Detective Killings UNDERWORLD HELP SOUGHT IN HUNT

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31139, 16 August 1966, Page 15

Detective Killings UNDERWORLD HELP SOUGHT IN HUNT

(N Z.P.A. Reuter —Copyright)

LONDON, August 15. Police today asked London’s underworld to help them trap the gunmen who killed three unarmed detectives on Friday.

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Joseph Simpson, said he would welcome information from criminals in bringing the gang to justice.

Detectives said there were signs that the underworld’s traditional code of silence was breaking amid national outrage over the cold-blooded shooting. Police raiding squads believe they know the identities of two of the three men whom eye witnesses said were in a car approached by the murdered detectives outside Wormwood Scrubs prison. Top crime scientists today examined the gang’s 10-year-old, pale-blue getaway car, found early yesterday about five miles from the shooting scene. It is the first major clue in the murder hunt. Sir Joseph Simpson made his appeal to hardened criminals after emerging from a conference with some of the 200 detectives hunting the killers. He told reporters: “Some of the most persistent criminals don’t stand for this sort of thing and sometimes we get such help from them. “I would welcome such help now.” Sir Joseph Simpson also defended the tradition that British police normally go on duty without guns. “I would be very, very sorry to see the day when it

was necessary to arm the police as a whole,” he said. “It would be a bad day for the police and the country.” Three members of Parliament called today for restoration of hanging for killing a policeman on duty. The maximum penalty for murder in Britain at present is life imprisonment. Homes Guarded Police today guarded the homes of several persons who were questioned at the weekend in hope that they might help to identify the gangs, thought to be well-known in the crime world. Two men appear in court

today following another, unrelated, shooting incident involving police. They were detained after a car chase through Soho early yesterday, when a bystander was slightly wounded by shots.