WIDOW REMEMBERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 121, 24 May 1935, Page 14

WIDOW REMEMBERS

"MAN WITH THE GUN."

SEQUEL TO BRUTAL CRIME.

SUSPECT SENT FOR TRIAL.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, May 17

On a short but tragic list of murders committed in this State, for which no criminal has yet been brought to justice, ( the Drasdoff case was, up to last week, j a. striking illustration of the insecurity 1 of life in this city and the impunity that < may here attend a violent and eanguin- J ary outrage. i The crime was committee some 1 months ago. Paul Drasdoff and his wife, , two Russians who had lived in Sydney 1 for over 20 years, were taking tea m the ] room behind their shop in a Waverley > street on the evening of September 1. , Dilisdoff had come here with nothing to help him but honesty and industry, but with his wife's assistance he had made a succ-e*-* of things. He had built up a good business, he was on the high road to prosperity, and he wan well liked throughout the district for his kindliness and generosity. So far'ns b\known, he had not an enemy in the world. On tliat fateful evening, at about 0 o'clock, someone entered the shop. Drasdoff got up "rtJS? h£ °4i2 e reruns" behind. AhnosTimmediately she heard a ehout--"Hands tip or I shoot"—then her husband's call for help-then the sudden report of a shot. Bereft of Husband and Memory. She rushed into the shop and saw etandina in the front doorway, a man hoi ng'a revolver, with another man close behind him. Her husband called to her to ring the police then, »taggeled and fell, blood flowing from hie'mouth. She ran to a neighbour's house for help, but by the time the doctor arrived Drasdoff wae beyond all human aid. He had been the sole innocent witness ol the crime, and his distracted wife overwhelmed by the shock, collapsed so completely that she lost her memory, and when the detectives flret interviewed her was quite incapable of recalling tut details of that awful experience or describing the men whom she had seen in the doorway. However, the police persevered, lhev had certain general indications to go upon, and the public horror aroused here bv the atrocity of the crime naturally Stimulated-, them to greater exertions Then Mrs. Drasdoff. having disposed Of her business, went to live with Inende in Surry Hills; and once clear of all personal associations which recalled that tragic night, she found her recollection of the crime returning. 1 lie police interviewed her some twenty time* in all, and at last she was -able to reconstruct her scattered and tangled impressions and to give them the information that they required. Talk in Prison. At this time there was in Long Bay "aol a voung man named Leslie Warburton, 21 years old, who is serving a sentence of three years for Ins share in a case of "robbery under arms' near Liverpool on September 17 last. Two davs after this robbery, the police arrested Warburton, and found evidence which proved that he was a "gunman, and that he was prepared to "shoot to kill"; and he himself admitted that he had been concerned in the Liverpool crime. When Warburton was arrested the police took from his room a considerable amount of clothing which appeared likely to have some significant bearing on this case, or on his other criminal activities. But the first intimation that they received of his possible complicity in "the Waverley crime came from quite another quarter. . At the inquiry last weelO evidence was given by one Kenneth Stuart, who on September 22 last (three weeks after Drasdoff died) was driven in a prison van from Central Police Court with Warburton and Gough, who was one of Warburton's friends and accomplices. The men talked to each other about charges and sentences, and, according to Stuart, Gough said to him that Warburton was a lucky man not to be charged with the Drasdoff minder. More than this, Stuart aeserted that subsequently, at Long Bay, Gough told him definitely that Warburton had "done the shooting," though there was another man there at the time. Apparently Stuart had disclosed all this in the hope of finding favour with the police. But at the inquest last week, he was evidently ill at ease and apprehensive itbout the consequences of his treachery, for he then stated that he had seen Warburton later at Long Bay, and Warburton had told him that Gough had lied, and that he (Warburton) had nothing to do with the Drasdoff case. Suspect's Appearance. When the police questioned Warburton aa to his movements on the night of September 1, he made out a plausible alibi But a. man named Maurice Hull testified that he had called at Warburton'** house—they knew each other well —on tho following day, that there was a nautomatic lying on the table, and that Warburton. dishevelled ana deeper-ate-looking. appeared to linve hart a bad ni"ht" Putting nil these things together, the police believed that they had a good caee against Warburton at least for complicity in the Waverley murder, when the recovery <»' Mr*. Drasdoff unexpectedly strengthened their hands. What Widow Recollected. Then Draedoff's widow became able to givo some intelligible account of her experiences on that awful night. One of the first questions put to her imtuvallv concerned the appearance and the nttiYe of the man .whom she .saw standing In the doorway with the pistol in hi* hand. Her recollections now became much more definite and detailed. She remembered that she had seen a man like him, though differently attired, one* the shop on the previous day, and Lain on the day of the murder the same man had come by. and had aroused her suspicions by peering through the window. Questioned as to the details of his clothing on the evening 01 September 1, the woman seemed suddenly to recall a large number of striking particulars. The man with the pistol, ,»he sulci, was dressed in "a grey striped overcoat, light grey trousers, a grey felt hat, a tie striped red, white, yellow and blue, with tan shoes," and she added, curiously enough, "I noticed that tho laces were different—one was light tan and the other Wfta black.' . The mere multiplicity ot detail might ilnt flm eight suggest either.deliberate / fraud or a merely fantastic effort of the ■ imagination. But it ta psychologically / speaking quite possible that the e woman's sub-conscious mind, acting under tho pressure of this terrible crisis, "noted all these minute particulars withlout her conscious knowledge, and that

when the chain of memory was re-estab-lished these details may have come spontaneously to the surface once more. Clothing Identified. The police had now much more than the poor woman's halting recollections to go upon. For they had in their hands the large stock of clothing which they had seized in Warburton's room, and when they took Mrs. Drasdoff to inspect these things she picked out from a miscellaneous heap of garments j the identical articles of attire which she ' had described so vividly as having been worn by ''the man with the gun," and which undoubtedly belonged to Warburton. The police then decided that the only link wanting in the chain of evidence had now been supplied. Fur long before this—on October 30 of laet year—having Warburton under suspicion, they had brought him from gaol to the Central Police Court, placed him in a "lineup," and brought Mrs. Dnisdoff there to identify him. She seems to have recognised him at once as "the man with the gun, ,, and apparently the shock of recognition supplied the impulse needed to net her memory in motion and enable her to recall fact's and details that had been for many weeks past obscure or forgotten. Evidence at Inquest. Even with all this evidence in their hands, the police delayed the inquest on Paul Drasdoff as long as possible, so as to give the unfortunate woman time to make a complete recovery and to till up any gaps or strengthen any weak points* in the case against Warburton. Last week, at the inquest, the widow, though speaking through an interpreter, gave her evidence clearly and coherently, and her identification of Warburton, where he stood in the Court, as "the man with the gun," was evidently as convincing as the coroner could expect or desire. So Leslie Warburton, aged 21, stands committed for trial on a charge of murder, and the police at least believe that they have already wiped the Draedoff case off their.list of unsolved mysteries.