TERRORIST GANG.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 117, 20 May 1931, Page 10

TERRORIST GANG.

WAYLAYING BOOKMAKERS. ONE KILLED AT HOME. STORY OF RACE-DAY THREATS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 15. Confirmation of the many rumours which . from time to time have been circulated, that a daring gang of terrorists is operating among bookmakers in Sydney and Melbourne, came on Monday of this week, when George Cooper, a well-known Sydney bookmaKer, was shot by a gang of men who broke into his home at Redfern, and, meeting defiance, fired shots, ODe of which wounded Cooper fatally.

Cooper was cele crating a winning day at the H.-sebery races on Saturday by a .party on Sunday night. The festivities lasted until 3 a.m. on Monday, and were at their height when a party of five men rushed into the house and covered the occupants with revolvers, at the same time guarding all exits from the premises. They demanded liquor and money, and on this being refused them they made a search of the' house and helped themselves to £200 from a suit of clothes belonging to Cooper. As they made their exit the occupants of the house rushed, and were met by a fusillade of shots, one of which wounded Cooper. By the time the police arrived Cooper was dead, and though eyewitnesses of the shooting were questioned they would not give the police any information.

The facts of the shooting were elicited from neighbours, and several bookmakers in Sydney have volunteered information of the presence of a gang of men who by threats have been extorting weekly payments from several members of the betting "ring" during the past few months.

So daring has the gang become, the bookmakers declare, that they wait outside the racecourses and, from information received from one of their scouts, learn that certain bookmakers have had winning days at the races. As the bookmakers emerge from the course they are surrounded,.seemingly by a coterie of friends, but under cover of handshakings and other greetings they are told. to hand over a.big. proportion-of their win-

nings, under threats of violence. add emphasis to tie momentary glimpses of revolvers are given by tinmembers of the gang. Under such threats, the bookmakerdeclare, some big sums of money ha\e been handed over, and it is thought probable that Cooper was one of those threatened after Rosebery races on Saturday, and that he had refused tn p demands of the terrorists.