"Who bombed the Trades Hall is a mystery that has lingered for 35 years. Newly released evidence points to a key suspect - and now Stuff can reveal who that is. Thomas Manch reports.
On the trail for the Trades Hall bomber, police officers entered a weatherbeaten home on Wellington's south coast and found a confounding set of clues. A pack of detonators, safety fuses, a torch without a battery, four Teal soft drink bottles and an incomplete copy of the June 18, 1977 edition of the Evening Post.
It was August 1984, and detectives suspected these were the materials used to build the suitcase bomb which exploded in the hands of caretaker Ernie Abbott five months earlier.
Edgar Kidman, a marine engineer, lived in the ramshackle house in Breaker Bay. He claimed experience in explosives when interviewed by police and harboured a possible motive – but it wasn't enough. The retiree has continued to live in Wellington in the decades since, never cleared of the suspicion. In recent months, he's given hopeful detectives a DNA sample."
Trades Hall bombing evidence points to a key suspect, retired marine engineer Edgar Kidman
On the trail for the Trades Hall bomber, police officers entered a weatherbeaten home on Wellington's south coast and found a confounding set of clues. A pack of detonators, safety fuses, a torch without a battery, four Teal soft drink bottles and an incomplete copy of the June 18, 1977 edition of the Evening Post.
It was August 1984, and detectives suspected these were the materials used to build the suitcase bomb which exploded in the hands of caretaker Ernie Abbott five months earlier.
Edgar Kidman, a marine engineer, lived in the ramshackle house in Breaker Bay. He claimed experience in explosives when interviewed by police and harboured a possible motive – but it wasn't enough. The retiree has continued to live in Wellington in the decades since, never cleared of the suspicion. In recent months, he's given hopeful detectives a DNA sample."
Trades Hall bombing evidence points to a key suspect, retired marine engineer Edgar Kidman
