"KU KLUX KLAN."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 231, 30 September 1929, Page 9

"KU KLUX KLAN."

THIEVES LEAVE CARDS "JOKER" PINNED TO BLOCK. TWO YOUNG MEN - CHARGED. TWELVE CRIMES ALLEGED. Stories of shopbreakers whose fearsome sign-manuals were worthy of one of Edgar Wallace's most desperate rogues, were told to Messrs. R. T. Michaels and H. T. King, J.P.'s, in the Police Court this morning, when a number of charges of breaking and entering and theft were brought against two young men, Charles Giboin (24), a seaman, and Leslie Robert Ashfield (25), a seaman and labourer. Together, Giboin and Ashfield faced eight charges, and, alone, Ashfield appeared on three more. Among the premises mentioned in the charges against both men were those of tlio New Zealand Dry Cleaning Co. (September 21), G. H. Brown (September IS), J. R. Fearon (August 31), Harry Hood (September 11), Missions to Seamen (August 30), Navy League (August 30), British Sailors' Society Mission (August 23). Amalgamated Theatres (September 14), and the Hydra Bacon Factory (September). The value of goods, which, it Avas alleged, had been stolen by them, was £43 10/0. Against Ashfield alone, the charges were of breaking and entering the premises of Leslie Newton and J. L. Hendry, and taking goods worth £17 19/6, and of attempting to break and enter a shop occupied by John A. Boytl. Mr. Noble appeared for both the accused. A driver employed by the New Zealand Dry Cleaning Co., Arthur Coubray, said that when he garaged his van on the night of Saturday, September 21, he noticed two men near the building. Being suspicious of them, he kept them under observation from a window when he went to his home nearby. He had previously noticed one man walking around at the top of the road. The two men took the lock off the door of the garage, which divided tAvo portions of the building. Arrest After Chase. The story of the arrest of Giboin and Ashfield was told by Constables Bennett and Wilson. After a call had been received from the factory, said Constable Bennett, the building was surrounded and two policemen entered it. They saw two lights flashing and heard a rustling noise at the back, as though someone was climbing a fence. After a short chase, he himself caught Giboin, who was hiding behind a bush in a vacant section, and Constable Wilson caught Ashfield. After the men had been taken to the Newton Police Station, the premises and the section were searched and a screw-driver found. A bunch of keys was found on Ashfield, and the padlock from the garage door on Giboin. The following, day a butcher's steel, which was later identified as one that had been stolen from the shop of J. R. Fearon, was also found. A similar story was. told by Constable Bennett, who mentioned finding a bunch of keys, an electric torch,* and a string of pearls on Ashfield. George Hobart Brown, , a tobacconist in business in Jervois Road, said that on September IS his attention was drawn by someone trying to force a door. When he opened the door he was faced by two men. The door was marked by an iron instrument which had been used in an attempt to force it. / The next witness, Leonard Roger Fearon, a butcher of Point Chevalier, told the story of an entrance into his shop. He had locked it on Saturday. August 31, and when he returned on Monday morning, meat and articles, including a steel, an apron, and a coat were missing. The intruders had entered through a window. The back door was marked. "The Black Hand." A story of a message that, was more humorous than mysterious, left in return for a string of sausages, two rieces of sirloin, a fore-quarter of mutton and a bottle of red ink, was told by David" Wilson, the manager of a butcher's shop in Dominion Road. When he opened the shop one morning, he said, the joker from a pack of playing cards was found pinned to the block by a knife. Chief-Detective Hammond: The bhvjk hand, eh? '~'.. At the West End Theatre, from which 59 grainophone records were stolen, .it was statedj the intruders had left the ace of spades with the inscription "Kri. Klux Klan." Detective Sneddon said he had interviewed both men, who made statements in which they admitted having entered the New Zealand Dry Cleaning and other premises. After evidence had been given by other, shopkeepers, both the accused pleaded guilty to all charges, and were committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.