DREADFUL TRAGEDY

Evening Star, Issue 18541, 25 January 1924, Page 8

DREADFUL TRAGEDY

MELBOWE GARDENS AFFAIR. BE ARCHING FOB JIHEDEBE®. Frees Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Press Association. MELBOURNE, January 24. Tho condition of those who were wounded is unchanged. Mrs Parry, of South Melbourne, has a fractured jaw and a wound in the back, and Mi; John Moxham, of Essendon, has wounds in the back and right arm. Tho whole city continues the hue and cry after Tire perpetrator of the Gardena tragedy, who is still at largo. Prom the little information which tho police are able to secure from eye witnesses of. the tragedy they have issued a description of the man. He is aged about thirty-five, and is tall and thin, with projecting dirty teeth and a peculiar! twitching of the upper lip. He was dressed in a navy blue slop suit. This morning the police discovered a dirty rifle and a box of twenty unused cartridges in a shrubbery near where the murderer was seen to leap tho fence. The description tallies with that of the man whom the two special constables interviewed last night and allowed to depart. They heard that a fight had taken place in the Gardens, and went to investigate. They met a man coming out, and they asked him if he had seen a man with a shot gun. Ho replied in tho negatme. He said he was taking a stroll, and.walked off towards the city. THE WRONG MAN. MELBOURNE, January 24. A dishevelled and unshaven man wal'oG into the Detective Office and declared that ho wanted to surrender. He said he had done the shooting, and had lost his memory and did not know where ho had been last night. Tho police, who believe him to be innocent, hut suffering from mental trouble, charged him with offensive behaviour, and ho was remanded for a week. A WOMAN’S DREAM. MELBOURNE, January 24. A remarkable story is told by Mrs Harris, of South Yarra, a life-long friend of Mrs Stroheiker. She declared that she dreamt tho whole shocking incident last Thursday night, and was miraculously warned of tho impending doom of her friend. She refrained from accompanying her friend only because of the warning dream, in which she saw herself receiving her dead friend's baby. Tho first intimation she received of the tragedy was when she received the baby, just as had happened in tho dream. MR MOXHAM’S NARRATIVE. MELBOURNE, January 24. Mr Moxham told the following story; With his wife and children ho was looking at tho flowers. He suddenly felt as if no had been.hit with a hammer in the small of the back. He saw a man rise from tho grass sixty yards away with a rifle to his shoulder. He shrieked, and the man ran away. Previously Mr Moxham heard seven or eight shots, and ho thought that someone was shooting cormorants. Showing a wound in his hand, Mr Moxham pathetically said: “As an accountant I snail not bo able to do any more work with this hand. It is har'd luck for my wife and kiddies.” Mrs Moxham stated that the man aimed at her after shooting her husband. She ran, and the man dropped to tho ground .and fired, and she saw him shoot a woman on a seat near by. In their search, for the murderer during tho night the a young man. who, however, was able satisfactorily to explain that he was engaged in tho same search.

One theory is that the perpetrator throw himself into a reservoir near where the rifle was found. This will bo drained during the day.