A DESPERATE AFFRAY.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 392, 16 September 1884, Page 3

A DESPERATE AFFRAY.

BURGLAR-CHASING OVER HOUSE.->f-Y.\- ' TOPS. London, ' July. 24.-r-It is almost necessary to searcikin, the pages of fiction for a parrallel to the the manhunt which took '■'.> -'place atHoxton in the north of London : '; dining the early hours of Friday morning, last. Bill Sykes, the murderer of Nancy, pursued from cellar to roof by a : raging mob is only an imaginative picture ; yet the incidents of that thrilling tale are 'OBot'omdre' striking than the' veritable pursuit and capture of Wright the Hox:i;I t6n : 'burglar along the tiles of the Nile street' houses; The main facts are thus .recorded by the 'Daily Telegraph 'of .Saturday: — 5 . About one o'clock yesterday morning, it ■ ''appears, the premises of Mr Elsbach, furrier, : r.in the: New North Road' were broken into, ' and some articles carried off. The burglars effected their entrance through a window at the rear of the house, by. pushing back the catch'; and probably they would have de- : - ; camped with larger booty if the owner of the had not, been disturbed and come down ' 'stairs, "beseems to have caught sight of the ' two men,' 'Wright arid Wheatley, and : no :, -, doubt; .had he tried to capture them they , ; would have used the revolvers with which ■'' 'tney were 1 provided ;' but, as their progress •was not interrupted, they contented them- :.,. selves, with simply going out of the front door and 'making' off. Four hours later, ' -■■. ! 'Police-cbritftable -'Garner noticed one of the ■ 1 . men-: (Wheatley) lurking in a school-yard at the rear of a church, and, getting over the ■ 'railings, attempted to seize him. Wright, the other and more desperate of the two robbers, on seeing his comrade struggling '"' with a policeman, at once fired three shots, •* -tbeUast' of which took effect ; but the con- ,. stable still, though wounded, bravely kept a grip of his antagonist, until the timely ar- • -('rivar of. a workman named Thomas and. of m Inspector* May£ ard enabled -them to secure -Wheatley. -, \yright,* . meanwhile, scaled '"*'' the railings and was making, off when -' • he- wasi encountered- by two other con- . ..atables,, „who* n w i ere,. running up to the Bcene of action, and who tried to. intercept him. The names- of these policeman are ; • '"Clifford? an'd''"Sne 1 11.-' 'On. seeing himself in . iniminent peril of capture the burglar ''turned and shot the latter, who bow lies - dangerously wounded at the hospital, together with Garner, the other injured constable. - When." onell was shot down, Clifford was then left to continue the pursuit of the miscreant! alone ; and this he did, although. ' /repeatedly ' threatened with the revolver. The noise of firearms had now *.) i, attracted' several -persons' to i the spoty and they also took part in the chase. After traversi»g .several streets, the hunted burglar seems to have caught sigh* of a :; .M bidder' resting against the wall of a house in Nile ; street,' up- ; which he climbed,: still followed by Clifford and some enterprising members of the crowd . which had assem bled . „ All along the T ropfs of the houses the pursuit was kept up, the burglar leaping ' from one to another, and menacing with his deadly weapon everyone who approached him. The '■)v desperate ch'araoter of the ruffian can be • imagined from his tearing off the slates to ' hurl at his pursuers when the revolver happily became useless in his hands. The police after great exertions, succeeded at last in . : ;. v seizing, the criminal.; It is easy to excuse , / the fury of the mob, who would have wreaked "*• instant vengeance on the man if they had. i been permitted."