GANGSTER SLAIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 August 1932, Page 3

GANGSTER SLAIN

FIERCE BATTLE WITH POLICE NEW YORK, July 13. EdWard “Fats” McCarthy, one of NfeW York’s ihost dangerous gangsters, was cornered last night in a hidingpldce nefer Albany ahd fatally shot in a sensational bdttle with police, detectives, and State trOopebs. Detective Harry Moore, who, with Detective Thomas Riggs, had trailed the gunman for nine months, were seriously wounded by a charge from a sawn-off shot gun fired by McCarthy Jean McCarthy, wife of tlie dead gangster, was. shot through the hip, and George Kelly, McCarthy’s companion, was wounded in the knee. Michael Basile; another gangster, came through the battle unscathed and surrendered.

McCarthy was a member of the late Vincent Coll’s gang. He is suspected of having killed Jack Diamond, theNew York gangster chief, and the police have been seeking him since last autumn for one of the cruellest murders in the annals of New York crime.

Police-constable Brosnan was on duty in the prison ward of the Fordham Hospital one night in 1928, when two men entered with shotguns and killed him, for no apparent reason. Picked men of the police force were detailed to track down the murderers. From under-world sources they learned that Enrico Battaglia, an ex-con-vict, was involved. Last October, Battaglia was traced to McCarthy’s New York flat, and when three detectives broke down the door they were met with a hail of revolver bullets. One detective fell mortally wounded. Battaglia was killed by the return fire, but two other gangsters, one of whom was McCarthy, escaped. Since then Detectives Moore and Riggs have dogged McCarthy’s trail. Knowing the gangster’s affection for his wife, they kept her under constant surveillance, and last night traced her to a lonely two-storey house near Albany. Local police and State troopers surrounded the place, but McCarthy had witnessed their approach through field-glasses. As the police approached he dashed from the house to a waiting motor-car. On his way to the car McCarthy and Detective Moore exchanged shots almost simultaneously. McCarthy fell, mortally wounded, but not before his shots had taken effect on the detective. At this stage McCarthy’s gangster friend Kelly dashed into the open, and was brought down by a shot from a trooper’s revolver. Basile and Mrs. McCarthy continued the battle from ihside the house until the woman fed with a bullet through the thigh.