DEATH STRUGGLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 129, 2 June 1934, Page 4 (Supplement)

DEATH STRUGGLE.

SMOULDERING BODY. STRANGLED AFTER, ROBBERY. FUNERAL PYRE IN CULVERT. With dramatic suddenness Melbourne police arrested two young Italians on a charge of having murdered the man whose smouldering body was found under a culvert at Bahvyn. Their reconstruction of the crime is a grim story of a death struggle after an argument about a robbery, and of fear-crazed killers, with a dead man on their hands, deciding to burn the body. A man who did not know the gruesome contents was hired to take away in his motor cycle sidecar a parcel containing the body. He was escorted by two men, also on motor cycles. On a lonely road at Bahvyn, the police statement continues, the carrier was sent away, and the body was thrust in a culvert. The next night it was covered in petrol and set ablaze. The dead man was Rocco Petulla, 30, an Italian, who for ten weeks had lived in a room at a fruiterer's shop at the corner of Victoria and Lennox Streets, Richmond. He was a labourer, and did casual work. Petulla's body was found smouldering in a culvert in Bulleen Road, Balwyn. Grim Story Revealed. In clearing up the case the police revealed a grim story, which goes back to the early morning of Thursday, May iO. when an Italian, Tristino Chiodo, reported to the police that he was robbed of £91. The money, it was alleged, was taken from his pockets while he was asleep. Suspicion fell on Petulla, who lived in a room at the shop. A police patrol was called, and Petulla was taken to Russell Street and questioned, but was released. The police say Petulla returned to the shop, and the same day, between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. he was taxed with the theft by fellow-countrymen. A fight took place in Petulla's room. The police allege he was seized by the throat and choked to death. While the death struggle was taking place, the police state, Tristino Chiodo, knowing nothing of it, was serving customers in the shop. When Petulla lay inert on the floor his attackers saw blood flowing from his mouth and ears, and realised he was dead.

Fear-stricken at having a dead man on their hands, the attackers, the police say, made plans for the disposal of the body. They put it in a chaff bag and wrapped a rug around it. : Motor Cycle Escort. Late that night a man who had a motor cycle with a trailer attached was hired to carry away a parcel from the Fhop. This man was paid X.2 for the engagement, but the detectives do not think he was aware of the gruesome nature of the task. He had done carrying jobs for his employers before. The police say the body was thrown into the trailer, and escorted by two Italians on motor cycles to a hill on Bulleen Koad, Balwyn. Here the body was removed by the two men, and the man who owned the cycle and trailer was sent back. The two men, the police add, then carried the body a short distance to the culvert, and endeavoured to thrust it into the opening, but were only able to place the head and shoulders of the victim in the entrance.

The body was left there, but on the following night the two men bought two gallons of petrol from the garage in the city. The petrol was carried in a can, which had originally carried a French brand of olive oil. The men returned to the culvert on their motor cycles. A hole was made in the bottom of the tin, and it was placed on the body. When the petrol had leaked out and spread over the body, the detectives allege, the men set fire to it and rode away. The fire was still burning when the body was discovered by schoolboys nearly GO hours later. The body was charred, and the features burned beyond recognition, but the flames did not destroy the can, which had contained the petrol, and this proved to be one of the most important clues which led to the mystery being solved. Fracture of Skull. When the body was examined by the detectives, it was seen that the skull was fractured on the left temple. It was thought this injury was the cause of death, and had been made by a blow from a pick or some sharp weapon. The detectives have been told the injury was caused after death. Petulla was not struck with any weapon. but when his body was cast into the sidecar, the police were told, his head probably struck a sliar.p protruding bolt on the inside of the bodywork. The detectives have examined a sidecar and say the injury was consistent with having been caused in this manner. The oil can and the purchase of the petrol clayed an important part in the unravelling of t.ie mystery. . - , Antonio Chiodo, 19, fruiterer, and Antonio Audina, 20, fruiterer, were charged with murder.