MELBOURNE MURDER

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 48, Issue 14609, 7 March 1922, Page 5

MELBOURNE MURDER

APPEAL BY ROSS. FRESH EVIDENCE AVAILABLE. t’ress Association—Electric Telegraph—Q'ojiyriglu MELBOU RN E, Mon day. Colin Ross has lodged an appeal against his conviction for the murder of Alma Tirtschke, on the ground that l’resh evidence is now available.— Press Assn.

(The trial of Colin Ross in the Melbourne Grinina 1 Court, before Mr. Justice Schutt and a jury, was one of the most notable in the criminal annals of Victoria, and lasted a week. During that time the jurors were detained, and at night they slept in apartments at the Law Courts. They had occasional outings, acompanicd by court officers, for meals, open air, and exercise. The ease had been a subject of intense public interest ever since the body of the little girl, Alma Tirtschke, whose age was only 12 years, was found unclothed in a narrow byway off Gun Alley, Little Collins Street, early on the morning of December 31st. The child had been maltreated and strangled —not with a cord, but by hands. She had left the home of her grandmother in Jolimont on the previous day, on an errand. Ross, whose age has been given as 2S years, kept a disreputable wine cafe in the Eastern Arcade. His license was expiring with the end of the year, and a renewal had been refused. Tie was interrogated on the morning of the discovery, was detained at the detective office on January sth, and was arrested on January 12th. A reward of £250, afterwards increased to £IOOO, had been offered by the State Government for information leading to the conviction of the guilty person.)