WARD BOMBING 1962

An unidentified female speaker interviews Owen Twoomey who gives an account of the killing of his law partner, Dunedin lawyer, James Patrick Ward, on 5 February 1962.

The mail was picked up as usual from the Post Office and there was a note that there was also a parcel. Betty Taylor took all this back to the office of James Ward and Co. in Stuart Street and handed the mail to Twoomey. It was usual for either partner to open the mail and then write this up in a mail log book. Twoomey recalls finding a letter for Ward from his son and the parcel. He took off the brown paper only to find it had yet another layer of wrapping on it, addressed to Ward and marked 'Personal'. He gave these to Ward who took them into his office. The parcel had been designed to blow up on opening. Twoomey heard the loud explosion and thought it was the electric power board. On investigating he found this not to be the case and then discovered Ward's office was a shambles. He soon discovered how badly Ward had been hurt, with one hand gone and his upper left arm and below his heart grossly injured. After about a minute he began to regain consciousness and said to Twoomey, 'who could have done this to me Owen'? He asked for a doctor who was already on his way. He lived for a further six hours and died in Dunedin Hospital. The killer has never been caught.