VIOLENT CRIMES

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 January 1928, Page 10

VIOLENT CRIMES

EPIDEMIC IN SYDNEY.

SYDNEY, December 23. The>year now closing will go down as a black one in the crime annals of New South Wales, mainly because of the numerous cjrimes of a violent nature committed during the last few months. The record will be darker from the police point of view because three of these crimes, all murders, remained unsolved mysteries. These three murders were all committed in daylight and apparently were not the work of hardened, clever criminals, but of what the police term - “mugs,” forced to kill their victims., The first of these involved the death of Daniel .Condon, a money-lender, who was killed in his office near Circular quay during a lunch-hour, when Condon was receiving payments from' dozens of his clients.- Hundreds of these clients were asked to .explain their dealings with Condon, but although detectives worked for weeks on the case, their efforts failed to bring tho offender to book. The theory was that the murderer quarrelled with Condon, whom he struck With, some blunt instrument, not found, while Condon bent over his desk. . Next iri the series of the unsolved, murders was that of Mrs. Downes, an Ashfield resident, who was found dead in the kitchen of her home. She had evidently returned from a shopping ex-. . pedition, and surprised a sneak thief in her househ and grappled with him; The murder was probably committed v/ith a flat-iron. After leaving his victim dead, the criminal had the audacity to pawn a few clothes he had Stolen, but the police could neveiVtrace the man. • ’ . /■’

By the acquittal last' week of the three Higgs brothers of the murder of • Ronald. Leslie in his motor-car bn a ■Blue Mountains road, the third unsolved murder of the last few months went itno police archives’. Leslie was found dead in his car, and though a coat belonging to- one of the Higgs brothers Was found near the car, it was proved to the jury’s satisfaction that Higgs had had it stolen from him a day. before the crime was committed. A flimsy Crown case did not satisfy the jury, and so valuable weeks were lost

to the police in following up the real murderer. , '• Au issue of a Sydney evening newspaper one night this week exemplified . the recent outbreak of violent One column of the main news page was occupied by the report of the Corner’s inquest on a woman who was killed in her home 'at Bellevue Hill, - one of this city’s most respectable suburbs, and the committal of the husband for trial on a charge of murder. The top of another column was taken up by a Coroner’s reserved verdict in committing for trial a man who had also allegedly killed his wife —this time in the slum suburb of Pyrmont. Most of another column was devoted to the report of the -trial of a young man who 'was chargedwith killing a man after a quarrel in a suburban street. He was found guilty of manslaughter. ' Last, but. not least of this page of crime, was a report of more than two columns of. that day’s murder—a.crime of passion in which a married woman ; was killed by a police constable, also married, who immediately turned the revolver on himself and also died. The murder and suicide occurred in a narrow- lane in Leichhardt, one of the busiest of the near suburbs, a few yards from an intersection crowded

with traffic and shoppers, at 10 o’clock in tho morning. The woman,, iMrs. Florence Laws, wife of a master car-,/.';, rier, 37 years of age, and Arthur Ford, ? 49 years, and of handsome appearance, had -marital partners who never Suspected the relations which eventually were to lead to the death of Mirs. Laws and Ford. Mrs. Laws ha,d been, visiting her dentist, who she left withT the expressed intention of meeting a friend. She was seen to quarrel with Ford, who apparently forced her into. the lane, and there fired four shots into her body and one into his own head. Passionate love letters from Mrs. Laws were later found in Ford’s possession.