HIRED A GUNMAN

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 59, 2 December 1933, Page 18

HIRED A GUNMAN

To Shoot Detective Remarkable allegations that a gunman had been brought from Sydney to shoot Senior-Detective H. S. Dunn, who had incurred the enmity of underworld because of his activities, was given at a recent police inquiry in Melbourne by Senior-Detective H. J. Carey. Detective Carey said that a man named Henry Stokes, who had been a leading light in gaming schools around Melbourne, was eventually caught by Detective Dunn, and was heavily fined. “Stokes went out of the gaming life,” said Carey. “Since then he is always running around saying what be is going to do to Dunn. Everywhere you go you hear what Stokes is going to do to Dunn. “Information came to us that Stokes and Scott, who is now serving three years’ imprisonment, had got Hughio Martin, a notorious gunman, back from Sydney for the purpose of shooting Dunn.” The sum of £5OO was mentioned for the purpose. When Martin was apprehended in East Melbourne he was armed with four pistols and a belt with 44 rounds of ammunition.

“During our conversations with him, Martin said: ‘I was to be the hired assassin,’ the detective added “He would go no further than that, but apparently he meant the shooting of Dunn.”

Since the inquiry he had heard that Stokes said he would make Dunn suffer over it. Dunn’s home had been bombed, Carey added, and there were rumours that it was likely to be attacked again