WEEK OF HORROR.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 165, 14 July 1928, Page 17

WEEK OF HORROR.

murders and outrages.

THREE' WOMEN, FOUR MEN DEAD. WHOLE DETECTIVE FOECE AT WORK. 1 (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 6. Sydney lias experienced, since Saturday last, a week of horror, almost unprecendented in the historv of the State

Two women were murdered in horrif-v - ing fashion at Dulwich Hill late on Saturday night. A young woman, living a sordid life in the scrub near La Perouse, was found dashed to death on Sunday, and many and young women have been assaulted in the bush by Imman fiends.

One was left unconscious all night after she had been. • outraged and her clothing torn ofT her. She is in a critical condition in hospital.

Two men were killed oil Tuesday as the result of falling many feet vfroni a scaffold in a gasometer, and two other nien were found axphyxiated in a flat at Waverley, having died from gas fumes. The whole of the detective and plainclothes police force has been engaged unceasingly in unravelling the various crimes. An exhaustive search is being made for the perpetrators of the Dulwicb Hill murder and the outrage. Every possible clue is being followed up, but the police are almost at a dead end. Mrs. Falvey, a widow, and her. unmarried sister, Miss Vaiiglian. were the victims «»f the murder at Dulwich Hill. They kept a flourishing confectionery shoj) in Marrickville Road, and as usual conducted their business on Saturday night.

They are known to iiave taken a fair amount of money in the shop, and were last seen in the shop at 10 p.m. At 10.20 p.m. a manV voice was heard shouting, "Open that door. Open that door." Almost immediately afterwards two shots were fired, and a shopkeeper opp)site has told the police that he saw a man wearing a mas' run out of the do<*r discard his mask in the street and escape on a motor cycle. When neighbours rushed into the shop they found Mrs. Falvey shot through the heart and lying near the door, while Miss Vaughan was crumpled Tip, also with a bullet wound in her chest, near the counter.

There were no signs in the shop of a struggle, and, rfs far as the policc can ascertain, no money had been taken from the till.

Both women were comfortably off as far as their financial affairs were concerned, and Miss Vaughan had a credit balance at the bank of nearly £3000. Nof a single clue was left behind by the murderer, except the black celluloid mask of a common pattern, of which thousands are sold each week throughout 4he suburbs. A motor cycle answering to the description of the one used by the murderer in his escape was reported a? having been stolen from near the Marrickville picture show at 9.30 p.m. on Saturday. An hour afttf'r the murder it was found abandoned near the spot from which it was stolen earlier in the night. The police aro convinced that this motor cycle was the one used by murderer. Every detective in the force was called out on Saturday night, and under Inspectors Pattinson and Mackay a thorough search of the city residentials and lodging houses was made, ayd every suspect answering to the description supplied by the shopkeeper opposite Miss Vaughan's confectionery shop wtts interrogated and made to give an explanation of his movements on the night

Later investigations by the ; police, fiowever, convinced them that the murder was committed by an "amateur." l'he theory now held by the police is that t.ic man matched the two women through a rloor in the show window. When he saw them counting their cash at 10.13 p.m. tic entered and demanded their money at the point of a gun. But he received unexpected opposition from the two sisters, and when one of them reached the door, and closed it on him, lie became panicstricken and demanded that they open the door.

Bv some means or other tlie mar. s mask beeamc disarranged and it. b thought that cither of the two women recognised him.' With the certainty of arrest and identification fctariiif; him if. the face, the murderer is thought to have become desperate and fired at Airs, lalvcy who was found near the door. It would have been the work of » secon'l for him to turn on 'Miss Vatighan and ehoot her dead also.

As lie was stepping from the shop door after he had shot the two women down, he was also observed by a civilian and his wife who were a few yards' away at * tram stop. This man also gave the police a good description of the murderer. He is described as being about.l2s years of tgc, strong build, sft lOin high, dark complexion, well dressed; black shoes, dark overcoat with a belt across the back. The description has been circulated throughout the State, and a reward of £500 has been offered by the Government for the apprehension and conviction of the murderer. Hardly had the community finished reading details of the Dulwicli Hill murder when the police fouifd the body of a young woman battered to death at the bottom of a deep narrow fissure oq the coast near La Perousc. She had been an inhabitant of a bush liumpy, with a man, a 'few hundred yards away from where-she was found. The police were ■suspicious of the circumstances surrounding her death. Inquiries made by them elicitcd the fact that the night befort (Saturday) she had left her companion in the hut to go to «t newsagent's shop a mile and a-half away for newspapers. She did not reach the shop but stayed at a, nearby humbjl with another man and woman and drank a good quantity of cheap wine, it was thought at first that there may have been a possibility of her having been injured in a drunken bravl among these inhabitants of the scrub. Police arfe satisfied now, however, that she met her death by accident. It is probable, they think, that after leaving the wine-drinking the woman, whose name was Monica Hollev, staggered along the* top of the fissure, and missing, her footing stumbled over and dropped eighty feet oil to £he rocks below. On Monday two reports wer.e made to the police from Punchbowl and Banlcatown that two young women had been molested while on their way hoipe along lonely streets. One of the assailants was chased by a resident clad in pyjamas, who heard the girl's scream. Both men escaped though chased for a mile. On Tuesday * hardly had the interest and horror of these cases died down when detective headquarters were stirred by

the news' that a young girl, aged 16, had been found in a lonly part pf the Bankstown district, near Sefton Pafk. She was unconscious, her clothing was torn, and it was evident that she had put up a desperate struggle with her assailants. It was learned that at 5 p.m. on Mondav she had finished work in a knitting factory in Parramatta Road and then found that she did not have enough money fcr her fare liome to Bankstown, where she resided with her parents, who were both invalids. With another girl, she hailed a passing car and asked two men who were the occupants if they would give her a lift home. They consented, and the car was driven in the direction of Lid v combe .School, near which one of the girls alighted and *veirt to her fhome. The movements of the car and the remaining girl, whose name is Dorothy Dobison, are still a mystery. The girl Dobson was found in the scrub near Sefton Park at 3 p.m. on Tuesday after her disappearance had been reported to the police, when she had not returned home on Monday night. Several detectives were withdrawn from the hunt for 1 the Marrickville murderer, and placed on the trail of the outragers. Mcrks of a motor car were found near the spot where the girl was found, and also a number of footprints, of which plaster caste have been taken. . Meanwhile the girl was taken' to Western Suburbs Hospital, where she has been lying in an unconscious condition until yesterday, when for a few short minutes she regained consciousness. But she was not able to help the police to any great extent, except to repeat two numbers. Her mind is evidently still deranged with the terrible shock which the assault must have given her. She kept saying, with wild staring eyes, "Oh—don't—don't. Please let me go." A State wide search is being made for the car which is believed to have been a blue dilapidated model. Peculiar tyre •marks have given the police a clue to work upon, as well as the footprint*. The girl who alighted at the Lidcombe School has so far been unable to assist the police to any great .extent. She did not take particular notice, «he said, of the make of car or of the appearance of the two men. Almost simultaneously with the outrage, two men were thrown seventy feet on to a concerte floor when a scaffolding, inside a gasometer, under construction at Surrey Hills, collapsed. Both were killed outright *nd a number of others were injured seriously. On the same day, tw,o men, one aged

4i5, and the other 34, were found dead in a flat at Bondi. Both were naked and had been in for a bath. They had evidently been overcome with escaping fumes of carbon monoxide an.d suffocated. On Wednesday night, at the height of a rainstorm, a fully loaded bus became uncontrollable on a steep hill near the Milson's Point railway station and dashed through a fence. The driver averted a fatal accident by swerving into a mound of earth. Had the bus continued its course it would have gone over «n embankment 50ft deep and crashed into the. railway line. Women fainted and men became panic-stricken. One woman had ribs broken and received severe shock, but otherwise, aj>art from slight injuries from flying gla&s, no other was injured. Late last night two other attempts at criminal assault on young women were reported from Annandale and Rose Bay- Oone of the victims put up a sharp struggle and escaped after a rongh handling. Her assailant escaped. At Rosq Bay the victim was a young married woman, whose screams attracted a neighbour. Her attacker decamped over the golf links and escaped.