MELBOURNE MURDER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2209, 30 November 1920, Page 4

MELBOURNE MURDER.

COLD-BLOODED CRIME. ENGINEER- SHOT DEAD. A neat tile-roofed brick villa .surrounded by lawns in Tennyson Street, St. Kilda, Melbourne, was the scene on the afternoon of November 2nd, of one of the most coldblooded murders that has occurred in Melbourne for many years, the victim being Mr David Davidson, aged 60 years, engineer, a much.respected citizen of St. .Kilda. Cup Day often provides a harvest for housebreakers, owing to the

large number of “solitaries”—a name in common usage among thieVesTo denote houses from which all the inmates are temporarily absent. About 1.10 p.m. Mr Henry Frampton, of Newry Street, Windsor, a gardener, was proceeding along Tennyson Street, St. Kilda, and on passing .No. 1- —the scene of the tragedy—he noticed two men lurking about the premises in a manner which excited his suspicion. He thereupon went to Mr White’s house, a few doors away, and suggested that the men should be questioned. To this Mr White agreed, and, enlisting the assistance of Mr Davidson and the latter’s sou, Mr D. C. Davidson, the four men went to No. 1, which is occupied by Mr Douglas. Mr Douglas and all the members of his household were absent. Messrs Frampton and White remained at the front of the house, whilst Mr Davidson, senr., intercepted the intruders at the rear, Mr Davidson, junr., on the advice of his father, having gone away to communicate with the police. When Mr Davidson questioned them as to their business there, the suspects stoutly denied that they were there for any unlawful purpose, and. declared that they had called “to see Mr Dodds.” Mr Davidson demanded that he should be told the reason for their having forced open the side gate, which opens on to Tennyson Street. They denied having forced the gate, and Mr Davidson accepted their invitation to “come and see for himself.” Mr Davidson and the two suspects were then joined by Messrs Frampton and White, and an argument ensued between them regarding the forcing of the gate. The five men were now standing in a narrow pathway at the side of the house, Mr Davidson being alongside a corrugated iron fence. Suddenly, and without warning of any kind, one of the suspects took a small automatic revolver from his hip pocket and pointed it at Mr Davidson, with the command: “Look out! Get back out of this.” As he uttered the words he fired, and the bullet entered Mr Davidson’s heart. Instantly ho fell forward, gasping: “Oh, my God!” Mr Frampton and Mr White immediately rushed to his assistance, and as they did so the two men dashed through the gate, and, mounting two bicycles which they had left on the footpath, rode off. Mrs Davidson, on hearing the revolver shot, rushed out on to the roadway, and seeing the two men on bicycles, endeavoured to stop them, but without success, for one pointed a revolver at her, and thus they effected their escape. They were last seen turning into Milton Street. Medical aid for Mr Davidson was summoned, but on arrival Dr, La'wric pronounced life to be extinct. The men who rode away on bicycles were both about 25 years of

A cablegram received a few days ago stated that two brothers named Pearce bad been arrested on a charge of murdering David, “Williamson,” a mistake having evidently been made in the name in the transmission of the message,