Christopher John Lewis (7 September 1964 – 23 September 1997) was a
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
criminal who made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate
Queen Elizabeth II in 1981. He planned later attempts at assassinating other
British royal family members but was kept away from them by the authorities in New Zealand.
In 1997, he was charged with the murder of Tania Furlan and the kidnapping of her daughter, though a friend was found to be responsible. He died by
suicide before he could be brought to trial.
Early life
Lewis was born in
Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...
on 7 September 1964. He had a troubled life; his father was a cruel disciplinarian, and he was expelled from school after assaulting another child. He struggled at school and was unable to write or read until the age of eight.
As a boy, he idolised
Charles Manson.
In his teens, he formed a would-be guerrilla army (the National Imperial Gurelia Army) with two friends. The group stole weapons, sent a threatening letter to the police, and robbed a post office of $5,244.
[
]
Assassination attempts
On 14 October 1981, 17-year-old Lewis had been tracking the New Zealand tour of the royal family, who were to visit Otago Museum
Tūhura Otago Museum is located in the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is adjacent to the University of Otago campus in Dunedin North, 1,500 metres northeast of the city centre. It is one of the city's leading attractions and has one of t ...
in Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...
. Lewis concealed a .22 (5.6 mm) calibre rifle wrapped up in an old pair of jeans, and traveled by bicycle to the Adams Building, where he took up a position in a toilet cubicle. He fired through the window at the Queen as she was exiting a car. The shot did not impact near the Queen or anyone else, but a loud crack was heard; local police told journalists that the noise had been caused by a sign falling down.
While Lewis did not have a proper vantage point nor a sufficiently powerful rifle for his purposes, a 1997 report by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service
The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS or SIS; mi, Te Pā Whakamarumaru) is New Zealand's primary national intelligence agency. It is responsible for providing information and advising on matters including national security (inc ...
notes that his intent was to kill the queen. Eight days after firing the shot, Lewis was arrested and charged with public possession of a firearm, and public discharging of a firearm. As the charges were read to him, Lewis responded, "Only two charges, what? Shit ... Had the bullet hit her, would it be treason?" Lewis served three years in prison, with the last part in a psychiatric prison.
The New Zealand Police covered up the story, charging him with possession of a firearm, but kept the event under wraps as they were concerned that it would create a negative image of New Zealand and endanger future royal visits. According to police files, Lewis was being asked about an unrelated robbery, when he took police to the position where he had fired at the Queen and showed police the empty casings and the rifle. The facts of the attempt were classified, until released in February 2018 in response to a request from Fairfax Media
Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The Sydney Morning Herald' ...
.
Lewis unsuccessfully attempted to escape from a psychiatric ward
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
in 1983, when the Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles and Diana, toured New Zealand with their son William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
.
Later life
Lewis was eventually released, and when a third royal visit occurred the government sent him to Great Barrier Island
Great Barrier Island ( mi, Aotea) lies in the outer Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand, north-east of central Auckland. With an area of it is the sixth-largest island of New Zealand and fourth-largest in the main chain. Its highest point, Mount Hobson ...
to keep him away from the royal family. He was later charged with the 1997 hammer murder of a young mother, Tania Furlan, and the kidnapping of her child. He electrocuted himself in Mount Eden Prison
Mount Eden Prisons consists of two separate facilities in the Auckland, New Zealand suburb of Mount Eden — the Mount Eden Prison and the Mount Eden Corrections Facility.
History
The original Mount Eden prison was a military stockade built i ...
, Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...
, while awaiting trial. A friend of Lewis, Travis Burns, who had implicated him in the Furlan crimes and received a reward for doing so, later confessed to the murder.
See also
*Marcus Sarjeant
Marcus Simon Sarjeant (born ) is a British man who fired six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II as she rode down The Mall to the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London in 1981.
Background
Sarjeant, who was from Capel-le-Ferne, near Folkeston ...
, man who fired six blank rounds at the Queen in June 1981
*David Kang
David Kang (born 1970) is an Australian barrister. In January 1994 he fired two blank shots from a starting pistol at Charles, Prince of Wales in protest at the treatment of several hundred Cambodian asylum seekers held in detention camps in Au ...
, man who fired two shots at Prince Charles in 1994
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Christopher John
1964 births
1997 suicides
People who committed suicide in prison custody
Suicides by electrocution
Failed regicides
20th-century New Zealand criminals
People from Dunedin
Suicides in New Zealand
Failed assassins
1981 crimes in New Zealand
1981 in New Zealand
People charged with murder
People charged with kidnapping
New Zealand people who died in prison custody
Prisoners who died in New Zealand detention
1997 murders in New Zealand