Friday, March 27, 2020

Murder of Ernie Abbot


On 27 March 1984, at the Trades Hall in Wellington, New Zealand a suitcase was left unattended. When Ernie Abbott the Trade Hall's caretaker picked it up at 5:19 p.m. it exploded. The explosion instantly killed Ernie.

 It's believed that it contained three sticks of gelignite triggered by a mercury switch. It was also wrapped in papers from the June 18, 1977 edition of the Evening Post. It's possible that the bombing attack was anti-union. It also had a 60-minute stove timer inside, two bottles of accelerant with one being a popular teal brand soft drink bottle containing petrol and the other sealed with an Asti Riccadonna cork. The bomb was made professionally. 

The Federation of Labour stated that there was a Labour Party around the corner. The bomb was to coincide with the meeting. Newspapers did announce the meeting but did not announce it was to happen elsewhere. 

But in actuality, police don't know the motive for the bombing.

Police do have suspects, but everything is circumstantial. In a search of suspects home were safety fuses, detonators, a torch missing a battery, four teal soft drink bottles, and a copy of the same June 18, 1977 edition of the Evening Post without the relevant pages.  The suspect described himself as an explosion expert and had a violent past, a history of redundancies and was possibly anti-union. 

Images of Bomb/Reconstruction of Bomb




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