Sydney mystery of sawn-up bones

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33650, 27 September 1974, Page 13

Sydney mystery of sawn-up bones

(New Zealand Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, September 26. The discovery by the Sydney police of sawn-up bones beneath the floor-boards of what was formerly a brothel has intensified investigations into battles between rival underworld gangs.

The bones are being analysed by the Government pathologist in the city mortuary while the police continue to excavate the foundations of seven narrow - I fronted, two-storey terrace | houses in the suburb of Woolloomooloo. The police discovered the bones disintegrating in quicklime under the floorboards of one of the houses after John Stewart Regan, aged 29, had been murdered in a gangland shooting out--1 side a suburban hotel last ■Sunday. • The State Minister of Justice (Mr John Maddison) and I the Assistant Police Com- ' missioner (Mr Richard Lendrum) called a press conference shortly before midnight last night to release details of the inquiry. i The police, they said, had received a gangland tip to search for a grave under the i Woolloomooloo houses, ol 4

which Regan had been a part owner, and which had once been part of a chain of brothels. When they found the shallow grave yesterday, the | police were unable to say whether the bones were I human or animal. No skulls iwere found. The police have identified Regan as having been involved in a gangland feud over gambling control, and say that his death was connected with another murder last month, that of John Edward Clarke, aged 51. who was also gunned down outside a Sydney hotel. , At least eight associates lof both men also believed to ihave been involved in criminal activities are now missing. “Regan, was known in ; underworld circles as ‘The ■ Magician’ because of his ability to make people disappear,” a police spokesman said.