DARING BANDITS

Hokitika Guardian, 14 February 1933, Page 2

DARING BANDITS

SIEZE TAXI IN N. YORK STREET. RUNNING FIGHT WITH POLICE.

NEW YORK, February 10.

Two young bandits were surprised by the police while holding up a New York “speakeasy” last month. They engaged in a- running pistol duel, in which one policeman was killed and a bandit fatally wounded. Two women had a terrifying experience in a taxicab commandeered and driven at a reckless pace amid a shower of bullets by a wounded robber.

The bandits, scarcely more than boys, were in the “speakeasy” when Constable George Gerhard entered to admonish a customer about passing a red traffic light. At the sight of the uniform the robbers opened fire and Gerhard fell riddled with bullets. Outside the fleeing pair forced a taxi-cab driver at the pistol point to drive them away, and for several miles they raced through the streets, followed by police patrol cars. -Several bullets struck the taxicab. One hit the bandit Jerry Ryan, who compelled the driver to'scop. Ryan’s companion, Ralph Florence", tried to escape on foot, but Ryan stopped a cab in which Mrs Sara Berle and her young daughter, the mother and sister of Mr Milton Berle, the actor, were returning home, from the theatre.

He threatened the terror-stricken women with death if they interfered with) him. Then, taking the driver’s place at the wheel, ho set off at a mad pace with- the police in hot pursuit. At least a dozen bullets penetrated the rear' of the cab in which the hysterical, screaming women crouched, but neither was hit. When the can was brought to a halt by cross traffic the desperado jumped out and attempted to escape, blit collapsed from loss of. blood and was captured. Meanwhile his companion, firing as he ran and slightly wounding two policemen, tripped and 101 l over a loosened spat, and was pounced upon by his pursuers. At the theatre Mrs Berle and her daughter had witnessed a melodrama in which bandits “shot' it out.” Discussing the play, * they had just agreed that such things do not- happen in real life when Ryan appear eu.