Big Manhunt In Perth

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30042, 29 January 1963, Page 13

Big Manhunt In Perth

(N ZP. A.-Reuter—Copyright> PERTH, January 28.

Every available polic e m a n today joined the hunt for a man who shot and killed two people and wounded three others in Perth yesterday. All police have been called on duty and all leave has been cancelled.

Residents are refusing to open their doors to strangers Thousands are keeping off the streets.

During the night the Perth police switchboard was jammed with calls from people asking police protection. giving advice on the r- nhunt or reporting mysterious noises near their homes

The killer, a lean man. about 23. has a 22 rifle Detectiv«-lnsoeetor F Douglas leading the hunt, aaid today: "We have all exits

from the metropolitan area blocked, and it is not likely the gunman has escaped to the country" At dawn today. 50 police with revolvers, rifles, and shotguns searched the 1000acre King’s Park on the western edge of the city A young man. answering the description of the killer was reported to have been seen near tennis courts there The park is near the scene of the maniac's last killing The searching police found only a harmless drunk Police said the murdered ano wounded persons were not in any way connected ano the shootings were indiscriminate

Detective-Inspector Douglas said: ‘The man is certainly a maniac, and we must catch him quickly ” Detectives believe the gunman became deranged suddenly There is no record of an escapee from a mental hospital The persons killed were George Osmond Walmsley aged 55. a retired storekeeper. of suburban Nedlands. and John Stuckey aged 19, also of Nedlanda, a university student.

Mr Walmsley was shot when he went to his front door to answer the gunman's knock at 3 5 a m and Mr Sturkey was shot at 413 a m as be was lying in his bed on the back veranda of a board-ing-house Brian Vincent Wir. aged 29. an accountant of Cottesloe. was shot as he was sleeping on the veranda of bis second-floor flat His condition is still serious

Two persons saw the gunman They were both wounded by him

About 230 am yesterday a couple sitting in a car near the beach at Cottesloe saw the killer staring at them about 40 yards away The man yelled to the gunman to go away The woman saw the gunman raise a rifle She pushed her companion’s head down and a bullet went through her hand into the man’s neck.

The gunman ran off. The names of the wounded couple have not been reAU the shootings occurred within a half-mile radius and police are convinced the killer was on foot