SYDNEY RACKETEERS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 86, 2 December 1931, Page 7

SYDNEY RACKETEERS

GUNMAN WHO TERRORISED SLY GROG SHOPS. POLICE DESCRIBE CAREER. Described by the police as a "desperate gunman who terrorises sly- i grog shops," James Hogan, aged 30 years, who was recently acquitted of a charge of murder, was sentenced at the Central Court to six months hard labour for carrying an unlicensed revolver, and was fined £100, in default 200 days. Detective Mallon told of a 2 a.m. raid in Randwick, when the wireless patrol surrounded a house and arrested four men, including Hogan, on a charge of being in a house frequented by thievcs. "Police were at the front and the rear, and I went to a side door, opeiled it quickly, and saw Hogan standing with a revolver in' his hand," said Mallon. Drawing his own gun, Mallon contined, he followed Hogan into a bedroom, where a woman was sleeping. Sly-g.og Victims. "I know of four sly-grog shops which Hogan has held up and robbed in the last week," witness went on. "He has so terrorised his victims that wild horses would not drag them into court to give evidence." Hogan was also charged with Abraham Abrahams, taxi-driver; Alphonse Clune; and Thomas Leslie Long, with having been found early one morning in a house in Randwick frequented by thieves. Asking for bail, Mr. Sheahan (for Clune and Hogan) said his clients were already out on £200 bail in one case and £20 in another. All four were remanded on £30 bail.