RAIN OF BULLETS

Evening Star, Issue 21505, 1 September 1933, Page 1

RAIN OF BULLETS

TWO MEN BADLY WOUNDED SHOOTING IN SYDNEY HOUSE UNDERWORLD FEUD Two men were shot and critically wounded in a house at Mascot, Sydney, recently. It was the outcome of what the police believe was an underworld feud. The men entered the house after brushing a woman aside, and were sensationally shot down in the hallway by a man who had apparently expected their arrival. The men who were wounded in the fnsilade of . shots were John Finnic, aged thirty-two, and Norman M'Donald, aged twenty-six. Both men are well known to the police. M‘Donald was shot three times. Bullets ' struck him in the left shoulder, left groin, and chest. Finnic was shot in the throat, but it was not known whether one or two bullets entered. There were two gaping wounds, and the same bullet, in entering and coming out, may have caused them both.

The shooting occurred in a comfort-ably-furnished suburban cottage which was occupied by George Phillips, his wife, and family. It was just after darkness had fallen that the crime took place. The locality was poorly lighted. Mrs Phillips states that she was alone in the house about 6 o’clock, when a man knocked at the door. She answered the knock, and was confronted by a man whom, she stated, she did not know. He told her that he wanted to see her husband. She told him that her husband was not at home, and he asked if he could come inside and await his return. She offered him a seat in the living room, and he settled down in a chair. Mrs Phillips then went into the small kitchen to. recommence washing.np after the evening meal.

ANOTHER KNOCK AT THE DOOR. Presently there was another knock on the 'front door. She again opened it, and was brushed aside by Finnie and M'Donald. They had their hands in their coat pockets, and Mrs Phillips gained the impression that they were armed with revolvers. She noticed two other men waiting in the darkness near the front verandah. .She thought that she saw revolvers in their hands. She became alarmed and slammed the door. Mrs Phillips and the two men were then in the small hallway leading from the front door to the living room, and the man who had come to see her husband could be seen sitting in the chair in the corner of the living room. He had evidently been expecting something. He drew a revolver from his pocket and opened fire on Finnie as he was about to enter the living room. One or two bullets struck Finnie in the throat. He fell halfway into the living room, clutching his throat, from which blood was pouring. The man then turned his revolver on M'Donald, and fired three shots in quick succession. Each took effect. One bullet ploughed through his chest, and the others struck him in the shoulder and groin. He fell sideways into a bedroom, which opened to the'left of the hallway. The police say tbey_ believe that the two men who had waited at the front of the house decided after the shots were fired to escape as quickly as possible. It is thought that they jumped into a motor car, which had been seen standing on the dark side of the street shortly before, and drove rapidly away. ESCAPE OF ASSAILANT! In the meantime the man who had shot Finnic and M'Donald, putting his revolver hack into his pocket, ran out the back door into the enclosed yard. He was unable to escape in this direction, as high walls of factories and neighbouring houses cut off avenues of escape. He turned, ran down a side path, and disappeared. Although neighbours rushed into the street after hearing the shots, no one apparently saw the fugitive. A curious crowd gathered at the gate °| “le house. The police were notified by a woman, who breathlessly telephoned a confused account of what had happolice found Finnie and M'Donald still lying in the places where they had fallen. Pools of blood stained the floor and carpets. An ambulance arrived soon afterwards and took the injured men to a hospital. reconstruction of crime. In reconstructing the crime, the police were mystified by a bullet hole in a thin panel of the door separating the living room from the hallway above the place where Finnie fell. An expended copper-clad bullet from a .3calibre revolver was found lying behind the door, but there was no mark on the plaster wall where the bullet might have been expected to strike. It is possible that the bullet had expended its energy in ploughing through Finnic s neck,' and had just sufficient speed to break through the panel of the door before falling to the floor On the other hand, it was thought that the bullet might have been fired down the hall. . ~ . , A search of the clothing worn by M'Donald and Finnie showed that they had not been armed. A clerk arrived at the hospital to take dying depositions from the two men. hut they gave no clue of the identity of the man who had shot them. Detectives say they believe that theninvestigations will unfold a story of underworld quarrels and victimisations, of which the nolice have heard rumours in the last few weeks. They expect their investigations will be hampered hv the difficulty in obtaining information from members of the underworld, who refuse to assist them.