FIVE SHOTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 192, 16 August 1939, Page 7

FIVE SHOTS.

MURDER AT PARTY.

UNDERWORLD FEUD.

TWO ARRESTS MADE.

AMAZING FAREWELL SCENES

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 12. A murder committed on Sunday night In a house in Brougham Street, Darlinghurst, was a reminder that although the Underworld has been quiet for a long time it is still there. Twelve men and live women were drinking in the house. Among them wait Guido Calletti, 34, who was born in Sydney of Italian parents. Suddenly the party was interrupted by * rapid exchange of revolver shots—five ®il told. Calletti feil with two bullets in his body, lost consciousness immediately and died shortly after.

A big squad of detectives and police immediately began a hunt for Calletti's Biurderer. For eighteen hours they Marched well known underworld haunts without result. Then, on Tuesday night, ■ party of detectives went to an isolated cottage overlooking Cowan Creek on the Hawkusbury. They surrounded the cottage and waited for daybreak. When dawn came one of them went up and knocked on the door. There wae a rustle of bedclothes within; then suddenly the door Hew open and a man darted out »nd escaped. Pushing inside the detective* arrested another man who was partly clothed. They searched the cottage •nd seized two revolvers and about i!4o.| The detectives then learnt that a man had sought medical attention for an Injured arm at Rye Hospital. At noon they came on a man in the street at Eastwood and arrested him.

Next day Robert Branch or Jackson, 81, labourer, and George Allen Cave, 34, labourer, were charged with the murder

of Calletti. Branch was also charged] with having shot at Richard Mealing! with intent to murder on May 7. Mealing, or Barker, is known to hisj associates as "The Oyster." On May 7 j he was shot in the back outside a house I in Bayswater Avenue, King's Cross. He lingered between life and death for a time but "pulled through, and was discharged from hospital a month ago. The police believe that Calletti went to the house in Brougham Street on Sunday night to avenge the shooting of "The Oyster." Tragic Life Of Crime." Calletti was a tragic example of a man gone wrong. He was one of twelve children. According to his father he was not as "black as he was painted, and in the last three years lived quietly. Hei was always taking the blame for others,] and his quick temper and recklessness were his worst enemies. He got in with bad company, but was good to us."

The cold record of Calletti's criminal career, however, shows him in a darker light. He was first convicted at the age of 10 in 1915, when he was allowed six months' probation on a charge of being an uncontrollable child. He next appeared before the Children's Court in the role of a gunman, and having thus launched himself on a criminal career pursued it with a tragically misapplied perseverance. He appeared before the Courts 60 times on charge of indecent language, assault, assaulting police, associating with immoral women and suchlike.

A charge of assault with intent to rob brought him his longest sentence—two years. Several years ago, when the razor gangs were active. Calletti was a member of one of them. He is said to have been mixed up in several gun fights and shootings, but he always escaped a capital charge. In such cases detectives find it very difficult to secure evidence, as the underworld is always silent.

-A constant stream of mourners visited the Darlinghurst funeral parlours where Calletti's body was taken, and men and women wept over the coffin. "1 thought that much of him that I wished I was in his place." said one man. Many of them praised Calletti's generosity. One of his underworld friends said: "It was give' here, there, and everywhere with him. No man is bad who is really fond of children and animals, and Guido was all that. At his place now you will find a dozen birds and animals. It must have cost him £1 a week to feed them."

Remarkable Funeral Scenes. Remarkable scenes occurred at the funeral. A fleet of taxis was engaged Ito accommodate all the mourners, and jthe wreaths, which more than filled an lextra car, were estimated to have cost at least £400. On top of the huge pile of Horal decorations was laid Calletti's football blazer (Calletti was playingcoach for the Oakley, East Sydney, Rugby League junior team, leaders in their divisional Sunday competition). A "bob-in" collection had purchased a costly nickel-plated coffin. Several thousand people gathered outside the funeral parlours to accompany the coffin to Rookwood, and-extra police had to be called out to clear a path for traffic. For an hour before the funeral left a constant stream of hundreds of people filed past the open casket. Among them a weeping boy asked to see the body. He said he was Calletti's son and had not seen his father for a long time. In and out among the , strange crowd moved 20 detectives, , hoping to pick up scraps of useful ' information.

A photographer was engaged to take photographs of the funeral and graveside service which will be sent to Calletti's wife, who is in Cairns, North Queensland. She tried to return to Sydney for the funeral, but was unable to get a seat in a 'plane. The service was held in the Roman Catholic chapel at Rook wood, and Calletti was buried in the Italian section of the cemetery.

According to some of Calletti's friends he was a very superstitious man. When he was last arrested, a woman with him dropped her handbag and broke her mirror. Calletti was very angry with her and for several days after spoke of nothing but the bad luck which was sure to l>e coming for him. Only the day before he was killed, he, with his I mother, had attended her mother's | funeral.