SEX CRIMES

Grey River Argus, 21 May 1942, Page 5

SEX CRIMES

Melbourne Murders

WAVE OF TERROR AMONG GIRL NIGHT WORKERS

(Rec. 5.5) MELBOURNE, May 20. . The murder of three women m Melbourne within fifteen days has caused a wave of terror among tne girl night workers. The members of the Volunteer Defence Corps are now considering the forming of Vigilante Squads, to patrol the suburbs at night. The military patrols also will be increased. The strongest police force that has even been assigned to a murder investigation in Victoria are now searching for the murderers. The police are being assisted by scientific experts and by Black Trackers. The latest victim was Miss Gladys Hosking. Her age was forty years, not twenty-nine as earlier cabled, and she was secretary to the Chemistry Department at Melbourne Uni•versity. She was apparently attacked when going home at night near , a military camp, was dragged into a park, and there put up a brave struggle, from the evidence found by the police, who found her body on Tuesday early, with her jacket, overcoat, hat and umbrella scattered about. It was a sex crime, the body being semi-nude, secreted in an air raid trench, and she was strangled. The bodies of two other women, practically stripped of clothing were found on May 3 and 9 in other parts of the city. They had been done to death), in similar circumstances. On May 3 the halfnaked body of Mrs Ivy McLeod, aged 33 years, of East Melbourne, was discovered in a doorway in Victoria Avenue, Albert Park. The partly-naked body of Mrs Pauline Thompson, aged 32, wife of a police constable, of Bendigo, was found on the steps leading to an apartment house in Spring Street, Melbourne, on May 9. She had been strangled.

press was in a convoy with four other transports in Banka Strait, which at that time was known as ‘Dive-bomb Alley.’ Suddenly at breakfast, a formation of Japanese . bombers came over and dropped bombs ail round the ship without effect. On the following day when the Empress was within sight of Singapore the Japanese again came over in force. One bomb crashed through the decks and exploded -in the firsts class saloon, setting it dh lire. Desperate and futile efforts iwere made to control the fire. Then a second bomb burst just astern of the bridge. Speed was diminished and the, ship .was soon in a bad way. Within sight of her destination the Australian sloop “Yarra” came on the scene. - “I take off my hat to those Australian sailors,” said Mr. McArthur. "We were at that moment .drifting into a minefield, Our ship was ablaze but that did not deter the commander of the “Yarra.” JHe brought his little ship alongside our port quarter, and made fast with lines. Troops and crew swarmed over the decks into the “Yarra,” by which time the fire was getting so fierce that the soldiers and crew forward, were cut off by a wall of flame. AH' they could do was to take flying leaps into the water and wait to be picked up. Few were injured. “Even while the rescue was going on, the Japanese were still lashing at us. The “Yarra’s” anti-aircraft guns meanwhile were, right on the mark. They brought down three bombers, to my knowledge. Two fell simultaneously into the sea. There must have been two thousand of us on the “Yarra,” and I heard the Commander shout a warning not to move our position for fear of ‘ the sloop capsizing. We managed to escape the minefield, and the Command stuck to his perilous job until no more could be rescued. “We crawled into Singapore, our ship still blazing m the distance, all thankful to be spared to tell the story of a miracluous escape in the nick of time.”