MYSTERY MURDERS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 51, 23 November 1937, Page 11

MYSTERY MURDERS

Our Own Correspondent.) '

Unsolved Killings in New South Wales SYDNEY POLICE DEFECTS

(From

SYDNEY, Nov. 11. George Lynch. was shot down at the Tophatters' Qabaret in Darlinghurst on •September 17, nnder remarkable eircumstanees. It was a case of coldblooded murder, for the gunman evidently came to th© place prepared to quarrel with Lynch and resolved to "get" him. The ploice arrested Thomas de.Valle, who was identified by the barman — one of the few people present at the cabarot that night who appears to have been in a condition to observe anything accurately. He swort positively that de Valle was the man who did the shooting. Lynch hims.elf refused obstinately to say anything about the man who had killed him, resisting even the entreaties of his mother, and in his dying depositions he declared that de^Yalle was not the man. On the strength of the alleged identifieation the eoroner committed de Valle for trial on a charge of murder. Accused, however, was able to produce what seemed to, be a "watertight" alibi, and as the poliee had no other definite evidenee to offer, the case broke down and de Valle was discharged. And so another name was added to the long list- of victims of "murder in the first degree" already standing on the debit side of our police account nn'der the ominous title "XJnsolved." It is rather the fashion to criticise the Sydney police force adversely just now, but even Ijheir most ardent admirers must feel a little disconcerted Avhen they look at this long catalogue of unsolved murder mysteries. Within the past six years there have been committed within this State at least 15 murders, of which the perpetrators have never been discovered or brought to justice.

Going back to 1932, there was Victor Say well, . the weathy racing man, battered to death in his palatial home on Bellevue Hill. Since then our deteetives have exhausted all their ingenuity in vain searches for the murderers of Dorothy Thorn, poisoned in her own home .at Mosman; of the "Pyjama Girl," whose body, half consumed by fire, was found by the roadside near Albury; of James Smith, central figure in the "shark arm case," one of Hhe most remarkable incidents in the' annals of criminology; of Kichard Holmes, the wcSlthy boat builder, found shot in his car, apparently because he knew too much about the "sharlc arm" case; of Leslie Tochner, the prize-fighter, shot dead in his own kitchen at St. Peter's; of Hilda White, ihe unfortunate woman found nude and strangled in Centenial Park; of PaUl Drasdoff, the Bussian shopkeeper, shot down by a gunman; of Jules Bocey, the plucky little Frenchman, killed by a thief whom he tried to arrest; of Jack Keane, the bootmaker, shot in a house at Mascot and dumped lifeless on the road; of Jack Nieholson, the Greek restaurantkeeper, a."gay Lothario/ '■ murder ed in his Elizabeth street cafe. Eveu within the past 12 months the police have- set out on quests which now seen endless for the man who shot Mrs Wiles and Luigi Origlia on the bridge at Forbes as they drove home from a sports meeting together; for the robber who murdered Edua Andrews, a helpless widow, in his own home at Coburn; for William Lavers, who got up early one morning to attend to his work in his Grenfell garage, and has not been seen since. The shooting of George Lynch is much less dramatic and inexplicable than some of these crimes, but it shares with them the distinction of illustrating once more the gravest defect in our otherwise efficient and admirable police force. 4