Downfall: The destruction of Charles Mackay - Public History Talk

In 1920 New Zealanders were shocked by the news that the brilliant, well-connected mayor of Whanganui Charles Mackay had shot a young poet, D'Arcy Cresswell, who was blackmailing him. They were then riveted by the trial that followed. Mackay was sentenced to hard labour and later left the country, only to be shot by a police sniper during street unrest in Berlin during the rise of the Nazis. Mackay had married into Whanganui high society, and the story has long been the town’s dark secret.
The outcome of years of digging by historian Paul Diamond, Downfall: The destruction of Charles Mackay shines a clear light on the vengeful impulses behind the blackmail and Mackay’s ruination. At its heart, the Mackay affair reveals the perilous existence of homosexual men at that time and how society conspired to control and punish them.
This presentation was made at the National Library in December 2022. These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the Alexander Turnbull Library and Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
Since Paul gave this talk in December 2022, Duigan’s Buildings in Whanganui, where the shooting took place, have been listed by Heritage New Zealand as a Category 1 History Place.
Paul Diamond (Ngāti Hauā, Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi) has been Curator Māori, at the Alexander Turnbull Library since 2011. A journalist and broadcaster he is also the author of A Fire in Your Belly: Māori Leaders Speak (Huia, 2003), Makereti: taking Māori to the world (Random House, 2007) and Savaged to suit: Māori and cartooning in New Zealand (NZ Cartoon Archive, 2018). His latest book Downfall: The destruction of Charles Mackay was published by Massey University Press in November 2022.
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Credits:
Speakers: Paul Diamond and Neill Atkinson
Edit & Design: Dean Johnston, Manatū Taonga
Image credit: The cover of 'Downfall: The destruction of Charles Mackay' (Massey University Press, 2022).