UNDER-WORLD.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 6 January 1923, Page 10

UNDER-WORLD.

MELBOURNE TROUBLED

1 MORE SHOOTING AFFRAYS,

SYDNEY, Dec. 29. Melbourne is' faced with another J reign of terror through the uprising . .of rival underworld factions in the .western end of the city. » Special detachments of detectives | and plain-clothes constables detailed to i investigate the .shooting incidents at North and West Melbourne have obtained definite evidence of the beginning of a vendetta between two rival gangs of young men. The victims refused to give information which would i assist the police in any way. j Early in the week Eric Bruhn, of O'Sharmasy Street, North Melbourne, ' was taken to the Melbourne Hospital, with a gunshot wound in the thigh. | Bruhn refused to give any account of j how he received the wound, and the , suspicions of the police were aroused, I for Bruhu is well known to them. j Further happenings served to confirm their fear's—two men were wounded by revolver bullets fired in a ; billiard-room of the West Melbourne ; Coffee Palace Victoria Street. They i were Charles McLean, aged 30, (bullet . wound in mouth), and James Milr;:-. aged 24, Wood Street, North M^l- ! bourne (bullet_ wound in the neck and . right biceps). j The man who gave the name of Charles McLean was taken to the hospital. He had been ;shot in the mouth, and the bullet had come out : near the back of the left jaw. The i Russell Street police were communi- • cated with, and after McLean was, treated he was taken to the plainclothes office, but refused to make a statement, and would not even give his address. He had hardly left the hospital when the ambulance called at the West .Melbourne Coffee Palace to bring in another wounded man. Constable Barber (North Melbourne), who accompanied Milroy to the hospital, told a rather dramatic story, although he did not witness the actual shooting. i "I was two doors from the Coffee ; Palace at about 10.47 p.m.," he said, "when I heard two distinct shots fr^m the direction of that building. Drawing my revolver I ran back, and entered the place. I was directed to the billiard room, where I saw about a dozen men standing about talking excitedly. Milroy was sitting on a form, bleeding freely. " 'I will shoot the" first man who moves!' I said, covering them with my revolver. Someone called out, 'Here's a man with a gun!' There was a shuffling sound at the back of the room, as if someone was leaving by the back door, but I could not see anything there. "I did not like to go into the room ■without assistance, so I stood at the •door covering the crowd in a general way with the weapon until another constable arrived. I had not long to ,wait. We then searched every man in the room. Not one of them had a weapon of any description. The gun that caused Milroy' s wounds must have been of considerable power, probably a .32 calibre automatic like mine." The constable said it would have been possible for ithe man who had done the shooting to have escaped by the back door even after his arrival. The connection of fthe other man with this ."iffair is the times. A motor car driver stated that earlier in the evening three men came to- him on the Lonsdale Street rank and engaged hini! to drive them to West Melbourne. He| did not much like their appearance,' but after some/ hesitation consented to run them up to West Melbourne, as they desired, him to do. He drove them to various houses in West Melbourne, and then to the West Melbourne Coffee Palace. They arrived there at 10.30 p.m. I . The three men went inside, asking : the motor driver to wait for them. About ten minutes later he heard what sounded like revolver shooting. He did not know how many shots were fired, and a moment or two later two of the men rushed out and entered tho car.

McLean, who was one of them, had'a bloodstained handkerchief pressed to his mouth. The other man directed the driver to take them to the Melbourne Hospital as quickly as possible. When they arrived there the uhwounded man said to the-car driver: "Meet me outside and f will pay you." The driver went to the appointed spot, but there was no sign of the man. He then returned to the hospital and made a. statement to the police.