THE GLENFERRIE MURDER

Hokitika Guardian, 27 November 1930, Page 5

THE GLENFERRIE MURDER

SEVEN-YEAR-OLD CRIME.

A DRAMATIC ARREST.

The search for Richard Buckley whose trial has commenced at Melbourne, was the most relentless and painstaking ever carried out by the Victorian police, said the Melbourne “Age” recently. Their efforts never relaxed during the seven years that have lapsed since Berrnnan was k.lled, and the climax was dramatic. From time to time news filtered in from the underworld concerning the wanted man, and many fruitless raids were carried out. The failures were heart-breaking. At last, three years ago a detective caught sight of Buckley in the crowd at Melbourne and then they felt certain that after all he had not left the State. Shortly after that Detective Lacey was put definitely on the job. He was much haW capped by the silence of the underworld, but the trail was gradually narrowed down. Often he was absent from police headquarters for clays pt a time, and at one time nearly, suffered a nervous breakdown. About a year ago a definite clue was obtained, the following months being spent in most painstaking investigations. At last the hiding-place was located where Buckley and his granddaughter were living, and the raid tfas planned. DOORS BROKEN IN. So that there should be no suspicion caused by a force of police in cars, the raiders in two private cars assembled in a side street and drove down to the suburb of Moonee, where they divided into parties. It had been arranged for the raiding parties to make a simultaneous attack on the front door and the back gate with blacksmith’s sledge hammers. It was known that the doors were always kept locked and heavily barren. Upon a prearranged signal be : infe given one party smashed the back gate from its hinges while the. front door was similarly dealt with. As the doors fell in with a resounding crash, the detectives heard a young woman screaming to. somebody inside the house. With revolvers drawn they rushed along the passage and encountered Buckley, as lie. was running through the kitchen, presumably to the back of the house. He threw up his hands when commanded to do so and subm.tted quietly. Upon searching Buckley’s room the detectives say they seined two f.ully loaded automatic pistols and an old-time “Bulldog” revolver loaded in six chambers. A tin containing a supply of cartr.dges was also found. The clock-work precision with which the raid was carried out may he. ganged from the fact that from the time the signal was given until Buckley was arrested, only ten seconds elapsed. ber.riman Billed,

On October 8, 1923, Glenferrie railway station was the scene of a most daring and sensational hold-up, when, in broad daylight, Mr T. R. V. Berriman, manager of the Hawthron branch of the Commercial Bank of Australia, was accosted by two men, shot in the chest, and robbed of a bag containing £lßsl in tyank notes. Mr Berriman, who was fifty years of age, was on his way to town about 11.10 a.m. to take the hag of notes to his head office. Near the subway to- the station he was approached by two men. One man, short and stout, and dressed in a blue suit, said, “Can I carry your bag?” Mr Berriman replied, “No, thank you. I can carry it .myself.” The short man then grabbed the hag. A struggle ensued, in which Mr Berriman's assailant drew a revolver and coldbloodly shot Mr Berriman ,in the chest. Mr Berriman collapsed, his assailant wrenched the bag from his grasp and passed it to a companion, “a tall, thin man, in a grey suit,” ancl both ran down the narrow alley leading between Swinburne Technical School and the railway. The “tall, thin man,” who was Angus Murray, ran ahead while the stout man covered pursuit from the rear by flourishing a revolver. They then jumped into, a waiting motor-car, with a third man at the wheel, and subsequently drove towards St. Kilda, via Glenferrie Bond, during 'which time several collisions with other vehicles were narrowly avoided. On one occasion the car nearly ran down a. constable on point duty at Riversdale Road. A large force of detectives was detailed to trace the perpetrators of the ruthless shooting,. and on October 12 some excitement was caused when, accompanied b,v Superintendent Potter, they raided a house in Barkley Street, St. Kilda. at 5 a.m., arresting Angus Murrav, Leslie (Squizzv) Taylor and Tda Ponder. Angus Murray was an escaped convict, having climbed the wall of Geelong Gaol several weeks previously. He was charged with the Glenferrie robbery, and with escaping from custody. Taylor and Pender were locked up on holding charges, hut later were released. Murrav was ha need for the crime. No notion was taken against Taylor, who suhseouentlv met his death in an underworld revolver duel staged in a house in Barkley Street, Carlton, three years ago.