A NEW TURN.

Wairarapa Age, 9 June 1936, Page 5

A NEW TURN.

ATTACK ON SUPERINTENDENT BROPHY. AND THEFT OF FACTORY PAYROLL TWO CRIMES ALLEGEDLY CONNECTED. SYDNEY, June 8. There was a startling turn at the week-end to the shooting of Superintendent Brophy, when, as a result of inquiries, the police claim to have established that a man involved in the shooting was also one of the bandits who stole a pay-roll at North Fitzroy.

(Superintendent John O’Connell Brophy, who began duty as chief of the Victorian Criminal Investigation Department on May 18, was the victim of a sensational shooting affair on May 24. The Police Department, although at first extremely reticent, later issued an official statement to the effect that Mr. Brophy was shot by gangsters from a car while he was making a motor visit to Royal Park for the purpose of rounding up car bandits who were operating in that district. An official police statement declared that Mr. Brophy was held up by two armed men who apparently recognised him and fired the shots before Mr. Brophy could manipulate his own revolver, which jammed. One bullet passed through Mr. Brophy’s lower jaw, just missing a vital artery, and emerged at the. back of his neck. Another broke his right wrist, and a third was deflected from his heart by the buckle of his . braces. On June 8 it was reported that the Victorian Government had decided to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into the wounding of Superintendent Brophy, which had been the subject of conflicting 1 police reports. ' The scope of the commission is to be extended to cover other aspects of police affairs. A judge of the County Court will be president of the commission.

On June 4 three armed men held up employees of Goold and Porter, Ltd., boot manufacturers, at North Fitzroy, and robbed them of a pay-roll of £l4OO. The money was being brought from tho bank in a delivery van when, within 200 of the factory, three masked men in another car forced the van in to the kerb, where they compelled the employees to hand over the money. The bandits then disappeared in heavy traffic. The affair was wit-: nessed by a pedestrian, who described it as one of the neatest and quietest of “jobs.” The factory employees were armed.)