A “PERFECT” CRIME

Taranaki Daily News, 26 April 1930, Page 29 (Supplement)

A “PERFECT” CRIME

MUDGEE MAIL ROBBERY.

WAS THERE A MASTER MIND I.

Sydney, April. 17.

If any; evidence was needed that the. robbery of the pay chest on the Mudgee mail train was a “perfect’’ crime it was given when a decision was arrived at this week to offer'a. reward of £5OO for information leading to the perpetrators. Not for years in Australia has a crime so completely baffled the police, and it is certainly years since the police acknowledged defeat so soon after the event. So far there has been absolutely 'no trace of the £4OOO that was taken. - The police are convinced that the robbery was the work of a gang that had a clever schemer —a master mind —at its head.‘ “Soon after the inquiries were begun,” said one of the detectives engaged in the case, “the police were struck with the thoroughness and attention to detail that marked the whole affair. -It was obvious from he start that there was a master mind behind the crime. Everything was run: to schedule, and timed to a nicety, suggesting that the Mudgec mail had been watched for weeks, or even months, to enable the gang to be thoroughly conversant with the part it had to play. It. was an almost perfect crime and one of the biggest coups ever effected in New South .Wales.”

There are several strange features connected with the crime that the police have not been able to clear up satisfactorily. The most‘important of these m: ' How did the robbers manage to 'jump in safety from a train .that was proceeding at the rate of nearly 30 miles an hour. Yet this feat, according ‘to the crew, was accomplished. The crime was re-enacted so as to give the police, an opportunity of studying the position carefully. Instead of helping the police this only baffled them-further, for they were convinced that the robbers could not have left the train as it was said that they did. Then, again, the box containing the pay roll was supposed to have been thrown from 'the train before the men jumped. The police say that it would have been broken to pieces had that been done, and the money so scattered that the robbers, in the time at their disposal, would not have been able to recover all the coins.

The police have carefully questioned the train crew about the details of the robbery, and especially the armed guard, but they have not been able to make one forward step. They are now hopeful that one of the robbers will be so indiscreet ar to betray the band, by spending the money in a. way that will arouse suspicion. - The perpetrators of similar crimes have been discovered in this way before to-day. ' Detectives have found it most helpful to watch the women who are associated with the underworld, or with any man who may be suspected of playing a part in a erinie; This is what they are doing in this case. They fear, nevertheless, that the success of the erime may lead to increased boldness and audacity of the thieves, and that they may attempt similar hold-ups.