Said He was Mussolini, Mohammed and Mr. Scullin!

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1076, 13 September 1930, Page 18

Said He was Mussolini, Mohammed and Mr. Scullin!

Was in Rags and Ate Gam-Leaves

. j™.-, WILD face, with long matted hair, bloodshot eyes and a luxuriant black beard had peered through more than one window of lonely houses in Mirandia and Sylvania, near Sydney. Its mysterious owner, however, had always eluded capture until a recent afternoon. Dodging vicious swings with a beer bottle, a constable overpowered this strange Robinson Crusoe figure after a fierce fight iu the bush. Wearing only a tattered shirt and trousers and with his bare feet bleeding and torn by brambles he is alleged to have annoyed women and girls on the lonely scrub-lined roads in the district. He convinced himself that he was Mussolini, President Hoover and every famous figure but Don Bradman “I’m Trotsky” With his long black hair flying in the wind he has peered through windows and shouted in a sepulchral but cultured voice, “I’m an English earl!” or “I’m Jew Suss!” or “Don’t you know me? I’m Trotsky!” For three hours the constable combed the bush, assisted by two district residents. At 2 p.m. the mystery man turned up at a garage. He looked a fearsome figure. He was haggard and dirty, and was chewing gum-leaves. He made a dive at the manager, swinging a bottle.

"1 am the son of an earl,” he shouted, “and I have been cheated out of a fortune.” Just at that moment tile constable appeared out of a clump of scrub. The man raced off into the bush. T.he Red Flag It was a long, hot chase. The fugitive had a bottle in one hand, and a pair of tailor’s scissors in the other. Gradually the pursuers wore him down. Then he turned and faced them with the bottle. As they attempted to parley, he made the welkin ring with the throaty singing of a verse from “The Red Flag.” While the civilians engaged the man’s attention the constable crept up and flung himself on the man. A grim battle followed. They rolled over and over in the undergrowth. The bearded warrior fought with the strength of three men. “You’re Tom Bavin” Smeared with mud and panting from exertion, the man was finally held down. “I knew it,” he shrieked. “You’re Tom Bavin. Well, I’m Jim Scullin, and I don’t care whq knows it.” A Sutherland district ambulance was called, and the wild man had to be carried to the waggon. Then began a nightmare 16 miles drive to the city. The man yelled and raved and tried to jump out of the wagon. The constable and an ambulance officer wrestled with him all the way to the Reception House, where he was finally lodged, declaring he was Mohammed.