Unmasking Monsters

A serial rapist is stalking South Auckland in 1980s New Zealand and police are stumped – they can’t seem to find the man they call “The Ghost” before he strikes again.

In this incredible memoir of his nearly four decades as a police officer, David “Chook” Henwood tells the true story of how he and his fellow officers developed the system that would put The Ghost, Joseph Thompson, behind bars – and change the way policing was done in this country forever.

As a key player in the development of the nascent Criminal Profiling Unit, Henwood was at the heart of operations which locked up not just Thompson, but also the serial rapist Malcolm Rewa – and he would be an early and steadfast advocate for Teina Pora’s innocence.

Henwood, one of the country’s most decorated and respected police officers, started out as a wet-behind-the-ears police cadet in South Auckland, his lifelong patch and home, and would progress to become one of the country’s finest detectives and a highly respected investigator.

From almost jovial relationships with small time criminals to dogged investigations to catch serious violent offenders, Henwood looks back at the nearly 40 years he spent as a sworn police officer and reflects on what’s changed in this country – and what hasn’t.

Author Biography

David “Chook” Henwood is one of the country’s most decorated and respected police officers, who served for 37 years in South Auckland before retiring in 2007. He held the rank of Detective Sergeant and was awarded a record three silver merit awards during his time as an officer. Henwood was an early and, for a time, relatively lone voice in proclaiming the innocence of Teina Pora for the 1992 rape and murder of Susan Burdett – whose conviction would, 20 years later, be overturned in one of the country’s most high profile cases of a miscarriage of justice.

Now in his early 70s, Henwood has six grown up children and lives in Cambridge with his wife, Carolyn.