TWO POLICEMEN KILLED

Hokitika Guardian, 24 January 1931, Page 6

TWO POLICEMEN KILLED

STARK HORROR

SYDNEY, .fannary 8

The stark horror ot the tragedy last Saturday which resulted in the death of two Sydney police constables has no parJlel in the history of the State. No previous crime lias so deeply moved the people of the city, the majority of whom hold the Police Force in the highest regard. Bareheaded and reverent, a crowd of nearly 15,000 paid a bust tribute to the memory of the brave men who lost their lives, the funeral being one of the most impressive held in the metropolis. “My reason for having killed the police was that, having passed sentence of death on them, I saw the sentence of death was executed according to law.” That was the statement made by the perpetrator of the crimes, John Thomas Kennedy, not long before he died from the wounds inflicted by a constable who went to the rescue of li is comrades. Although he was cool and collected as he lay on his death bed this statement and his earllicr actions and habits, since revealed, show plainly that lie was not of sound mind. The hallucinations under which Kennedy laboured are indicated in other passages of his last statement. He armed himself with a rifle, he said, because an order to kill him had l>een issued by the “criminal police of Montreal.” He went to the shop at Bondi Junction to demand 100 cigarettes which, lie said, had been stolen from him in 1888 and 1893. As his demand was refused, he issued orders to have the premises closed. Outside he met a constable, who asked him his reason foi being in possession of a rifle. Kennedy retorted that it was none of the constable’s business., The constable, he said, attempted to “take him,” and lie shot the constable. He then returned to his home and later four constables appeared. One took his rifle, and Kennedy drew his knife and stabbed a constable. Then a constable- shot him. Such was Kennedy’s own story of the affair.

liondi Junction, ft popular shopping area was thrown into a panic by the shooing of Constable Norman Allen. At the time Oxford street buzzed with life and movement, with the tide ol Saturday “morning shoppers” swelling to the full. In the midst of it strode Kennedy, towering, bulky. broad shouldered, carrying a rifle. At his heels bustled Constable Alien, who was on point duty. He had heard the complaint against Kennedy, and hr wanted to know why Kennedy had not paid the l‘2s fid for the cigarettes he had obtained from Mick Simmonds, Ltd. In front of a florist’s shop Allen tapped Kennedy on the shoulder. Kennedy had the rifle under his arm. He spun round suddenly. The barrel of the gun jnblied Constable Allen in the tunic. With a crazy glitter in his eyes, Kennedy pulled the trigger. He stepped hack and fired again at a range of six inches. Allen clutched his breast, dropped back, and fell to the footpath, dead. Detective M.‘Gill leapt from a passing bus and followed the man witli ihe gun. Kennedy turned and covered M.‘Gill witli. las riile. .M‘Gi!l a as unarmed, nut iic kept following the madman. “J am exercising the taw,” said Kennedy, and he kept on repeating the. remark. Beiore long Kennedy reached his home, and it was there that the second tragedy occurred. upholding Liie best traditions of the force, Constable Andrews was first in the race to the back of the house. The scullery at the hack is reached by a llight of narrow steps, it was a nasty trap for an ambush. Blinds were drawn and the kitchen was in daikness. An.irews pushed in plnckily and Kennedy fired from the darkened kitchen. A spurt of bullets met Andrews in the narrow passage-way. Two of them pierced his breast. He stumbled forward and grappled with he madman. Over and over the floor they rolled. Police who tried to break open the door heard the wild beat of boots on the floor and the thud of the fighting bodies. Kennedy his huge frame reinforced by the strength of madness, Hung the dying constable heavily to the Hour. Then lie leapt on him, lunging with a vicious bowie knife. Kennedy thrust : his knife wildly into the constable’s throat, cutting the jugular vein. After this grim encounter Kennedy again grabbed his rifle. He crept lilO •i cat along the passage-way. Ahead of him the leadlights were bulging inward as a result of the blows of the police.’ Constable Johnson and Sergeant Searv led the onslaught. The coloured glass was splintered. .Johnson peered through. Down the shadowy passage-way he saw Kennedy, splashed heavily with the blood of his last victim. His red hands levelled the rifle. He was only seven feet inside the door. Johnson pushed his revolver through the shattered glass and fired. He beat- Kennedy by the fraction of a second. Johnson hit Kennedy in the stomach and Kenneciy screamed and reeled against a door. The wound proved fatal and Kennedy died that night in hospital. The bouse in which Kennedy lived was one of mystery. Kennedy had occupied it for about nine months, and lie had seldom spoken to bis neighbours. A solitary, queer figure, be came and went mysteriously. There was little furniture in the house, and that little battered and old. There were no linoleums or carpets. Often the plaintive croon of a tin whistle or some such instrument was heard from j within. Then the roll of kettlednun* j

often wakened the neighbourhood. Late at night Kennedy would play the drums, calling to arms some visionary army, so it seemed. Ju the Louse there were boxes of bullets in a tin trunk and on the mantelshelves. Kennedy, properly barricaded, could have kept a big police patrol at bay. Other people reported that they had seen smoke coming simultaneously from the three chimneys ol the house at night. Sparks floated up into the air, and there was evidence that Kennedy was m the habit of burning vast quantities of paper. Probably he burnt sheet after sheet of his own verse. For 20 years Kennedy hud been writing verse. He was a man of sudden revulsions as Far ns li is literary efforts were concerned. A verse that would please, him one day would disgust him the next.

Kennedy had spent some years in America. He was at one time a member of the Canadian North-west Mounted Police. That was where he learned accurate shooting. A married sister said that his family had seen very little of him in the last year. He had changed greatly since his visit to America. Tn the war years somebody twice sent him a white feather, although he had tried in vain to enlist. He often practised shooting in the hack-yard. Once he was seen in his yard marching around a grass plot ns if lie were drilling in a barrack square. His relatives say that the death of his mother was in the main the cause of his mental deterioration. There was plenty of evidence that Kennedy’s eccentricities were fast approaching a complete brain snapping. On New Year’s Day he marched up and down a street with a rifle on his shoulder. Hg seemed definitely to have military obsession.

H is recorded that on the Thursday before the tragedy Kennedy intimidated the assistant at a grocery shop close to his home. Kennedy strode into the shop with a rifle in his hands and asked for a packet of cigarettes. As soon as they were handed to him he turned to go without paying for them. When he was asked For the money, he said, “Charge them up to the Supreme Court” and walked away. The incident was not reported to the police, as the proprietor of the shop feared that the man might seek some revenge. Kennedy had 'been a regular natron of the shop and had always been afraid of being poisoned. On one occasion he asked for six bottles of ginger beer and refused to take them until, he was definitely assured that they contained no poison.