“GUNMAN” GAFFNEY

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 July 1929, Page 3

“GUNMAN” GAFFNEY

TRAGIC DUEL IN MAROUBRA. SYDNEY, July 19. A simmering gang feud of Sydney’s underworld broke out into violent eruption on Wednesday night and early on Thursday morning, when in a sensational rifle and revolver duel at Maroubra, George Gaffney, a. notorious gunman, was shot dead and another man named Tomlinson had his right arm shattered iw a

bullet. Behind the shooting lies the story of a bitter rivalry between two of Sydney’s worst women. For several years past the two women, who are well known to the police and the courts,. have been at loggerheads over various matters, and clashes between the rival factions have been frequent. Only during the last few months have revolvers been used, however, by the numerous champions of the two women. One of the first steps in the wax’ between the two gangs occurred twelve- months ago, when police paid a surprise visit to the home of George Gaffney and found there a revolver for which Gaffney did not hold a license. He was fined £lOO and a 1 years’ imprisonment on that occasion. He was liberated recently, and the feud grew in intensity. It was the opinion of Gaffney’s gang that the police received information of his address and the fact that he had an unlicensed revolver from 'the rival organisation. Next step was made by Gaffney’s gang, who told the police that a raid on a house at Maroubra would dis-

close the presence of an unlicensed revolver there. The house at Maroubra was occupied by one of the women leaders of the gang and her husband. The police went to the house at 1 a.m. on Monday last and arrested James Devine for having an unlicensed revolver. Later in the day at the Police Court, when Devine was charged and fined £5O, the rival women leaders of the two gangs met after the case and quarrelled in the Court yard. There was a. stand-up fight between them,

and the finger of one of the women was bitten half through by the other. Police stepped in and took them before the Court, where one was fined £3 and the other remanded. Both gangs declared a war of vengeance oil each other, and. culmination of the quarrel came on Wednest day night when Frank Green (27), a companion of tho Devines, who resided with them at Maroubra, was attacked in Bourke Street. Woolloomoolloo, and shot, from behind, in the back. He was left lying in the gutter for dead, but a pedestrian called an ambulance, and he was taken to Sydney Hospital and treated. It was found that he had a bullet wound in the right shoulder, which luckily had not caused serious injury. After treatment he left the hospital in company with Devine and his (Devine’s) wife. Green refused to tell the hospital authorities how he received the wound, and refused to be admitted to the institution for observation. Scouts of the rival gang were apparently watching the hospital and saw Green leave the institution unharmed, for shortly after midnight, a taxi-cab drove up to the Devines’ home in Torrington Road, Maroubra, and Gaffney, with a number of companions, stepped out of it. Gaffney advanced towards the front gate of the house shouting, “Now we’ll got the —” But as he reached the gate a voice from the front verandah sang out, “Don’t you come past that fence or you are a dead man.” Gaffney replied, “Oh, I’ve got plenty of mates with me and we’ll soon clean you up.” With that Gaffney opened the front gate, but as he did so a shot rang out and lie crumpled on to the footpath, mortally wounded. As he fell he fired a fusillade of shots at the man on the verandah.

Meanwhile Walter Tomlinson, one of Gaffney’s companions, tried to make a flank attack, on the man on the verandah of the house. He endeavoured to climb the fence, firing all the time from his revolver. Another shot, was fired from the verandah, and Tomlinson was struck in the right forearm by a rifle bullet. Flight and Silence. Seeing the tables turned on them, the rest of the gang which had come in the taxi took to their heels, leav-ing-their companions lying on the footpath. A passing ambulance hearing the shooting came to the scene and picked up Gaffney and Tomlinson and conveyed them to the hospital. There it was found that Gaffney had been shot through the lung near the heart. Little hope was held out for his recovery, and the chamber magistrate was sent for to take his dying depositions. But, as in nearly every one of the gang feuds r of Sydney, curtain of silence was drawn across the happenings. Gaffney told the magistrate to leave him alone, and added, “The less I see of you the better.” A few hours later Gaffney died. Police went to the house at Maroubra and arrested

James Devine, a shearer, whom they charged with having murdered Gaffney. Devine is alleged to have told them that he heard that Gaffney was coming to his house to attack Green again, and that as his own revolver had been confiscated by the police .only, two days previously he borrowed a military service rifle from a neighbour and prepared to defend himself. The police theory is that Gaffney, who was the male leader of the gangopposed to Devine’s, determined to settle the many supposed debts of the feud and had been one of the assail-

ants of Green earlier in the night at Woolloomoolloo. Failing to carry out the designs of the gang there, they followed Devine and Green home to Maroubra, and, thinking that Devine had no weapon, decided to attack the house in force. When ordered not to come past the gate Gaffney, thinking that the defenders of the house were only bluffing, decided to call the bluff and advanced, little expecting to be met with rifle fire. His mistake in summing up the situation cost him his life and his companion a. shattered right arm. Sounds of the shooting aroused the whole neighbourhood. Bullets were flying in every direction, and several pierced the roofs of several houses in the vicinity. Detectives are investigating the whole of the circumstances- of the case ? but as usual have met with the impenetrable wall of silence which invariably enshrouds the feuds and quarrels of the underworld.