H-Files: Man accused of killing his parents had a knack for escaping from mental hospitals

John Corrigan was detained in Seacliff and other mental hospitals after being deemed unfit to plead on a charge of murdering his parents in 1932. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library

Soon after Lewis Corrigan was woken by gunshots, his older brother came into his room and said, "I have shot Mum and Dad. You had better get up."

Lewis, 20, did not believe John Dillon Corrigan, 23, so John tried their sister Agnes, 16. She got up to investigate.

It was 2am on an Easter Monday, March 28, 1932, at a farmhouse in the Pahiatua-Eketahuna area, east of the Tararua Range.

Agnes and soon Lewis followed John into their parents' bedroom where they realised it was true: John had blasted them at close range with a double-barrelled shotgun.

Lewis sprinted off to a neighbour's home 1.6km away to phone the police, while Agnes asked John what they were going to do.

"Just keep quiet until the police come," he said, and he too phoned the Eketahuna policeman.

John lit the fire, brewed tea and seemed cool, said Agnes, who was afraid to speak and thought her brother mentally unwell.

• Auckland bride Mary Eileen Jones killed by 'British secret service' fraudster

Agnes and Lewis were among four siblings, of whom the youngest was a 9-year-old girl, to give evidence when John appeared before a magistrate charged with the murders of Ellen Corrigan, 57, and John Corrigan senior, 64.

Lewis told the magistrate his brother was looking unusual on the night of the killings and he didn't think John liked their parents.

Justice Henry Ostler ordered John Dillon Corrigan be detained at Porirua Mental Hospital after he was found not fit to plead on a charge of murdering his parents. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library

Corrigan hadn't worked since he was 20, after he strained himself lifting a car. And he prepared all his own food, suspicious that others might be trying to poison him.

About the same time a Pahiatua doctor, Henry Dawson, became worried that Corrigan was at risk of harming himself and urged his parents to have him committed to a mental hospital, but they didn't do so.

Corrigan was put before Justice Henry Ostler in the Supreme Court to determine if he was fit to stand trial. A jury took nine minutes to decide that he was so insane that he could not plead to the double-murder indictment.

Dr Dawson had told the court Corrigan had believed his parents were trying to harm him and shot them in self defence.

The evidence of several doctors was that Corrigan was experiencing paranoia and wouldn't have been able to tell right from wrong.

Ostler ordered Corrigan be detained at Porirua Mental Hospital.

News reports in later years indicate Corrigan was moved several times and was an enthusiastic escapee - from the Porirua, Seacliff (Otago) and Oakley (Auckland) mental hospitals in 1936, 1943 and 1965 respectively.

His February 1943 capture came after an absence of three months from Seacliff, during which time he was said to have led a primitive existence, always fleeing when he realised someone had seen him.

Corrigan died in 1987.