Bank Teller’s Murderer Caught

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12394, 13 March 1926, Page 11

Bank Teller’s Murderer Caught

Lived in “Snioke” Captured in Beauty Parlour

rilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllHIIIIIinilllhllllllllllllllllllllllllllllUlIdlllllllllUlllllllUIIIIIIIIIIIIIKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIt” For over a year the man just sentenced to 15 years for th’e manslaughter of the Hampton bank teller evaded the police. It is now r'evealed how he remained “in smoke” —how he slipped through the Melbourne police net,, quelled a plot to give him. away—and how he was caught, just at the time wljien he had arranged to have his nose altered, and slip away to the Continent.

THE man recently sentenced for the manslaughter of William Alfred Charles Almeida, the bank teller, at Hampton, was not Douglas Robertson. ' .He was charged and sentenced under that name, ~ but .his real name is James Francis McMahon, a New Zealand ''criminal. ■ , /. Ho went to the war with a hairdresser named* Douglas Robertson, whose integrity was undoubted. Some' time later Robertson's papers, were -stolen. McMahon then passed himself off as Robertson. v After the bank robbery, when Francis Perkins was caught by the gallant teller, Robertson (or, to give; him his correct name, McMahon) jumped on the running board of a waiting motorcar and'drove quickly away from the scene. , He left the motor at Brighton and boarded an electric tram at St. Kilda. He i , h’ T "sd again, this tiine on to a motor-bo*. ■ . On arrival in the city he met the real Robertson,, and went with him to a house in Nicholson street, ,Carlton. Later he went back to St. Kilda. GON STOPS PLOT FdR REWARD It was then arranged that McMahon should live in smoke. He was accommodated in Curzon street, North'Melbourne, where he. remained for three months, .seldom stirring from his room. He heard of a plot to give him away, and takje the £SOO reward offered, btft this he stopped at the point of a revolver. His inactivity palled, on him. Three months after the Almeida crime he left by cor for Seymour, hoarded the Sydney express, and left it at Strathfield. From there he caught the Brisbane express/and after spending a few days in Brisbane 1 , travelled across to Innis-* fail. • He blade a clean-up with his

twe-up kip at Innisfail, and then went to Baumple and Tully, filling in his time. aa a labourer and two-up swindler. V .Although no photograph of him had ever been published, the police had circulated a. minute description of him. This mentioned a crooked nose. So • McMahon decided to have his aose straightened. ■ But that was his undoing. . V Ho went to St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, and made arrangements for 'the 'operation. He had intended to make his way to Darwin, South Africa, -England, and France, where, during the war, he had given full rein to his passion for highway robbery and daring raids on business bouses. HOW HE WAS CAUGHT He wa3 sitting in Hyde Park, awaiting his call for Hie op eration, when the Sydney police pounced on him. McMahon has before this .escaped from prison, so that careful watch -is being kept) on him at* Pentridge. His arrest is, a tribute to the ability of Detective-Sergeant Mulfahey, of Melbourne. He (was assisted;in his long investigation by Detecti Ve-Ser-' geant Brophy, and Detectives Saker, Davis, MoPheen; Senior Constable Baler, of the Victorian force; arid Inspector Lynch, Detective - Sergeant Quinn and Detective Allmond, of New South Wales. < ' ' . . The pistol used in the killing of Almeida was dropped in the 'bank. It .has been identified as one stolen from the North. Essendon branch ol the E.S. and A.- Bank on August 25th, 1924, when J, K. Hobson, the manager, was seized, hound to a chair, and gagged while £350 was stolen. Two men are alleged to have entered the bank just before closing time, and carried out the robbery after locking the-manager in and driving away, in cj motor with the money.