MELBOURNE GUNMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3783, 14 September 1926, Page 51

MELBOURNE GUNMEN.

CRIMINAL REIGN OF TERROR. UNDERWORLD vendetta. (Fbojj Odb Own Cobbespondent.) SYDNEY, August 20. Whether the cause be less efficient police or better-organised crimii ’j, Melbourne has ail unenviable criminal record compared with Sydney. This might not be so much in regard to the numbers oi crimes committed, but rather in the m bility ot the representatives of law and order to eliminate effectively the criminal element and to oring offenders to book At all events, gangs of armed men, whom the police describe as “men of violent character and dangerous gunmen” have instituted a reign of terror among members of the criminal world in Melbourne and other sections of the community. In the last two or three weeks, the police allege, the ■ angs have held up at the point of revolvers the controllers of large gaining schools in the suburbs, the proprietors or alleged sly-grog shops, and bookmakers and land salesmen, from whom they have demanded heavy toll. The gangs have been working largely on the assumption that, as many of the victims are engaged in unlawful occupations, they will not complain to the police. So terrified have many of their victims become that they have jumped into motor cars and sought protection at police headquarters. The police say, however, that of the victims have been too afraid to report the “hold-ups,” and it is therefore difficult to say exactly to what extent the campaign has been waged. Three definite “hold-ups” have been reported to the police by victims, who have frankly told the police that they are afraid of the gangs. Fearing that a vendetta might be launched against them, the victims have refused to support the police in any action taken. The nlan adonted origin, and to have been much used among origin, :.nd to have been much sed among the bootlegging fraternity in the United States. Victims who have reported this armed blackmail to the police have been afterwards assaulted in the streets. In one of the cases reported to the police, a gang of four men walked into the office of a land salesman, Bruce, *n Collins street, and, saying they were “broke,” demanded money. Bruce, /w th a revolver placed against his stomach, was forced to put un his hands, while the gam* took £2 in notes from his wallet and his tiepin from his tie. Bruce renorted the matter to the police, and -next day he was accosted by the same men in Collins street and asked why he had gone to the police. He was then attacked by the men. In another case a gang of five men went t a house, in South Yarra and took from a ..oman there £34 10s in notes and two diamond rings valued at £IOO ach. I. husband, who intervened, was struck on the side of the head, and his watch and chain were taken. The woman had £4O hidden in her clothes, but, though the men threatened to strip 1 ir, they did not do so, and th*j monev remained untouched. Next night the men returned, but left without securing anything. At the present juncture the police are rather helpless, as they cannot help the victims unless the victims help them. If they can persuade the blackmailed nersons to support them, they intend staging a vigorous fight against this new element in Australian crime, and to take special measures to prevent the launching of vendettas among members a l the criminal world.