Why a disgruntled patient shot dead his doctors in killing spree

Siegfried Karl Kast was furious when doctors refused to support his back injury claim, so he took matters into his own hands.

Gunman Karl Kast, who on 1/12/1955 went on a Wickham Terrace shooting spree, killing two doctors, seriously wounding another and attempting to kill another before shooting himself and blowing himself apart with a bomb.

Siegfried Karl Kast arrived in Australia claiming to be a refugee from the Nazis and was interned as an enemy alien.

Decades later, when his doctors refused to back his work injury claim, he embarked on a killing spree armed with 12 homemade pipe bombs and a revolver.

The story is told by forensic psychiatrist Robert Kaplan on the In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters:

Associate Professor Kaplan describes the Wickham Terrace massacre in 1955 as a graphic illustration of the dangers when a delusional patient turns on their doctors.

Kast left Germany in 1939 and jumped ship in Brisbane.

While interned as an enemy alien in Victoria and Queensland, he escaped four times, and helped dig an escape tunnel under a hut at Tatura in the Goulburn Valley.

After his release in 1944, Kast was assigned to the Civil Alien Corps in the Northern Territory, but refused to work on health grounds, claiming he had flat feet.

Prof Kaplan says while Kast was working as a pipe layer with Cairns City Council, he would steal sticks of gelignite and blow up gum trees.

After he fell into a trench at work, he complained of back pain and told doctors he could not raise his arms past his waist.

Prof Kaplan says Kast refused to work and demanded a pension for life, but doctors failed to accept his complaints.

So Kast travelled to Wickham Terrace – Brisbane’s equivalent of London’s Harley St – to find a surgeon to support his claims, without success.

One surgeon, Arthur Meehan, told Kast he could find no damage and the problem was all in his mind.

“This is a dangerous statement,” Prof Kaplan says.

“I’m sure it was done with the best of intentions, but if you say that to a man with an obsessional, if not a delusional, belief that he’s got a serious injury, it’s not going to go down very well.

“And Kast takes this very badly. He says the doctors are all liars, and he threatens to kill.”

1955 scene at Ballow Chambers, Wickham Terrace where Karl Kast shot himself after killing two doctors, shooting and seriously wounding another and attempted murder of another. Picture: The Courier-Mail Photo Archive.

When Kast finally snapped, he first shot Dr Michael Gallagher, who survived, then laid down several bombs and a lit candle in the foyer.

A heroic horse trainer got two fingers blown off from hurling the explosives out onto the street, breaking the windows of a passing cab.

A police officer checks the room on Wickham Terrace where Karl Kast shot himself.

Next, Kast shot dead Dr Andrew Murray and Dr Meehan.

Two brave nurses stepped in front of Dr John Lahz, who escaped.

Kast then lay down on the desk and exploded the remaining bombs, then shot himself.

To find out more, listen to the interview in the free In Black and White podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or web.

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper every Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.

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