MELBOURNE TRAGEDY

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 105, 29 January 1924, Page 7

MELBOURNE TRAGEDY

PARTICULARS OF THE SUSPECTED MAN, INVETERATE ROVER OF } MOROSE MANNER / . PURSUERS ELUDED STILL / i 1 Norman List, the student / suspected cf committing tha / murders in the Melbourne Botanic Cardens, is described as an inveterate rover, of quiet and morose manner. He continues to elude his pursuers, and there are many theories regardfing his whereabouts. - By Telegraph—Press Association. Copyright. Melbourne, January 27. Particulars supplied by relatives show that Norman ’’List, who is suspected of committing the shootings in. the Botanical Gardens, is 31 years of age, and an inveterate rover. He is not an engineering student, as at first described, but has rambled from place to place taking jobs at farm work or in timber mills, and leaving as it best suited him. He is a great student of mathematical problems, astronomy, and surveying, and has accumulated many volumes on these subjects. Some ten years ago he left his home . and worked his passage from Australia to America, where he spent a considerable time in tramping about the . United States and Mexico, doing farming and other work. Thence he went to England, and served in the British Army during the war. Though a smallish man,- List is powerful and is known as a great grafter, and had no difficulty in securing work. He returned to Australia in November of last year, since when he has been knocking about the country districts employed at timber mills and in harvesting. A few days before the tragedy he left a harvesting, job at Laverton and came to reside with his father and two sisters at Richmond. Since his departure for America years' ago he has seldom visited or communicated with the people at home, and has "always been markedly. noncommunicativc about bis business. When leaving home on Wednesday morning he was asked by bis sister if he would return for lunch, and he replied, “Yes,”'but has not- since been seen by his people. At the time of his departure he appeared to be normal, except perhaps for his extreme quietness. On the other hand, his manner has always been quiet and morose. The police have discovered that a man on Wednesday purchased a rifle in a Rourke Street shop, (for which he paid £7 10s. The weapon was of highvelocity and powerful. The purchaser indicated that he wanted to use it td shoot big game, and refused to trike the variety of bullets usually used in the rifle, which are of the dumdum type and make a terriole wound. Instead. he took a box of ammunition of smaller type, which inflict a wound. of a less terrible kind. He signed for it as Norman List. Seamen’s Institute. He is known to have had £lO in his possession when he left home. In "travelling on board ship List worked as a messroom steward. — Press Assn. DEATH OF JOHN MOXHAM LIST BELIEVED TO BE WAY TO AMERICA Melbourne, January 28. John Aloxham, one of the madman’s victims in the shootings in the Botanical Gardens, died last night. He is the fifth victim. Mrs. Perry is reported to be in a critical condition. The police suggest that Norman List, who is suspected to he guilty of the crime, jumped on the Rattler, a Sydney express, with the object of reaching Newcastle, en route to. America. When vis’ting America previously List travelled by cargo steamer from Newcastle. —Press Assn. FURTHER THEORIES ROBBER OF CAKESHOP < SUSPECTED (Rec. January 28, 10.10 pan.) Melbourne, January 28. List continues to elude his pursuers. It is believed he may either have drowned himself in the Yarra or in one of the numerous qua,rry holes m Richmond, or made his way to one of the lonely hamlets in the. back countrv. which are without police since tha police strike, all members of the force having been called.to the capital. Another theory is that he is disguised as a woman, his figure lending itself admirably to such a disguise. The . question also has been raised whether he was the perpetrator of a robbery in a pastrycook’s shop in Malvern on Saturday night. When a young woman assistant was about to shiit the shop a dark, unshaven man, with his hat crushed over his eves, entered the shop, produced a revolver, and cried, “For God’s sake give me some cakes.” Holding the revolver against the woman’s head he seized a block of cake and a quantitv of pastry, and then, ignoring the till, escaped on a motorcycle.—Press Assn.