1990: David’s Got A Gun

November 6, 2023

By AHNZ

What drove David Grey to lash out against men, women, and children in his little seaside community? He murdered 13 people on 13 November, 1990. Then was killed himself in a blaze of ignominy as the combined force of over 150 police finally put Grey down on 14 November, 1990. It was a Wednesday, the day named after the God Oden. Grey’s house was named after Oden’s throne- Hlidskjalf was the sign on the outside wall: The seat with a view of all. Coincidences? Probably.

David Grey was of the Baby Boomer Generation. He was born on 20 November, 1956. Had he lived another week he would have been 34 years old. Is that a reason too? Now in mid-adulthood the man had no parents and no wife and no children. His hair was going, his teeth were decaying. No job, no prospects, he probably had an income from a government benefit. Hardly the life worthy of Oden. And not the Post-War dream of the Golden Weather New Zealand economy that Boomers were raised to be acclimated to.

As a matter of fact the economy had been very rough on men of the labour force like David. When the global market changed New Zealand had opted not to adapt but to retreat to protectionism. A great Fortress New Zealand was voted for by the people and delivered by Rob Muldoon’s National 4.0 Ministry. “Muldoon’s people wanted to go on believing New Zealand could still train and keep leading doctors and develop our own pharmaceuticals. Defend ourselves. Build our own televisions and cars. Manufacture things. Make toys. Have chocolate factories and not have to import Pineapple Lumps…” Ref. 1984: The Fall of Fortress New Zealand, AHNZ

When the Fortress we lived in did fall down in 1984 the new Labour 4.0 Government made up for the lost time by ripping off the proverbial band-aid quickly. The political and economic landscape was transformed rapidly and men like David Grey were the collateral damage. “On the scrap heap,” they called it. In October 1990 the mood changed again as a new government was elected. Jim Bolger’s National 4.0 took office on 2 November, 1990. In the 2 weeks leading up to Grey’s killing spree it would have been clear that no reprieve was coming to change the course of his life. Nobody coming to save him. Just more of the same difficult times for a Man Alone while his body sunk into middle age and moths made a house in his wallet.

Ain’t got no job
Ain’t got no smoke
Ain’t got a car
His life’s a joke
Living on the skids
Thinks the world’s just fine
Forgot what he did
Dancing on the breadline
– Breadline, Megadeath (1999)

“On the morning of 13 November, he travelled into Dunedin, and visited a bank where he objected angrily to a NZ$2.00 bank fee for a cheque….At the Continental Coffee Bar, he was served a cold pie, and became confrontational. After being asked to leave, he threatened the owners saying: “I’ll be back, I’m going to get you. I’ll blow you away.” – Wiki

“Generativity is primarily the interest in establishing and guiding the next generation or whatever in a given case may become the absorbing object of a parental kind of responsibility. Where this enrichment fails, a regression from generativity to an obsessive need for pseudo intimacy, punctuated by moments of mutual repulsion, takes place, often with a pervading sense (and objective evidence) of individual stagnation and interpersonal impoverishment.” – Childhood and Society, Eric Ericson (1950)

“David Gray of Aramoana proceeded to massacre his neighbors and hold off 6 police forces using one riffle.” – 1990: The David Gray Manhunt, AHNZ

Home was Aramoana. Not a proper house David had made or purchased but a spare holiday shack acquired from his dead parents. No car either, just walking and public transport. The seaside village where Hlidskjalf stood had its most vibrant community stand 10 years before. In 1980 this community was self-possessed an energetic enough to make national headlines as the The Independent State of Aramoana.  Muldoon’s National 3.0 was going to legislate them out of existence and put a metal smelter in their place. The people rallied because they insisted that their homes, or just holiday homes, meant more to them than a multi-million dollar industrial plant. David Grey and his still-living mother might have been involved in that spirit and perhaps even very active. Certainly Grey’s next-door neighbor and first fatal victim, Garry Holden, had been a leader of it. They even had their own passports (image, right.) Ref. 1980: The Independent State of Aramoana, AHNZ

By 1990, however, a man who was losing at life like David Grey must have wondered what winning that big fight against Muldoon was really worth. Was this life, his life, in a wee Aramoana hut worth preserving? In an alternative reality he might have had a job at that smelter and an income leading to a real house, car, wife, and children. Just like the good times of the Baby Boomer’s youth in the 1960 the good times of Aramoana, born of resisting, were in the rear-view. A man could get very angry about that.

David Grey would be the last of his name. His father was David Grey and his father before him also David Grey. Those Grey men found a mate, had children, passed their line forward. This David wasn’t going to make it and maybe he didn’t have a healthy way to process that without violent outburst. Ref. Geni.com

“Scratch a tyrant and you’ll find a weakling. Pressure a weakling and you’ll find a tyrant.”

There are several Otago men named ‘David Grey’ living in our David’s grandfather’s time who got in trouble with the law. One, or none, might be his ancestor. For example, the Otago Witness of 1900 reported that on 14 May one “David Grey was charged with unlawfully discharging a gun with intent to intimidate and annoy.” That Grey was angry with a family and fired his gun into their house including through the window where a child was sleeping. Nobody died and the prosecution fell over. Could it be the same Grey family with the same cycle of gun violence and disregard for the lives of children in 1900 as manifested in 1990? Ref. Otago Witness (1900,) Papers Past.

David Grey did not identify as a loser. He ego-identified as a masculine man. He was an avid consumer of military books such as the Soldier of Fortune magazine. Based on his performance during his killing spree he, like Stanley Graham in a similar situation, would have been an excellent fighter for New Zealand. Unfortunately his violence was pointed at our people rather than in the service of their protection.

It was escapism. David had delusions of grandeur in seeing himself as a competent and powerful person who had death in his trigger finger. According to a TV3 interview David routinely wore military fatigues. It wasn’t unusual, according to the man at the gun shop. Other Boomers like David were doing it too. They walked around in a bubble of self-belief that they were the braves of their tribe. Dangerous, respected, senior, competent men. This sort of vanity is just asking to be punctured by anybody who doesn’t join in with the Role Play. If the Self Image cannot be re-established then it’s likely to lead to an existential crisis and even a murder rampage.

Leading up to the murders, Grey’s Big Man ego must have been bruised. He was stung with the humiliation of being served a cold pie and with the sting of a procedural $2.00 bank fee. David was furious and threatening. Didn’t they know who he was? Were they insane? He was a lion among men as far as he was concerned so why did they push it? Don’t push it. A quote from Rambo (1982) comes to mind: “I could have killed them all. I could have killed you. In town you’re the law, out here it’s me. Don’t push it. Don’t push it or I’ll give you a war you won’t believe.” – John Rambo, First Blood (1982)

In particular, Grey felt his territory and status was not being respected by Garry Holden and his family. David probably didn’t interact too much with others because he didn’t want to test his illusion that they respected him very highly. Conversations about trespassing forced him to confront the disparity between his Self Image as a Lion and his Public Image as a nut-job dole bludger in his mid-30s who still lived in his mother’s holiday shack. Grey’s illusions were under threat.

That is what seems to have happened to the illusions of Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme in 1954 when their illusion was punctured. Ref. 1954: Fourth World, AHNZ

Likewise, the disparity between Self Image and reality also appears to be the root cause of the 1992 Schlaepfer murders too. Ref. 1992: Schlaepfer Farm Murders, AHNZ

In both of these cases the homicidal outburst was directed toward family. They were the ones who were puncturing the Self Image that they were depended upon to support. As David Grey directed his vengeance upon Aramoana it must have been Aramoana he felt betrayed by. The fateful conversation with Garry Holden must have released the dam. Grey walked away from the talk as if it were done but came back to finish it with bullets. He’d had a total mental breakdown and decided from that point on to die fighting as Soldier of Fortune David Grey in a blaze of glory rather than accept the role of washed up weird’o loner creep. Once the killing started it was too late for Cognitive Behavior Therapy to work on those false Core Beliefs; Instead the New Zealand Police joined in the Role Play and Grey got the death he desired.

These sorts of outbursts don’t tend to happen to New Zealand men. In our culture we don’t tend to Act Out but instead Act In. We get depressed, we self-harm, we self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. We engage in risky behavior to create substitute false self-esteem. Grey’s reaction resembles more the way Americans will Act Out such as their regular school shootings. Young males who have been humiliated by their schools and communities frequently target the kids who hurt them and the teachers who failed them. As a Baby Boomer there was hope and promise for David Grey to invest in and have taken away from him. He had something to lose and something to be homicidally angry about. He had role models of celebrated soldiers who won the war. New Zealand men in in the last 30 years have seldom been provided with any masculine role models to emulate. Everyone knows where they stand in 2020. Men are not respected and there is no illusion about that and no false hope to betray. So, I don’t think any New Zealand man is likely to Act Out violently in a massacre. Besides, as I say, if he did, his first resort would not be to try to take the fight to his perceived enemy. What he would do would be to slowly poison himself. What he would do would be to contribute to our very high male suicide rate. Either, or both.

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Image ref. David Grey image from Wikipedia via Stuff. Colour enhance added by AHNZ (2023)

Image ref. AHNZ draft of Eric Ericson’s popular diagram of human development with highlighting of Grey’s own season of life. During Mid Adulthood the developmental challenge is Generativity vs. Self-Absorption. Citizenship vs. Withdrawal.

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