ACT OF AROVER

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 23, 28 January 1924, Page 8

ACT OF AROVER

SEARCH FOR NORMAN LIST

STUDENT OF MATHEMATICAL

PROBLEMS.

(Received 28th January, 2 p.m.)

MELBOURNE, This Day. Particulars'supplied by relatives show that Norman List, who is suspected of committing the shootings in the Botani-cal-Gardens, is aged thirty-one, 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 har- , vesting. 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 non-communica-tive about his business. When leaving home on Wednesday morning he was asked by his 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 I 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 Bourke street shop, for which he paid £< 10s. The weapon was of high velocity and powerful. The purchaser indicated that he wanted to use it to shoot liig game, and refused to take the variety of bullets usually used in the rifle, which are of the dumdum type and make • a terrible 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 £10 in his possession when he left home. ' In travelling on board ship / List worked as a messroom steward.