Son to 'see father shot’

Press, 28 October 1982, Page 6

Son to 'see father shot’

PA Palmerston North The former member of Parliament for Taupo, Mr Jack Ridley, has no qualms about seeing the film "Bad Blood," which portrays his father. George Ridley, being ;hot by the West Coast gunman, Stanley Graham. “You can't alter history." Mr Ridley said yesterday. He intended to see the film. The death of Mr George Ridley, in 1941, the Canterbury Education Board’s chief agricultural instructor — he

died more than a year after the shooting — left five children fatherless. The Government gave the family an ex-gratia payment of £11)00. "It was a very sad event for such a young family. But I know my mother and family were very grateful for the money, because he was the breadwinner," Mr Ridley said. The families of the six other men killed by Graham were also compensated at the time. Mr Ridley said the pro-

ducers of "Bad Blood" wrote to him while the film was being planned. “I told them I did not see any harm in it myself. You ean't alter history," Mr Ridley said. He believed that one of his sisters was more directly involved in talking to the producers of “Bad Blood." Mr Ridley said his father "just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time” on the day he was shot in October, 1941. He had

been at a school across the road from the Graham homestead.

When he heard shots, he went to investigate ... "Of course he knew of Graham because Graham was such a nuisance,” said Mr Ridley. “When he got into the house things were rather nasty because Graham was putting the boot into one of his victims, who was lying on the floor. So he tried to pull him away, and that is when he was shot."