MADMAN'S FELL WORK

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 20, 24 January 1924, Page 6

MADMAN'S FELL WORK

DEAD LYING ON THE LAWNS

IN PEACEFUL PUBLIC GARDENS. ■ ■ I

(miTID PRIIS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.)

(Keceived 24th January, 2 p.m.)

MELBOURNE, This Day.

The police have an incomplete description of the man' who did the shooting, but he is understood to be young. It is not sure whether he used a rifle or a gun, though some wounds indicate rifle shooting. The tragedy occurred along one of the main footpaths, where many people pass to the gates leading to the St. Kilda road. The path is flanked with- shady trees, which made it easy for the perpetrator to screen himself. Many people were sitting about the lawns at the time, having tea and otherwise enjoying the quietness of the gardens.

As soon as the police were informed, they commenced a systematic search of the gardens and throughout the suburbs, and this was continued during the night without avail by hundreds of regular and special police. The only trace found was i a .44 calibre repeating rifle cartridge with an automatic ejector, picked up near the scene of the tragedy.

The.remarkable feature is that a man who answered to the description given by eye witnesses was intercepted by two special constables, who, after interrogation, allowed him to, go. It is believed that the weapon ussd was thrown into one of the garden ponds, which are being searched. The following graphic details were supplied by the head gardener, St. John. When he reached the scene of the shooting, he found a woman lying on the lawn dead, with a gaping wound in her neck, and almost alongside her another woman lying at full length on the lawn dead, blood streaming from her. In her hands she clasped a crochet needle and a garment on which she had evidently been working when killed. Both victims were lying in pools of blood. Further along the lawn a woman was siitting with her head thrown backwards ; and blood streaming from her head. 'Her legs were crossed, and a book was lying beside her on the seat. 'Evidently this had fallen from her hands, and it and the seat were saturated with blood.

About 50 yards away St. John saw a white-haired man lying face downward with blood streaming from a large wound in his chest. Judging from his position he considered it probable that the man had been sitting sideways towards where the first shooting occurred, and, turning to see what was the matter, had received the ,full charge in the chest. Just then a., woman rushed towards St. John, excitedly, saying : "A man round the corner has been/shot." She "was horrified to see another' dead man lying on the lawn.

St. John ran round to where the woman directed her, and found "..a man lying seriously injured. . . .-. ..

At this stage, at the suggestion' of the police, St. John secured a gun and rifle and continued the search.