NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 July 1926, Page 1

NEWS BY MAIL.

DEATH FIGHT. LONDON, Juno 1. Daniel Joseph Gleeson, a law. student, was charged at the Dublin District Court yesterday with the murder of William J. Ryan, a solicitor, by shooting him at his office, 83, Lower Gardiner-street, Dublin, on Tuesday night. •S'ergt. Cunningham stated that he found the door leading to Mr Ryan’s private office bolted, hut he could hear a man walking about inside. .He was pushing against the door with Ids, shoulder, when Gleeson, who held a revolver in his right hand, opened it. “I was aliotit to close with him,” said tho sergeant “when ho threw the revolver down and said, ‘I surren-

llr Uy.an, who was bleeding from a wound in his head, was immediately removed to hospital, where lie died shortly after admission.

Gleeson, added tho sergeant, afterwards made a statement in the course of which ho said:— “I did not mean to kill the mian at all but just to put tho ‘wind up’ him. Ho has annoyed my family for years . . and lie certainly broke ray father’s heart. He has been conspiring during the past five years to prove my mother incompetent to manage her affairs. ,

"When I went into Mi' 'Ryan’s office lie ordered me out and caught me by the throat. As I found lio was getting the better of me I took a tin of pepper from my left pocket and threw it in his face. It had no effect. He struck me and I hit hack with my clenched hand. He made a movement towards his pocket and I 1 mlled out my gun and covered him. Ho refused to give in to me and give mo some documents and a Bank of Ireland pass-book. I raised the revolver to hit him. on the head. In doing so, a shot went up into the air. He struck me in the stomach. I don’t remember what happened afterwards. ” Glccson was remanded for a week. At the inquest held last evening iho jury found that death was' due to a gunshot wound inflicted by Daniel ,T. Gleeson. In his summing up the coroner ■described the case as “a brutal murder,” and paid ia tribute to Sergeant Inniiingliam, who, he said, showed great pluck by-entering the room and tackling an armed man. A MURDER ORGY. NEW YORK, Juno 1. Within the past three days four men have been murdered and five seriously wounded ill Brooklyn a nd East Side, New York. They are listed

as “casualties” in the desperate war which is being waged between two rival gangs of boofieggers, the heads of which-the police have so far been unable to discover. I'lie opening battles ill the war began on Friday in the early hours of the morning. On Third-avenue a policeman found the body of Frank l-oonie, aged 34, owner of a ‘ Speak Easy” that is, an illicit drinking establishment. The dead man had been shot through the heart and in tho hack. About the same hour, lower down on East Side, William Dorscli, 20, a stevedore, was discovered 'shot and uncon-

scious. Nob far Prom Dorscli lay Harry Bender, 27, owner of a cheap restaurant in the Bowery, who had been shot in the right side of the liend. When he was taken to the hospital a beautiful voung woman, who said she was his wife, fell weeping by his beds.de and begged him, as be bad only a few hours to live, to tell all he knew, lhe dving man merely smiled and fara “Never mind, they’ll be taken care of.” , ~ On Saturday morning outside a small restaurant in Brooklyn was found tho body of Salvatore Ben, 2K riddled with bullets. In the pockets of tho dead man were two loaded revolvers Close beside him were the unconscious forms of three other men. nil with bullet wounds. The gang warfare produced vet another'mystery this morning when the body of John Lydon, a gravedigger. aged 38, was found outside ChTvary Cemetery by a taxicab driver He bad evidently been attacked from behind, for his back bore the marks of five bullet wounds. Lydon and other 'men at the cemetery arc- said to have been engaged in ret ll g booties whisky. They recently changtheir bootleggers, it is said, and started cutting prices.