Looking back at October 24, 1953
A coroner ruled that a man who died in a Kiama car crash on Sunday night had murdered a family the day before.
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The 25-year-old Norwegian Karl Groos had murdered Peter Martinius Harpestad, his wife Berenice and their five-year-old son Peter in their Yarra Bay home.
Read more: Invalid pensioner jailed for begging in 1949
The murders happened on a Saturday night and afterwards Groos travelled south in a hired car.
At around 9.30pm on the Sunday, Constable Raymond McKellar was on foot and saw Groos' car driving at high speed and noticed the rear tyre was flat.
A half-hour later the constable was on a motorbike in Manning Street when he saw the car pass him again.
He then followed the car, calling out several times for Groos to stop.
"When I turned into Terralong Street, the driver had stopped the car and was standing alongside it," Const McKellar said.
"As I drew near him, he jumped in the car and drove off at a fast speed."
A few seconds later, the punctured tyre burst causing Groos to skid off the road and hit a pine tree on Terralong Street.
Despite the constable's claim that the fatal crash happened just after the tyre burst, police had told the coroner that they believed Groos had driven into the tree intentionally.
An inspection of the contents of the car found a bottle of tablets bearing Mr Harpestad's name among other items linked to the family.
Elsewhere in the pages of the Mercury of October 24, 1953, it was reported that the Port Kembla steelworks was the biggest steel producer in the British Empire.
Back then the steelworks traded under the name Australian Iron and Steel and it was general manager Mr A Parish who made the big call.
Not only was it the biggest single producer in the Empire, it had the biggest blast furnace as well.
Extensions at the steelworks - such as the plate rolling line - would make the place even more important, he said.
"This should have a tremendous impact on the Australian economy," Mr Parish said.
The general manager also lorded it over the Newcastle steelworks, saying Port Kembla had made more steel since December and, in the last half year "will have made more steel than Newcastle ever had".
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
