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The first episode of the Black Hands series was screened on TV1 on Sunday night. The series is based on a book by Stuff investigative journalist Martin van Beynen, who has followed the case for more than 20 years. It reports on the story behind the episode and how the elements figure in the case for and against David Bain.
COMMENTARYRobin Bain, 58, and Margaret Cullen, 50, their children Arawa, 19, Laniet, 18, and Stephen 14, were found dead at 65 Every St, Dunedin, on June 20, 1994.
David Bain, 22, said he had returned home from his newspaper round to find his family fatally shot, picking up the fort that Robin had possibly shot at the family and then himself. David was charged with the murders, but after a second trial in 2009 he was acquitted. His defense revolved around showing that Robin was more likely to be the shooter.
Episode one of Black hands represents the Bain family in February 1993, some 18 months before the shooting. They returned from a 14-year stint in Papua New Guinea, where Robin taught at a teachers’ school in Port Moresby, in late 1988.
In early 1993, the family lived in the Every St house, although Robin Bain used a caravan parked at the back of the house as a bedroom. He still ate with the family when he was home.
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In early 1993 he had a permanent job as principal at Taieri Beach School and lived in his Commer van at school for most of the work week.
TVNZ / Things
Black Hands episode 1 – David took on a great responsibility in running the Bain household and had a to-do list.
The school had accommodation for a teacher, but the house was used by a family whose children were vital to keeping the record above a threshold that would justify a certain level of staffing. Robin slept in his truck on the school grounds until someone complained, and then he just moved the truck to the side of the road like an early freedom camper.
Every Monday he drove home after school so he could go to choir practice with David. They were both members of the Royal Dunedin Male Choir.
Already in this first episode, some of the Bain family’s weaknesses, talents, and problems are revealed as they move through their mostly mundane lives.
TVNZ / Things
Black Hands episode 1- Laniet Bain was a troubled teenager who struggled with family culture.
The many talents of what many consider to be New Zealand’s most dysfunctional family are often forgotten.
Robin was loved by his school community, even if his paperwork was overdue and organization was not one of his strong points. He and David were excellent singers and Margaret was a very good pianist. David was a good runner, and although the print run seems a bit strange for a young man his age, it was good training and supplemented his unemployment benefit. Arawa was not an athlete, but she was an excellent student at the teachers’ college and was highly regarded by everyone. As the first episode shows, Laniet rebelled against family culture and also struggled at school, but she was never short of friends.
Some of Margaret’s passions are evident. She was a committed bottler and conservative and used a pendulum to channel guidance from the supernatural. He believed in natural medicine and believed, as the episode reveals, that colds could be cured with a mixture of phlegm and urine.
TVNZ / Things
Black Hands – Episode 1 – Margaret Bain was a committed bottler and fruit keeper who had strong beliefs about the supernatural.
Margaret and Robin were notoriously frugal. Note the scene where Robin leaves the house at night to pay off the credit card balance so as not to incur interest.
The episode reflects the tension between Margaret and Robin. Margaret wanted Robin to leave the family unless he joined with his beliefs in the spirit world and of dreams and messages from God. Her diary reveals that she was disturbed by the perceived presence of Belial, a force of darkness in the Hebrew Bible, in her husband and children and also in the house and objects.
TVNZ / Things
Black Hands episode 1 – Margaret and Robin Bain were separated but lived on the same property.
The royal house in Every St, recreated in the episode, was almost 150 years old and had been very neglected. It was barely habitable and the Bains had talked for years about building a new house. Margaret had ideas about building a shelter where people could escape the rat race and was designing the new mansion herself. Robin seems to have been skeptical of the big plans, but Margaret and David, always close, were united in their dream of a sanctuary and a beautiful garden at 65 Every St.
TVNZ / Things
Black Hands Episode 1- The Bain family were excited about Margaret’s plans for a new home at 65 Every St.
Some parts of the episode reflect almost exactly what happened. For example, the police found Stephen’s body last because his room was behind a curtain in Margaret’s room. They had to break a window to open the door of the house and David was reported to have a seizure.
Other scenes are fictitious and there are numerous references to pieces of evidence that appeared in the two trials of David. Viewers will note that David told the receiver of the call 111 that “my family, they are all dead.”
Within hours, he told police in a formal statement that he had only seen his father and mother killed.
The episode shows David delivering a newspaper to a house where a woman asks him to stop putting his newspaper on her porch because it makes her dog bark. He would later say that David adhered to his request for about a year, but made sure to come up on his deck the morning of the shootings.
TVNZ / Things
Black Hands episode 1- The police came to a dark house to find five bodies
On the show, Margaret asks David if he remembered to separate the wool from the other clothes when he started washing. David actually wore a blood-soaked wool T-shirt with nonwovens on the day of the murders.
Robin’s troubles, as shown in the episode, were used by the defense to represent a man who was on the brink of collapse. His wife called him evil and a failure, and his presence in the family caused tension and fights. He was being turned away for jobs and sleeping in a ramshackle trailer at home and in a rusty van at work. Margaret and David seemed to be convinced that he was not wanted and still needed their agreement to build the new house and his income.
Black Hands, a series of five chapters on TVNZ, Sunday 8.30pm.
