COMPANION SHOT

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 58, 10 March 1938, Page 10

COMPANION SHOT

A FLIGHT FOR LIFJE

YOUNG MAN IN CUSTODy

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, March', 4:

Albert Hedges, 50, of Merry lan< Is, a suburb in the Parramatta district, was found shot dead at the gateway of a house there. ' ~ . ,

The first intimation of the trajgedy was given by Frank Fradd, 40, a.- son-in-law of the dead man. Fradcf was

seen running. zig-zag for 100 [yards across an open paddock, and then burst into a house, occupied by Mr?" and Mrs. C. Marshall, declaring thaihe had been fired on. :

Ronald Marshall, 13, was .sitting on the front steps of his home wbjen he saw a man sprint across the parfldock. He was less than • -half-way across when 'another man appeared qt the corner. "The first man started to dodge as he ran," said the boy. "I heard three reports, the, last ;as the man reached the front gate. He yelled out, 'Quick, open the gate!' !l was scared and ran inside." , Mrs. Marshall met Fradd at fhe top of the steps. "Let me hide," si le said Fradd called out. "My fatheij-in-law has been shot!" Mrs. Marshall then walked in ,the direction from which Fradd had run, and found Hodges's body at the gateway of a house: occupied by a widow, Mrs.- Muriel Smith. She also saw a young man dn a bicycle. Snortly afterwards the telephone in the ' Parramatta Police Station1 rang. A man's voice gave certain i information, and added: "I am not focijling. 1 will explain when you come.?' The speaker gave a name and address. Detectives went, by car to 'Merrylands, where a young man istopped them. He accompanied, the pmlice to the home of Mrs. Smith and ,ithe detectives were handed a pea-riflfc. Mrs. Smith's husband died about five years ago. She has two married daughters and four sons. The boys livi3 with her. " . '

Hedges was to have gone tu a relief workers' camp, and he went to say good-bye to Mrs. Smith. According to Fradd, who accompanied Hedges, they stood talking ,at the front door. "I heard a report as we were walking down the steps to come away," said Fradd. "My fatheii -in-law pitched forward, and turning around I backed to the gate, then bolfed into the" street. I never ran faster in my life than I did across the pjiddock, and when I heard other report; j I began to dodge about, as vve^, learned to do at the war."

Hedges was a relict worker, 'but he was well known in the Parnamatta district as a street musician.

The nexl day, at the Panjamatta Police Court, Eric Smith, 20, a; son of the -vklow. was charged with murdering Hedge' ' ;