SHOT DEAD

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4446, 1 May 1930, Page 4

SHOT DEAD

UN DERWIORLD CK LA[E. SYDNEY MYSTERY. Sydney, April 2-J. There seems to be no possibility of the police solving Sydney s latest underwovkl crime which resulted in the hilling of: William hoy Elmer and Ike wounding of Charles Lionrke, alias Edward Brown. Both these men were shot in the back on Good Friday night, while they were walking in a street in East Sydney, and although scores of people must have seen the incident none will speak. This is the difficulty which invariably faces the police when they are inquiring into a. crime that has been the outcome 01. gang wartare. Elmer, even when he was told that he was sure to die, refused to utter a word about the shooting, and when invited to name his assailant. ho replied: “1 will say nothing.'’ The wounded man, a friend of Elmer’s, was equally determined not to speak. He is recovering, and he is probably looking forward to the day when he and his friends will he able to revenge Elmer’s death. There is little doubt that there is a woman in the case, as there often is in such crimes. The names of several women who are notorious in the underworld have been mentioned, hut. it is quite clear that they had nothing direct to do with the shooting. The police have received no encouragement when making their inquiries among those who should know just wiia.t happened. “\Yc know nothing,” is tho only answer they can secure. People likely to he in possession of infojnuation that would provide a clue seem all at once to have faded away, and those who cannot efface themselves say that they did not ,evcu hear any shots tired on the night of the murder —and they live in the street where the murder was committed.

' POLICY OE SILENCE. Whether the silence is the result, of a pact in the underworld among the various gangs or the result of fear induced by threats it is difficult to say. It is quite comprehensive that silence for mutual protection might extend to a Limited number of persons whose history would not hear police scrutiny, lull: when the same policy of silence extends to the inhabitants of whole localities, many of whom are bound to have little in common with the underground element, the conclusion is inevitable that tear plays an important, part. The silence which has of late shielded so many tragic affrays in Sydney is regarded by the police as one of the most sinister developments of crime in Sydney. So far, in this latest crime, the police are without the slightest bit of evidence that would be of use to them in tracing tho perpetrator of what was a particularly brutal crime—two men shot in the back without being given a chance to fight for their lives.

Ami the dead man was a cripple- —crippled with rheumatism — and walked with the aid of crutches. He lost his mother some time ago, aud after Thursday last, when one of his friends died in hospital in Sydney, he became very despondent. Elmer’s sister was emphatic that she knew nothing of the shooting. Bhe had heard that Elmer and Bourke had been involved in a brawl in a. shop not far from ihe scene of the hooting. “L looks as if they were’just sniped off,” she said.

A reporter riled to olduin informa I ion where (lie police had faliod. To I lie occupier of the house outside which the shouting took place he put the question: “Did .you hear any shots'lf” “1 did,” was the reply. “Anyhow, two -blokes were shot, so there must have been shots lired- 01! course i heard them.” “Were you in the street"?” the reporter persisted. “I might have been,” was the reply. “Anyhow, .1 know nothing.” Another man said: “It! it was gang war it was gang’ war, and that is all there is about it. Perhaps the two men copped someone rise’s bullet. No one knows who did it, and no one would say if they did know. So you are only wasting lime, young fellow. And you are on dangerous ground. Pd Jet the matter drop if 1 were you.” 'The police anticipate reprisals very soon, and perhaps already another man in Sydney's underworld is marked for death.