AUSTRALIAN CRIME WAVE

Evening Star, Issue 18035, 1 August 1922, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN CRIME WAVE

POLICE FORCE INADEQUATE. RECENT MURDERS. In an article (July 18) the Sydney ‘Sun,’ drawing attention to the inadequacy' of me police force, recites a list of recent crimes. Almost every day reports of crimes reach police headquarters, and many of them never are reported. Here are some of the most important crimes m the last few months: Had it not been for the alertness of the police, tho chances aro that.harm would have been done to the manager or clerks of the Commercial Bank, lor an armed man—Bean, a Canadian school teacher — was about to enter the bank and rob if, when Detective Wickham, an amateur wrestler, jumped upon him and threw him to tho ground. Bean was then handcuffed by other .detectives and taken into custody. This might have boon one of the most sensational crimes of modern times but for the splendid work of the detectives for a couple of days prior to the attempted hold-up.

The death of Bully Cook in the scrub at Gordon lias not yet been avenged. Perhaps it never will be. Gggk, a well-known identify of Gordon, had been drinking at a local hotel, and late in tho afternoon left' for Iris hut in a lonely part of the scrub on the side of a gully. Ho was not seen alive again. At first it was believed' that lie had fallen over a rock, and died from injuries thus sustained; but a. closer investigation convinced the detectives that tho case was ono of murder. Finally an arrest was made, and the accused stood his trial, but was acquitted. More recently Francis,Charles Kennedy, a porter employed at tho Strathfieid railway station, was murdered in a lanoway at Burry Hills. Robbery is said to have been the motive, and a young man (Reardun) and his sister have been committed for trial on a charge of having killed, him. Kennedy had 1 left his homo to come to the city, and his dead body was found! in the laneway at midnight. Only last Friday night week Francis Cecil Kcmmis, manager of the Hornsby branch of the Government Savings Bank of New South Wales, was battered to death in a railway carriage Hornsby and Wa-hrooiiga. This is one of the foulest crimes ever perpetrated; but the murderers have not boon found. Tho police have been engaged upon the case for twelve days now, and/heir task seems more hopeless than ever. Last Sunday night three masked men held up a farmer and his family in tho Liverpool district. Tho farmer, Mr Broughton, was bound in the yard and taken into tho house, .where tho family were silting. Tho robbers ransacked the place and took all tho money and' jewellery the victims possessed, and then made good their escape. In. this case, however, the police are confident 'of sheeting homo the crime.

A grocer named Jones was held up in Ids shop a few months ago by two men, who demanded a cheque. Jones was- compelled, at the point of revolvers, to sign a cheque, and the men denartod. Forlnnalelv tho police were quickly informed, and they arrested the ’.men in (he, head office of tho Commonwealth Bank, as they were in tho act of cashing the cheque. There, have .been . dozens of, crimes 'of “minor” importance within tho past few 'months. Shopkeepers and householders have been held up. people have been garrotted after’dark, and others have, been killed in street affrays. The police, ton, have Icon attacked’ hy mobs o| larrikins, ami on two Sntunlav nights in (succession crowds of between 200 and 300 people attacked .a couple of constables while on dulv.

Sydney, however, has not been alone in the prevalence of crime. Melbourne has had its share, if not more than its share. Take the murder of Alma Tirtschlco ■ by Colin Ross, the two hov bushrangers, the exploits of “Squizzy” Taylor, tho Fitzrov vendetta—which embraces many crimes of violence—and the four double tragedies in one week of March.