Escaper May Have Telephoned Police

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30944, 28 December 1965, Page 9

Escaper May Have Telephoned Police

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

MELBOURNE, Dec. 27.

A man believed to be the Pentridge Gaol escaper Peter Walker telephoned police headquarters and asked to speak to the chief of the homicide squad, Detective Inspector Holland, police said today.

When a junior officer went to get the detective inspector the man hung up. He had said: “I am Walker. I want to talk to Holland.”

Walker, aged 24, and Ronald Rvan, aged 41, escaped from Pentridge last Sunday week. Since then they have killed two men and robbed a bank. Inspector Holland said it was a better than even chance that the caller had been Walker. WOMEN CHARGED Because of the £5OOO reward offered by the Government they must now be mistrusting one another. Walker could have hung up when he heard Ryan coming. If Ryan knew that Walker had telephoned the police, he could shoot him. Walker and Ryan are well armed.

Two women were charged in Melbourne today with

having harboured Walker and Ryan at Elwood, a Melbourne suburb, between December 20 and 24. Many of the hundreds of police engaged in the armed search have had little or no sleep for days. Five rooms were set aside in the main police building for police to have a quick nap but they have hardly been used. ‘T’ve never seen police so devoted to catching two men," an officer said. “They just won’t sleep. “Yesterday I was with a group of homicide men who searched known criminal haunts all over Melbourne.

“They fronted up at closed doors knowing anything could be behind them. At one door I heard a rustle behind it as if there was to be action, but two homicide men stayed put at the ready. That takes guts.” Many of the men in the hunt did not have time to telephone their families for Christmas. The Chief Commissioner of Police (Mr Arnold) and the chief of the C. 1.8. (Superintendent L. Bent) conferred throughout the day about the hunt.

They told police not to take any chances. Superintendent Bent said the enormous police activity

had slackened crime in other directions.

“Never has so little other crime been reported for such a time,” he said. “It just shows what a lot of police around will do.” Mr Arnold has a direct line to the Premier (Mr Bolte) and the Chief Secretary (Mr Rylah) to tell them about developments. Road blocks are being maintained on almost every road out of Melbourne, and airways and railway stations are being watched. Police ask motorists and other people to “bear with us” if they are pulled up and checked. “So far the public has been marvellously co-operative,” a detective said. VAN ABANDONED

Late yesterday police found abandoned near Essendon Airport a small panel van the two men had been using. Police said they had learned that on Friday two men had made telephone bookings for a flight to Christchurch, New Zealand. The men had refused to give their names and had said they would pay cash for the tickets on their arrival at the airport. Police were notified but the aircraft left on Saturday with the two seats vacant. No-one arrived to claim the tickets.