FOREIGN CRIME

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4527, 5 April 1934, Page 7

FOREIGN CRIME

IN NORTH QUEENSLAND. Sydney, March 22. Recently, at Innesfail, in North Queensland, an Italian was shot dead in the street by a fellow countryman who had lost both ears. The crime was undoubtedly One of vengeance for the ear-slashing episode, and the alleged murderer has been committed for trail. Other Italians have been before the Court this week on serious charges associated with these extraordinary episodes, and some remarkable allegations have been made in the evidence that has been given. There are many Italians in the North of Australia, particularly in the sugar cane districts, and their ways are not the ways of Australians. There has been a suggestion that the Black Hand secret organisation has been busy in the north, and 'not long ago the Federal Government threatened to take action in this regard. There has been talk of deportations, but none have been made to date.

During the hearing of the charges of ear-slashing remarkable letters were introduced indicating that the crime of blackmail is most popular among a section of the Italians. Detective Ridgway said he knew that many people in the Mourilyan district had received threatening letters, and had actually handed over sums ranging from £25 to £SO. In the course of his inquiries he had always met a wall of silence. He strongly suspected the murdered man, Nicola Mamone, in connection with a good number of those letters. The detective then went on to refer to the prevalence of crime in the north, and gave the following remarkable list of unsolved crimes:— Motor car blown up by a bomb in an Innesfail street in May, 1932. Bomb exploded under the house of a woman, believed to be the widow of a man who was shot dead on his own doorstep. Italian farmer's tractor blown up at Silkwood last April. Motor car blown up at Mourilyan last July. Italian sugar farmer's horses poisoned with strychnine. Attempt to gelignite motor truck. A man, his wife, and children were in a room above the garage. Sugar farmer and his wife wounded by bullets at Boogan. The man charged with the murder of Mamone was Giovanni lacona, and when he was arrested, according to police evidence, he said: "Yes, Mamane cut my ears off and me shoot him. I wait long time. I was going also to shoot Buiti, who was with Mamone, only I had no chance. Too many people about, and I did not want to hurt anybody else." lacona also alleged that Giuseppe Parisi held his arms while Mamone cut off his ears.

It is known that lawlessness in the north has caused the Queensland Government a great deal of anxiety, and it remains to be seen whether the Federal Government will find it necessary to step in and get rid of the dangerous element among the foreign population.