"THE SILENT FIVE"

NZ Truth, Issue 1211, 14 February 1929, Page 5

"THE SILENT FIVE"

Offer In Writing

They Were Self-styled Killers, But Soon Scared Stiff,

(Prom "N.Z. Truth. V Special Diuiedm Eepresentative). "If the next time there is no money here, you will get your throat cut. Don't think this is a fairy tale. It isn't — we mean it.— 'The Silent Five.'— P.S.— We are killers."

THUS, a band of young neler-do-wells m Dunedin tried to emulate the terrorising tactics of a Chicago "underworld." ■ The throe youths who crowded m the dock of the Dunedin Supreme Court the other day and faced his honor Mr. Justice MacGregor, did not look much like "killers," even though they 1 did represent -what the police had raked m of the notorious "Silent Five." Far from it. In fact, as one of their counsel declared them, they looked "scared out of their lives." Samuel Joseph Blee, Reginald Robert Sutherland and Albert George Rodg&rs were the three young men whose exploits under the mystery pseudonym of "The Silent Five" 'brought them within the net of the law. In the lower, court, all had pleaded guilty to a series of burglaries. ..-.'■ Against Blee there were four counts of breaking, Centering and theft, and three of breaking and entering; Sutherland, one charge, of breaking, entering and theft, and two of breaking and entering; and Rodgers, one charge of breaking, entering and theft. Pleading on behalf of Rodgers and Blee, Mr. C. J. L. White deprecated the police reports on accused. . The police, said counsel', had no evidence to substantiate the suggestion that Blee was responsible for the loss of a. quantity of goods from his employers. , ..-•. . ; ..■"■-. . ; „-,-.

Counsel produced references from the youth's employers, and cited incidents of Blee's previous honesty m returning money he had found and an overpayment of wages. In similar vein, Mr. White condemned as "grossly exaggerated" the police information regarding Rodgers. Accused was. not a larrikin and guilts' of other crimes, nor was the "home influence bad. The youth's mother had reared eight out* of ten children without the , famiiy encountering the criminal law. For Sutherland, Mr. A. G. Neill put forward unemployment as the cause of "idle' hands and an idle mind" going astray. As. to the "Silent Five" note which savored of the "melodramatic cinema," counsel said: "They'd scatter, like rabbits if they heard a door bang, or saw a watchman peeping through a fence. And these are the men who left a note postscripted: 'We are killers'!" ■ "Tnere is no doubt as to their guilt, yet ' they put forward specious pleas why they should not be punished," said, the judge curtly. . "Sheaves of testimonies say that they are good lads, yet. it is quite clear that they are nothing of the. kind. These young larrikins must be taught a lesson." • Two -years' reformatnre detention was handed out to each of the three "killers."