MELBOURNE FEARFUL

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30947, 31 December 1965, Page 13

MELBOURNE FEARFUL

[From DAVID BARBER

special correspondent-N.Z.P.AJ SYDNEY, Dec. 30.

Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city, is a city of fear.

With two ruthless, escaped gunmen, wanted for two murders and a bank robbery, still at large after 11 days, Melbourne is in no holiday mood. Its two million people did not have a very merry Christmas, and the New Year will not be a happy one until they are caught. Not since the Kelly gang rode has the State of Victoria trembled as it does today, and reports that one or other of the escapers has crossed the border into New South Wales, has done little to ease its jitters. High in the minds of everyone looms the dreadful possibility that there will be more

shooting, more terror, more death, when Ronald Ryan and Peter Walker are found.

Well Armed

For Ryan and Walker, who police say shot dead a warder as they made their escape from Melbourne’s Pentridge gaol on December 19 and then killed a young father because they believed he might give them away, still have a rifle, a shotgun and two pistols. ‘They will kill again," said Detective Inspector Frank Holland, chief of the homicide squad. “They’re desperate and they have nothing to lose.” They are being hunted by 41 police cars, prowling the streets of Melbourne 24 hours a day. A thousand policemen, who went without their Christmas leave are on call, and every one of them is armed.

The scene at the police armoury in Russell street is as if Melbourne were under siege. Passers-by have become accustomed, in a State where police are not usually armed, to see detectives climbing in and out of cars with automatic carbine rifles, revolvers and tear gas grenades in their hands. Buses Ready Buses are standing by to take squads of police to any spot in the city, and after last week’s bank robbery, a close watch is being kept on banks and T.A.B. offices throughout the city and suburbs. Police say Ryan and Walker took £3600 from the bank last week, but they will want and need more. In television appeals the public has been told not to approach the men if they sight them. The police have been told: “If you see them while you’re alone, don’t challenge them—just run; If you don’t you’ll be shot.” Police are certain Ryan and Walker will not be taken alive. They are convinced there will be a duel when they are finally cornered, and they are prepared for it. The alarming prospect of a huge gun battle in which innocent bystanders could become involved was increased this week with unofficial reports that nine men armed with shotguns, pistols and rifles are also seeking Ryan and Walker—and hoping to find them before the police.

I The newspaper the “Australian,” reported that Mel- | bourne underworld figures intended to kill Walker on sight as a reprisal for the death of Arthur Henderson, the truck driver, killed, police believe, because he might have “talked.” The men were reported to have started a private collection, which had reached £520, as a reward for the man who “gunned Walker down.” They said the Government’s £4OOO reward would go to Henderson’s widow if they received

Reports that the escapers took a baby as hostage to obtain help from its mother, have" led to fears that they could be doing the same thing again. The jitters of Melbourne are making women whose husbands are away, or who live alone, bolt their doors and windows. Cinemas Half-full Working women and girls are being met at trams and trains, and even on these fine, sultry evenings windows are being shut and blinds pulled, while amusement places, cinemas and theatres, are halffull. Police believe their “psychological war,” using the men’s different characters in a bid to cause a rift between them, may have been successful and that they may have split up. But if this has happened, it means the police have two hiding places to find, instead of one. Ryan, a 41-year-old father of three, a former woodcutter and fisherman, who has been studying to become an accountant while serving his eight year and a half sentence, sees himself as a modern day Robin Hood. ‘New Era Of Crime’ In a letter to a Melbourne newspaper this week he wrote: “We, the Pentridge escapees, are the van of a new era of crime In Victoria —a role which we are loathe to adopt” After attacking the police, judiciary and prison authorities, he said: “We refuse to accept the present social pattern and its inherent lack of fairness and chances of equality in the sense of just reward. “The worker does not get a fair share of production and consequently is condemned,

along with his family, to a life of glorified slavedom. “I, as the last of the Ryans on the male side, intend to put a stop to this.” Peter Walker, aged 24, serving 12 years for attempted armed bank robbery, is semiliterate. Ryan in his letter described him as “a fundamentally decent lad of potential.” A policeman described him as “a simple lad without a brain in his head,” and he is thought to have tried to contact the police to make a deal.

Nagas Killed.—More than 200 Naga tribesmen trying to enter East Pakistan for arms and ammunition suffered sizeable casualties in an overnight clash with Indian security forces. Fight between Indian troops and Nagas has continued for 10 years.—Shillong, December 29.