GRISLY RECORD

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 116, 8 January 1932, Page 7

GRISLY RECORD

. SYDNEY'S CRiME GRIM AYERAGE THAT IS KEPT UP YEAR BY YEAR. FOUR TYPES OF KILLER. Forty-one people met death by that grisly combination — murder and suicide— during 1931, says the Sydney Sun. This gruesome average has been maintained over a period of years. Who will he the forty or so victims in the coming years? The murders can he classified under four heads — cold-hlooded murder as one of the fine arts; murders commit-, ted by persons while insane; domestic tragedies; and gangster killings. Most of 1931's grim toll occurred in the metropolitan area. Four remain unsolved. In addition to this long murder list were thousands of offences against the person and against property with violence; violence that led to woundings. This class of crime is defintiely increasing. YicioUs assaults at gun-point or with other illegal weapons are a daily oecurrence. Hundreds of these criminals escape capture, forming vicious gangs that strike terror into law-ahiding citizens. Killed in Passion. Of the killing actuated hy jealousy or passion,' three occurred at Temora in April, when William Middlebrook . murdered John 'Billings and his wife and then suicided. Then there Was the sensational "basement" murder mystery, when Sheila Marjory Gilligan, 14, was found battered to death in a basement in Phillip Street, Sydney, in September. Her aunt, Mrs. Bryce, threw herself into the sea, but left a letter of confession. Mrs. Bryce's daughter Dulcie also drowned herself after the murder. Next in numher are the 11 deaths classified as domestic tragedies. The most oustanding was that of John Marriot, of Denham, who in March murdered his wife and four children, later setting fir.e to the home and suiciding. There were six murd'ers committe'd by persons afterwards proved to he insane, the foremost under this heading being the case of Kennedy, a maniac, ^ho ran amok at Waverley with a pea-rifle and killed Constables N. Allen and E. Andrews.

Kennedy was finally shot by Constable Johnson when he was cornered in his home. Sydney gangsters notched four victims — but "they only kill one another." The "Killer" Type. There is a more awful type of murderer, the man who cooly plans the crime and takes precautions to cover up his tracks. Guiseppe la Spina, an Italian, was shot dead in his shop at Newtown last January. A ye.ar earlier, Dominico Belle, another Italian , was stabbed to death in broad daylight at the Newtown railway station. Verdiets of murder were found in both cases, but so far the police have been unsuccessful in bringing the guilty to hook. The vengeance of secret societies, it is said, was responsible for both crimes, but why should murderous societies exist in a well-policed city? No person has yet been convicted for the murder of George Cooper at Redfern on May 8. The two brutes who invaded the home at Paddington of Alexander Barrie, 85, and bound and gagged him and then battered him to death, and bound and gagged his aged wife, are still at large. This revolting crime two weeks ago was the worst of the year. The chance discovery last month of the charred bones of a human body in a desolate spot seven miles from the railway township of BungendOre, and four miles from the nearest road, unearthed what is believed to he a ghoulish bush murder. Where Police Failed. With the solution of all but four murders, the Police Department has established a fine record. But apparently it is weak in coping with "violence against the person." While thousands are dealt with in the courts each year, thousands escape justice. Is the department sufficiently equipped with swift motor patrols to run down these criminals?