“CROOK” SHOT DEAD

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 March 1928, Page 9

“CROOK” SHOT DEAD

A CAREER OF CRIME

William Henry Wilks, 52, an engineer, who was shot dead by Constable Burns during an exchange of shots in an exciting back-yards chase at Rolf Street, Manly (says the “Sydney Sun”), was probably the most desperate gunman in Australia. Constable Burns fired in self-defence. The police chased Wilks and another man who escaped over fences and through back yards. Reports had been received for some time of thieves, and at 4 a.m. the police encountered two men. Wilks was run to earth in some long grass by Constable Burns, who tried to handcuff him. Wilks pulled out his revolver and fired at Burns, but the bullet missed. Burns fired twice, and the second bullet passed through Wilks’s chest, and he dropped dead. Recently, Wilks broke into two of the agencies of the Government Savings Bank. One is in Pittwater Road, arid the other at Red Hill. He obtained no money. When Inspector Lillie heard of these cases he consulted the manager of' the Government Savings Bank, Manly. Information had been received that Wilks contemplated holding up the Manly branch of the Government Savings Bank. Wilks was known to the Melbourne police as a desperate gunman, who would not hesitate to kill a policeman or any other man when cornered. Wilks had a terrible career. He was born in Canada in 1875. His record of crime shows that he was notorious in England in 1896. In 1903 he appeared in South Africa, and at Pryburg was sent to gaol for four years for shop-breaking. Again in 1908 he was sent back to prison. The police there took tseps to have him deported as an undesirable, but Wilks managed to get back, for in 1909 he was sent to gaol for 12 months for breaking into an hotel in Capetown.

In 1918 lie was heard of in Sandringham (Vic.), where he was punished for obscene language. Subsequently an epidemic of safeblowing broke out. The police were puzzled, for the manner of using the explosives was new to them, and clearly showed that no novice was operating. In 1921 a man went to live in a little shop in Elssernwick, where he represented himself as an engineer. He was arrested, and housebreaking tools of all kinds, exploring and scientific books were found in his room. It was proved against Wilks that he had been implicated in most of the safe-blowing episodes in the city, and he was sent

to prison for several years on numerous charges. Other sentences followed.

On January 31 he stole a safe from the London Tavern Hotel, Caulfield, and so that there should be no noise by its removal, he and whoever was his accomplice, cut a large piece from the dining room carpet on which., with cushions from a couch, they dumped the safe. A wheelbarrow was stolen from a yard nearby, a shirt was cut up and wound around the wheel to deaden any sound, and the safe was wheeled along Hawthorn Road half-a-mile to a vacant piece of land, where it was blown open. What Wilks said when the operation was over, only his accomplice knows, for the safe was empty!