Jules Turk died on a Remuera St corner in December. He was often seen at the bus stop on Shore Rd. Photos / Isaac Davison
A transient man who died on a street corner in Remuera was a “harmless, local face”, a coroner found last month. His family says his story is much more tragic and chaotic.
Julian “Jules” Turk, 74, collapsed and died on the corner of Seaview and Shore roads in Remuera on Christmas Eve.
Associate Coroner Hannah Cheeseman, who reviewed his death, said the cause was a heart attack and there were no suspicious circumstances. She said he lived transiently in the community and was often seen at the bus stop on Shore Rd.
His sister Adriana, who lives in Australia, said she took some comfort that he died in a public place.
“It was beautiful,” she said. “Because he didn’t die and get found years later in some curled-up position somewhere. I’m very touched that he was found, and I really want to shake the hands of people that found him.”
She is planning a trip to Auckland to find out more about her older brother. She had seen him only four times in 50 years.
“Did people know or see him at the bus stop or nod their head? Did they ever talk to him? Was he living in a doorway or under a bridge somewhere? I just want to flesh it out and get a picture of where he lived and what he ate.”
Public records and newspaper archives tell some of his story. His father, John Turk, was a Wellington city councillor and the family had a relatively stable upbringing. Jules went to Wellington College but failed School Certificate twice and later worked at Wellington Zoo, Auckland Zoo and various factory jobs. He joined the local Hare Krishna community.
He began to go off the rails in his early 20s, taking a lot of LSD, his sister said. He became mentally unwell and was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
In 1973, he attacked his partner and her child and was sent to Oakley Hospital in Pt Chevalier for observation. He was found not guilty for reasons of insanity and was committed to the psychiatric institution. In all, he had nine stints at Oakley, later Carrington Hospital, over several decades. He once told a doctor: “I was prodded in my back, so to speak, and felt not able to control my own body or actions.”
A headline in the Auckland Star in September 1988, said: “Violent schizophrenic slips through mental health net.”
Jules had escaped Carrington Hospital the previous year because of an administration error and savagely beat his father, who was 82 at the time, nearly killing him. A month later, he attacked the assistant manager of the James Liston Hotel in Freemans Bay, leaving him with a stutter, constant ringing in his ears, and unable to use two of his fingers. He was again found too unwell to stand trial and was re-committed to a psychiatric facility.
Adriana only knows snippets of her brother’s life in Auckland after this period. She said he lived a transient lifestyle, moving between hospitals and halfway houses. He had few, if any, friends. And he liked being by the sea.
She hopes to fill in some gaps when she travels to New Zealand in October. The trip, she admits, is partly driven by guilt.
“The word is shame,” she said. “I feel shame. Isn’t that terrible? I did the best I could but … I went on and was quite successful, and here he was, a little shrunken person who never really got to be who he could’ve been.”
On Shore Rd, where Jules spent his days, everyone knew him. Residents and shop owners said he was tall, skinny and with spiky hair which he dyed orange, purple or pink. He had tattooed hands.
“He wore a jacket, kinda rock’n’roll,” said Emily Ngo, who runs Eme’s Cafe. He came in occasionally for tea or coffee. He appeared to have mellowed in his old age. “He didn’t say much, he just smiled.”
Jules started getting the pension nine years ago and his sister believes this had a stabilising influence on him, transforming his self-worth and also his behaviour.
Contrary to what many people assumed, he did not appear to be a rough sleeper and some said he lived in a property nearby, on Brighton Rd. Around the corner is Arney Rd, one of the wealthiest streets in the country.
Ilyas Patel, who runs the Seaview Rd Dairy, said Jules used to come into his store to buy items on his half-price shelf - English muffins and fruit. He was pleasant and rarely spoke, Patel said.
“He was never short of money,” said a neighbour, Barbara, who lived behind the bus stop. She remembered him buying large boxes of strawberries from a stall in summer.
“He was a loner,” Barbara added. “I felt sorry for him. But there were flowers on that corner after he died, so somebody cared for him.”
December 24 was a hot, windless day. A resident on a walk noticed that Jules looked unwell while sitting in the bus stop about 10.30am. When he passed by again at 1pm, Jules was still there.
About 1.15pm, a truck driver saw him lying on the footpath on the corner of the street. A customer at Eme’s Cafe called 111 but ambulance officers could not resuscitate him. He was declared dead at 2pm.
He died on a pretty suburban corner across the road from a park. On the other side of the park is the sea.
Isaac Davison is a senior reporter who covers Auckland issues. He joined the Herald in 2008 and has previously covered the environment, politics, social issues, and healthcare.
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