CHICAGO IN LONDON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20716, 8 November 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHICAGO IN LONDON.

RAIDS BY GUNMEN. _ / . RAILWAY STATION OUTRAGE. CLERKS BOUND AND GAGGED. BANDITS IN A MOTOR-CAR. Sensational revolver outrages in different parts of London have supplied the Citizens of that great city with some idea of what is happening in Chicago nearly evCry day of the week. Three gunmen, formidably armed, recently raided the booking-office of the parking railway station after midnight, gagged two clerks on duty, bound them back to back, and got away with a sum pf about £IOO. 8.4e1y had Scotland Yard detectives begun a search in force for the desperadoes jthan an outrage in peculiarly similar circumstances was reported from Bow. The proprietor of a business dealing in accident and compensation claims looked np from his desk to find a stranger holding a pistol within two inches of his head. {The stranger threatened to shoot if any attempt to raise an alarm was made. Meanwhile, another man, also armed .■with a revolver, went round the office collecting all tho currency notes and cash he could find. Then the robbors, still covering the proprietor with their ( weapons, backed through the door, which they locked on the outside and carried away the key.

, "We Are Desperate Men." Except for a motor-car abandoned on B by-pass road the police have no clue to the identity of the three men responsible for the amazing outrage at the Barking Station, says the News of the World. Tho lust train was due at 12.30 a.m., and the booking clerks, Archibald Skipper and Ernest Howard, had made up the money .when there was a knock at the door. " One of the booking clerks opened it," the stationrnaster stated, " and was confronted by two men about 25 years of age. The men edged their way into the office, and before the clerks knew what had happened they found themselves menaced jvith revolvers. One of the irten exclaimed; 'We are desperate men. We have got to have the money, so don't make any trouble.' To emphasise his meaning he jabbed his revolver in the wrist of one of the clerks and told him to hold up his hand a bit higher. " Whilu one of the young men covered the two clerks, the other took a chair and stepped up to one of the windows. Hejdrew out a knife and cut away part of the window cord. With this cord and other rope in possession of the robbers, the two clerks were bound to chairs, back to back, iu the office and gagged. A handkerchief and a bag used for coppers jvejre employed as gags.

One Man Gets Free From Bonds. " The two young men were then joined by n third, who, it seems, was about 30 jrears of age, and they rapidly cleared - up all the .money in the office—about £IOO. As silently as they had come they disappeared, and the only thing that the Clerks heard was the starting of a car." Ten minutes later one of the clerks, Ernest Howard, managed to work loose from his bonds, gave the alarm and helped to release Skipper. Both men were suffering from bruises and shock, but had received no other injury, Police officers hurried to the station, and two men were sent on a motor-cycle combination to scour the roads in search of the car. It was discovered a mile and a-half away. This is Howard's story of events after the strangers had forced their way into the booking-office and had produced their revolvers. " Skipper called out: ' What's the game ? Put those things down and you'll see what we can do.' The men told us not to play the fool. They were desperate and threatened they would shoot us and ahoot themselves if necessary. According to them, there were six bandits in all, with four outside guarding the entrances. " While they were talking a third man. somewhat older than the others, entered the office, also carrying a revolver and, in addition, a short stick with a loose brass knob on the end. ' Shall we cosh them ?' he asked, but the others disagreed. 'We don't want to harm them if we can help it,' one man said. " Five Minutes to Get Away." " Skipper and I tried to keep the men arguing until someone should overhear and arrive. I think we must have talked hard for ten minutes, but it is no use arguing with a man behind a gun. They pulled down and cut cord from the windows, and bound us to chairs. I did not worry because I knew that the minute ♦ hey left tho room I could wriggle free. As they slipped out of tho door the older man turned and remarked. ' It's only five minutes we want to get away.' " The minute the door had closed I was hard at work with my gag and bonds. Within two minutes I was free and dashed over to the ticket window to call to the collector, who was standing just round the corner and could not see the office door. " When he came he attended to Skipper arid I telephoned to the police. Now it all seems like a teriible nightmare. When I saw the men enter the room first I thought I was dreaming—it was for all the world like one of those old cowboy pictures." The robbers, it is believed, carried the money away in one of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company's leather bags.

Man's Pockets Rifled in Office. " If you try to call anybody you'll be shot whore you are." Mr. Bernard Davis, seated in his office in Mile End Road, Bow, looked up from his desk as these words were uttered, and found himself staring at a revolver held by a strange young man. <* On the other side of the room a second man, similarly armed, was collecting Treasury notes and cash. Unable to find anything more of value, the men moved out of the office backward, keeping Mr. Daytfs covered as they went. Then they locked fhe door upon him and took the koy away. The office occupied by Mr. Davis is at the sido of a house standing in its own ground opposite Mile End Railway Station. Mr, Davis has been there only a month, and prior to that the place waj pMd lor jiome years as a doctor's surgery. Blattery, owner of the house, stated

that when she returned from shopping about 11 a.m. she was astonished to see a crowd and to find the police using her telephone. " I saw Mr. Davis, who seemed to ho very agitated," she related. "He told me that as he was sitting in his office two well-dressed young men, about 30 years of ago, entered. One asked, ' You take all claims here ?' and Mr. Davis replied, 'Yes. What is your claim?'" Mr. Davis, Miss Slattery explained, carried on business as the Accident and Compensation Claims Agency. " As soon as Mr. Davis replied," Miss Slattery added, one of the men, who had been holding a revolver, cried, ' Our claim is money!' " Mr. Davis told him, ' I have not got any, 1 whereupon the second man replied, ' We will see about that.' lie then caught hold of Mr. Davis' arms while the 'other man searched his pockets and the room. Thoy took away £8 10s altogether, and then went off, presumably in a motoroar." Late tho same night two men in a grey-coloured car drove up to the premises of Messrs. Walker and Co., jewellers, in City Road. Whilo the engine was kept running one man alighted and, rushing at the plate glass window, smashed it with a hammer, thrust his hand through the window, and succeeded in getting hold of a diamond ring valued at £7O. The noise of the smashing of tho glass attracted the attention of passers-by, and the raider immediately dashed back to tho car, which was driven off in the direction of the City. Some time later the car was found abandoned near Shore ditch.