Sydney Sensation

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 175, 14 October 1927, Page 9

Sydney Sensation

RICH SQUATTER SHOT DEAD

Three Brothers Arrested

By Cable. — Press Association. — Copyright. Received 9.5 a.m. SYDNEY, To-day. THE police arrested three brothers named Higgs at Rose Bay last night, and charged them in connection with the death of Ronald Lachlan Leslie, of Manly, a wealthy grazier, who was shot in his motor-car.

ATR. I.KSI.Ii; left his home at Manly by motor-car alone at 8 a.m. to J visit one of his country properties. On the same evening the ear was found standing on a road leading off the main western road near Blaxland. ] Mr. Leslie was inside the car ! dead, with three bullet wounds in His body. He had apparently been dead for some time. His money and valuables were intact. The police located a woman at ■ Valley Heights, who stated that she ] was standing near the railway sta- , tion there when she noticed a motor- j car containing two men. As the tar approached stie heard a number of j reports, which she thought were ; caused by the car back-firing. Then one of the men threw up his < arms, lurched forward, and collapsed in the seat. The woman said she did 1 not attach significance to the happen- i ing, as she thought the man was in- A

toxicated. When, he collapsed his hat fell out on to the road, and she picked it up. Later, on reading or the tragedy, the woman handed the hat to the police. It has since been found to have belonged to Mr. Leslie. The spot where the woman was standiug is about four miles from where the body was found. A black tracker discovered a bloodstained overcoat hidden in a hollow log, but it did not belong to Mr. Leslie. The police surmise that Mr. Leslie picked up one of the men in his car, and that the other two followed in another car. When the man in Mr. Leslie’s car shot him, the men in the other car are thought to have approached and brought the victim’s car back along the main road to the side road where it was found. An examination of the body showed that the three wounds were all inflicted by shots fired from behind.— 4. and N.Z.