A THIEVES' ORGANISATION

Otago Witness, Issue 3396, 16 April 1919, Page 43

A THIEVES' ORGANISATION

OPERATIONS IN FITZROY. WAR AMONG THE; GANG. •There is war between the thieves in Melbourne (says the Melbourne Age). During the last few months there have „ been several mysterious. shooting caaqp and serious assaults in Fitzroy, to which no special significance was attached at the time. But the singular reticence of the men concerned in these affrays, and the consequent futility of police investigations, have excited publio wonder. For weeks past this drama of the underworld has been going on, arid the struggle has assumed serious proportions. .The climax came quite recently. Then, according to a most reliabl© authority, attempts were made on the lives of two. men who were, recognised by the other thieves and by the police as the directors of many big robberies. Owing to the peculiar and silent nature of the fight, and the difficulty in gaining full information, the police, 6eem practically powerless to cope with the situation. The trouble, it is said, originated in a series of disagreements between the actu'U thieves and the men who planned several important robberies last year. The point in dispute was the division of the spoil. Crime as practised by the members of this 6elecfc circle is conducted .oh a business basis. The operations are directed by_ a head whose word is law—the only law 'they recognise. This man rules like an. autocrat.; It ia his business to think out the jobs; to select the safes to be operated upon; to direct the robberies and burglaries from outside. It appears these "middlemen" have been appropriating more of the proceeds than the men who had executed the thefts considered t hey were entitled to. The arguments were not confined, to words. Most of the parties carried guns —and used them. Of late the firing of revolvers in Fitzroy has become a matter of not infrequent occurrence, but more often than not no significance has been attached to these outward signs of the dueL In a recent shooting case four men entered -a house in Fitzroy, fixed a jiumber of shots at a man .'n bed, and left the place. The .fact could not bo • concealed, because the man had to be taken to a doctor for treatment, so £3m authorities got_ to know of it. But v exhaustive inquiries by the detectives and police elicited no definite clue as to the motive for the shooting; the_ wounded man was obstinately uncommunicative, and a description of the assailants could not be obtained from anybody else in the vicinity. But the account between the parties concerned will probably be settled another way. They do not want to call in the police. They have a way of their own of arranging these disputes, and the police are the last people in the world they want to have anything to do with. Another stage in this, vendetta amongst the thieves has been reached, a second man having been assaulted. As in the first case, police inquiries were real motive for the attack was not divulged. But it was ascertained that the trouble had been accentuated by the threatened vengeance of other thieves, who complained that they had been kept out of many jobs through the agency of this "middleman." His transactions after several robberies, it is declared, had proved him untrustworthy from their point of view. It is an accepted fact in "criminal circles that if the proceeds of certain burglaries are not "placed" with this particular "middleman" the freedom of the perpetrator of the crime is often in jeopardy. As an example of the power exercised by these men, the flourishing slygrog trade at Fitzroy is a striking illustration. In this locality control of the business is said to be vested in the hands of one man, and it is an unwritten law that before a new sly-grog shop is opened hie approval must be gained. If, on the other hand, the applicant persists in opening this illicit beer shop without his permission, information somehow mysteriously finds its way to the police authorities, and it is very unusual for the shop to last any length of time. Incredible as these facts may seem to the outside public, they are matters of common knowle-dge to the inhabitants in these parts of Fitzroy, and also to the police.