make no personal comment but would add that the pathologist I have discussed it with do not think it would be possible.’
Home office Science Laboratory:
‘Although I have encountered suicidal shootings involving two or more shots, I do not recollect any where more than one bullet penetrated the heart. I consider it highly improbable that the nine bullet wounds would be self-inflicted.’
Prefecture de Police, Paris:
‘It probably concerns an Anschutz carbine semi-automatic equipped with a charge of 10 cartridges. The numerous attempts of allowing to leave out an incident of a mechanical nature as that of a malfunctional one separately carrying out, by a single pressure on the trigger a continuous fire (like that of a machine gun). This incident is very rare and even more rare in firearms of good quality. We don’t know of a case (and in our opinion it doesn’t appear possible), that a man drew to successfully shoot (that is to say that while pressing the trigger for each shot), nine bullets of which seven went into the heart, while shooting them from a .22 calibre rifle.’
West German Wiesbaden:
‘I advise you that a suicide case of the described kind with a .22 calibre Anschutz auto-loading rifle, with 9 bullet holes, has never come to the notice of this office. Since the functioning of the rifle has been tested by the enquiring Police Department and also numerous shots have been fired by the latter for test reasons, a suicide, in particular with a long arm (rifle), seems to be unimaginable.’
Conclusions:
All five State ballistic officers replied that they had no previous record of a shooting where more than one shot through the heart was involved. The consensus was that the wounds could not have been self-inflicted.
What is your opinion?
The Queensland legal fraternity coined a new word when discussing this case… ‘murdercide.’
What is your opinion?
This story was inspired by Les Bardwell’s story ‘Murder or Suicide,’ from his anthology of works titled ‘No Stone Unturned.’ It was researched and rewritten by Museum Assistant Debra Austin using the best archival resources available.
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 – Murdercide in 1971” 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