Life of a Timber Mill Manager Cut Short

At around the time of 4am on the 19^th of December in 1951, there was a double murder in the small New Zealand town of Minginui, near Rotorua. This event would play a part in New Zealand’s History

The Husband and wife were John and Marie Gabolinscy who were murdered for the payroll of 1,163 pounds, which was beside their bed. The money was the wages for Henderson and Pollard’s Timber mill in Minginui, sixty miles south east of Minginui. Their house had been left unlocked. There are two different stories about how the murder was discovered one version was in the book “Policing two peoples: A history of Police in the Bay of Plenty" by Jinty Rourke saying that the murder was discovered when cries from their fifteen month old son were investigated, who was now an orphan. But a newspaper article from the Rotorua Post Thursday Dec 20 1951 stating that people had noticed that John Gabolinscy hadn’t been seen, so on being instructed by an officer they searched the house finding the bodies. Although it does also say the same from about the child’s cries, but goes in depth about the discovery later in the article. Not much is known about young Hartley Gabolinscy after this event other than he stayed with his grandmother.

John Arthur Gabolinscy was born 18 October 1919 to Oscar Herman Gabolinscy and Mary Gabolinscy nee Jones at Kohukohu. John excelled at everything he did including becoming a scout leader when he was a kid. He did become an All Blacks Trialist when he was playing for Otahuhu.

 He worked throughout the North Island in Timber mills and the bush. When WWII broke out he enlisted and barely survived serving in the Middle East, where he was wounded when a bullet hit him above the heart, which paralyzed his arm. The injury took three years to recover from.

After his failed Timber mill business, he ended up as a mill manager for Henderson and Pollard. Around this period he had met and married Marie Elliot from Rotorua.

On the 19^th of December Giovanni Silveo Fiori, a mill worker shot both John and Marie with John’s .303 rifle and took of with their truck which he later dumped. He was arrested 26 hours later since he left a trail of evidence which included a spending spree in Rororua buying a V8 Ford along with other things even being seen dropping money without bothering to pick it up. He was later arrested at his brother’s place in Otorohanga. He denied killing the two people in court, although he had said he had done it in his police statement. He was found guilty and was the first person in 17 years to be hung. He was hung on 13^th march 1952 at Mount Eden Prison in Auckland. The newly elected National government had lifted the ban made by the Labour government, which was unfortunate for Fiori. When Labour came back into power they abolished capital punishment again

Not all people in everyone’s family history have happy endings some are victims in crime others are the perpetrators. These are the stories we find over time about peoples lives that others hush up and sweep under carpets, where family historians uncover them and air them out in excitement such as finding convicts who were sent to Australia or were destitute not swimming in large fortunes as once told. Some people once finding they have criminal elements in their family destroy their information in shame and walk away. As the saying goes you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family.