Helensville massacre

The Helensville massacre, also known as the Majestic massacre, occurred on the 9 October 1975 and resulted in the systematic murder of 44 people by Peter Holland, a former army officer.

Background
Peter Holland was a former army officer with the Royal New Holland Army, at the Lancaster Army Base. He was dishonourably discharged in July 1974 after physically abusing other soldiers. He personally blamed the local base commander, Frank Black, for framing him in the incident, citing it was a way to remove him from the base's command unit.

After disappearing for 12 months, he reappeared in Seddon, Pickard Island. There he reportedly brought several high-powered weapons from a local gun dealer. He appeared in police records in September 1975 after threatening to assault a local shopkeeper who refused him cigarettes after he failed to produce the required cash.

Lead up
The Majesty Hotel in Helensville, a beach suburb of Seddon, was the site of the massacre. Peter Holland had heard rumours that Frank Black was spending his leave period in Helensville. He had become increasingly agitated and overcome with a desire for revenge. Many people he interacted with leading up to the attack said that he was hostile and withdrawn, citing that he usually gave people menacing stares or shouted when something went wrong.

Holland booked a room at the Majesty on 1 October 1975. He arrived on the 9th at approximately 1AM, when he then used the phone to call for his key. He was reportedly highly agitated during the conversation on the phone, even shouting at times. Hotel footage shows him walking into his room at 1:21 AM.

Killings
Holland then emerged from his room, room 21, at 5:45 AM. Footage shows him walking down the corridor and out onto the balcony linking the buildings together. He then ducks into a service closet and the video footage cuts out.

The security officer on duty at the time, John Davis, exited the security office to investigate the sudden cut-out. He was then killed by a crossbow bolt from Holland. The use of the crossbow is speculated to have been to prevent the other guests from waking. Holland entered the security office and gained a master key. He then systematically opened every room on each floor searching for Frank Black. If Black was not present in the room, he killed the occupants regardless. Holland had searched every room in the hotel's top three floors, he then began on the ground floor. In room 2, the second last room that Holland came to, he found Frank Black sleeping next to his wife. He then locked the apartment door and bound the Black and his wife to the bed. He then talked to them for over an hour. The subjects varied from his discharge from the army, his ruined life and Black's personal life. He then planted a small bomb in the room as he left. Holland, however, did not see Black's children in the next room, who witnessed the ordeal.

Holland then climbed out of the room's window and ran into the car park, where police had just arrived. He then opened fire on the officers killing three and wounding four. Holland then ran to his car and speed away from the scene. Shortly after the bombs Holland had planted in the hotel detonated. Killing the occupants of room 1 along with Frank Black and his wife. The blasts also injured the Black's two children.

Pursuit of Holland
Peter Holland drove his yellow BMW to the waterfront on the other side of the hotel. There, he detonated the bombs he had fitted to his car. He killed himself, one passerby on the street and injured another. Police arrived on the scene shortly after to find the wreck, expecting to find Holland had fled the site. However, they found parts of his body in the wreckage.

Photo
Shortly following the events, a local paper published a photo of a yellow 1967 model BMW, exactly the same as the one Peter Holland drove. The driver was positively identified as Holland. It showed him driving on Helensville Beach, near the hotel. This caused confusion to the investigators, who believed that Holland had only arrived in Helensville on the 9th of October. When the paper was contacted by police, they could not give the name of the person who provided the photos, stating "we simply don't know who took it". After the paper failed to provide a name, the police dismissed the photo.

In January 1976, a man came forward claiming that they were the photographer that took the photo, providing negatives to the police. He claimed that he took it on the morning of the 7th, outside the Crofter's Hotel. The man claimed that he'd seen Holland leave the Crofter's car park and drive towards the beach, smiling as he drove past. This information perplexed investigators, who'd believed that Holland had only arrived on the 9th, the day of the massacre. Investigators looked up the hotel records of the Crofter's Hotel, but found no reservation for Holland, however, they did find a reservation for Holland's close friend from the army, Brendon Pryor. Pryor had reportedly made the reservation almost a week before on the 3rd. Reports at the time say Pryor had been living in Dean's Beach, an hour away from Helensville. Attempts to track down Pryor failed and police ruled out his involvement.