Karl Kast
Encyclopedia
Siegfred Karl Kast was a German immigrant to Australia who shot dead two doctors and unsuccessfully attempted to detonate a bomb in Wickham Terrace, Brisbane
, before committing suicide.
’s Nazi regime
. The files in the National Archives
record his story as told to Australian military authorities. Kast claimed that as a member of the illegal Social Democratic Party
, he was arrested and sent to Bavaria
to face the Political High Court.
He managed to jump from the train en route, and took refuge in Czechoslovakia
. After returning to Germany to make contact with an illegal cell of the Party, he was again arrested and imprisoned in a concentration camp as a political prisoner. After his release, he managed to escape Germany via a ship from Hamburg
to Australia.
With the coming of war, Kast was interned as an enemy alien
in Gaythorne in Queensland and later in Tatura camp in Victoria. He escaped four times from the internment camps, only to be caught shortly after and re-interned each time. He also joined compatriots in digging an escape tunnel under a hut at Tatura. Camp officials discovered the tunnel before its completion, but not before the would-be escapees dug 10 metres towards the camp’s boundary wire.
Kast appealed against his internment and argued his case in a letter to the Director-General for Security in Canberra
. He claimed "100% loyalty" to Australia, and said that he was looking forward to standing "shoulder to shoulder with the people who treated me from the very first day as one of their own". An intelligence officer suggested that Kast was "an individual and something of a philosopher". Some of his former workmates from a Queensland sugar mill signed a petition calling for Kast’s freedom.
In 1944, Kast was released from internment to join the Civil Alien Corps, a wartime construction unit run under military discipline. He was assigned to the Allied Works Council
in the Northern Territory
, a civilian manpower organisation that implemented defence projects.
He was suspected of malingering
when he refused to work on health grounds. A high ranking Allied Works Council officer wrote of Kast: "It appears to me that the whole of the actions of this member are directed at causing the maximum inconvenience to the Allied Works Council and therefore to the Commonwealth".
Kast’s years of wartime incarceration were followed by a decade of free-booting adventure in Queensland’s north before his eventual deterioration into a paranoid killer.
He became in turn a salesman in Victoria
, Adelaide
and Brisbane and a mine worker at Mount Isa, before heading for the still frontier-like country north of Cairns. Here he mined wolfram
, scratched for tin
, and trapped fish for the growing Cairns market before turning would-be farmer. He taught himself the use of explosives as he cleared a block of virgin scrub on the shores of Bessie’s Inlet.
At one time he thought of becoming a Torres Strait
pearler
; at another he contemplated life as a gold prospector
in what was then the Australian mandated territory of Papua New Guinea
. Along the way he became first a permanent resident of Australia and then a naturalised citizen. His 1944 pledge that he "would do no harm to this country" was, sadly, to prove untrue.
Following his rampage, Kast locked himself in the office of Dr Lahz, within Ballow Chambers, where he shot himself and ignited another bomb. He later died in hospital. The tragedy was reported in the Courier-Mail
on Friday, 2 December, as '...a horrible crime ...[that]...sent a shock of horror through the city and all Queensland'. Kast was buried in an unmarked grave at Toowong Cemetery
.
Wickham House continues to accommodate medical specialists, maintaining the purpose for which the building was designed and constructed.
The 30-year-old started to make claims about severe back pain and visited local doctors, but accused them of discrimination after they failed to substantiate his injury complaints.
He refused to work, claiming he could not raise his arms past his waist and all his toes on his right foot had turned black and green, and demanded a pension
for the rest of his life.
Even a well-respected and sympathetic orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Arthur Meehan, concluded the pain he claimed to suffer was all in the mind. Kast protested, threatening to kill all of the doctors who had challenged his story.
The angry patient returned to Wickham Terrace on 1 December 1955, bearing a .38 calibre revolver and a satchel containing 12 pipe bombs he had made in the bedroom of his Woolloongabba home.
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, before committing suicide.
Early years
Little is known about Kast before his arrival in Australia. Kast jumped ship from the German freighter Halle in Brisbane two months before the outbreak of World War II, he claimed he was fleeing the tyranny of Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
’s Nazi regime
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. The files in the National Archives
National Archives of Australia
The National Archives of Australia is a body established by the Government of Australia for the purpose of preserving Commonwealth Government records. It is an Executive Agency of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and reports to the Cabinet Secretary, Senator Joe Ludwig.The national...
record his story as told to Australian military authorities. Kast claimed that as a member of the illegal Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
, he was arrested and sent to Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
to face the Political High Court.
He managed to jump from the train en route, and took refuge in Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. After returning to Germany to make contact with an illegal cell of the Party, he was again arrested and imprisoned in a concentration camp as a political prisoner. After his release, he managed to escape Germany via a ship from Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
to Australia.
With the coming of war, Kast was interned as an enemy alien
Enemy alien
In law, an enemy alien is a citizen of a country which is in a state of conflict with the land in which he or she is located. Usually, but not always, the countries are in a state of declared war.-United Kingdom:...
in Gaythorne in Queensland and later in Tatura camp in Victoria. He escaped four times from the internment camps, only to be caught shortly after and re-interned each time. He also joined compatriots in digging an escape tunnel under a hut at Tatura. Camp officials discovered the tunnel before its completion, but not before the would-be escapees dug 10 metres towards the camp’s boundary wire.
Kast appealed against his internment and argued his case in a letter to the Director-General for Security in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
. He claimed "100% loyalty" to Australia, and said that he was looking forward to standing "shoulder to shoulder with the people who treated me from the very first day as one of their own". An intelligence officer suggested that Kast was "an individual and something of a philosopher". Some of his former workmates from a Queensland sugar mill signed a petition calling for Kast’s freedom.
In 1944, Kast was released from internment to join the Civil Alien Corps, a wartime construction unit run under military discipline. He was assigned to the Allied Works Council
Allied Works Council
The Allied Works Council was an organisation set up to oversee and organise military construction works in Australia during World War II.Established in February 1942, the Allied Works Council was responsible for carrying out any works required by the Allied Forces including providing any equipment,...
in the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
, a civilian manpower organisation that implemented defence projects.
He was suspected of malingering
Malingering
Malingering is a medical term that refers to fabricating or exaggerating the symptoms of mental or physical disorders for a variety of "secondary gain" motives, which may include financial compensation ; avoiding school, work or military service; obtaining drugs; getting lighter criminal sentences;...
when he refused to work on health grounds. A high ranking Allied Works Council officer wrote of Kast: "It appears to me that the whole of the actions of this member are directed at causing the maximum inconvenience to the Allied Works Council and therefore to the Commonwealth".
Kast’s years of wartime incarceration were followed by a decade of free-booting adventure in Queensland’s north before his eventual deterioration into a paranoid killer.
He became in turn a salesman in Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
and Brisbane and a mine worker at Mount Isa, before heading for the still frontier-like country north of Cairns. Here he mined wolfram
Tungsten
Tungsten , also known as wolfram , is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74.A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as...
, scratched for tin
Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...
, and trapped fish for the growing Cairns market before turning would-be farmer. He taught himself the use of explosives as he cleared a block of virgin scrub on the shores of Bessie’s Inlet.
At one time he thought of becoming a Torres Strait
Torres Strait
The Torres Strait is a body of water which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost continental extremity of the Australian state of Queensland...
pearler
Pearl hunting
Pearl hunting or pearl diving refers to a largely obsolete method of retrieving pearls from pearl oysters, freshwater pearl mussels and, on rare occasions, other nacre-producing molluscs, such as abalone.-History:...
; at another he contemplated life as a gold prospector
Gold prospecting
Gold prospecting is the act of searching for new gold deposits. Methods used vary with the type of deposit sought and the resources of the prospector...
in what was then the Australian mandated territory of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
. Along the way he became first a permanent resident of Australia and then a naturalised citizen. His 1944 pledge that he "would do no harm to this country" was, sadly, to prove untrue.
Incident
On Thursday, 1 December 1955, Karl Kast, carrying a home-made bomb shot dead two doctors, Dr Arthur Meehan and Dr Andrew Murray and wounded Dr Michael Gallagher and George Boland. A fourth doctor, Dr John Lahz was severely traumatised due to the incident. Dr Michael Gallahger, Kast's first victim, was shot in his offices in Wickham House. Kast then ignited three bombs in the foyer of the building. George Boland, a patient of one of the doctor's in the building, attempted to stub out the bomb only to have it explode and maim his hand. Kast then went to Ballow Chambers, around hundred metres down Wickham Terrace, where he shot Dr Andrew R Murray and attempted to apprehend Dr John Latz, who escaped.Following his rampage, Kast locked himself in the office of Dr Lahz, within Ballow Chambers, where he shot himself and ignited another bomb. He later died in hospital. The tragedy was reported in the Courier-Mail
The Courier-Mail
The Courier-Mail is a daily newspaper published in Brisbane, Australia. Owned by News Limited, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Murarrie, in Brisbane's...
on Friday, 2 December, as '...a horrible crime ...[that]...sent a shock of horror through the city and all Queensland'. Kast was buried in an unmarked grave at Toowong Cemetery
Toowong Cemetery
The Brisbane General Cemetery also known as Toowong Cemetery at Toowong, Brisbane was established in 1866 and formally opened in 1875. It is Queensland's largest cemetery and is located on forty-four hectares of land at the corner of Frederick Street and Mount Coot-tha Road approximately four and a...
.
Wickham House continues to accommodate medical specialists, maintaining the purpose for which the building was designed and constructed.
Motive
One day, working in Cairns, Kast fell into a trench onto a hard steel pipe.The 30-year-old started to make claims about severe back pain and visited local doctors, but accused them of discrimination after they failed to substantiate his injury complaints.
He refused to work, claiming he could not raise his arms past his waist and all his toes on his right foot had turned black and green, and demanded a pension
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
for the rest of his life.
Even a well-respected and sympathetic orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Arthur Meehan, concluded the pain he claimed to suffer was all in the mind. Kast protested, threatening to kill all of the doctors who had challenged his story.
The angry patient returned to Wickham Terrace on 1 December 1955, bearing a .38 calibre revolver and a satchel containing 12 pipe bombs he had made in the bedroom of his Woolloongabba home.