BANK ROBBER’S DEATH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 2, 2 December 1931, Page 3

BANK ROBBER’S DEATH.

FRESH DISCOVERIES,

AUCKLAND, Nov. 28

Two detective-sergeants are still actively engaged in investigating the record of the Australian, Oswald Laurence Coulton, who was shot dead when attempting to rob the Bank of New Zealand, Remuera, on Tuesday last. Although there is evidence that Coulton was criminally inclined, nothing which will definitely link him up with recent crimes in Auckland has been found. Coulton’s activities in crime are indicated by his mode of living, as lie was frequently out at all hours of the night. After he left his farm employment at Papakura he had no regular work nnd was not employed on relief work. Conversations he had on the telephone from his apartment house are suggestive of secrecy and they certainly divulged nothing to any person chancing to hear him speak. A further factor suggesting that Coulton was a criminal is the finding of a heavy air-pistol and a knife among some belongings which he left at a house he lived in for a short time. The pistol and knife were not found in the room Coulton occupied at Park Rond, but in another house in Auckland where he had stayed and had left without paying his board, and where some of his possessions were held by the landlady. The identity of the woman whom Coulton called “aunty” has been established, and the police have interviewed her. She is a married woman with a family. Other women with whom he was friendly have been interviewed. One of them had been engaged by Coulton to write stories for him. It is clear that not one of the women had a suspicion of the true nature of the man they were friendly with. The cover of an aviation magazine which Coulton lent to a friend, has been much scribbled on in Coulton’s handwriting. A dozen or more times on the cover he has written his signature, and in addition there is the name Maelcay. Peculiarly enough the name is that of the man whose signature Coulton forg-ed-in Australia and secured £2512 from a,bank. It is a coincidence that Mackay is the name on tho pharmacy in Wellesley Street where Mr A. J. Blomfield was murdered on October 30.