MELBOURNE VENDETTA.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3320, 25 October 1919, Page 2

MELBOURNE VENDETTA.

0 .ANOTHER SHOOTING ‘CASE. TWO DESPERATE GANGS. POLICE FORCE BAFFLED. . . SYDNEY, Oct. 14. The (zircumstancées of the shooting of 3. young nllarl'icd woman in a Melbourne club last Saturday night again directs attention‘ to 3. vendefta which is going on in the Melbourne under-world, with which the police seem .powcl'less E 0 cope.

There are two orgallisations of young criminals fighting'“6ne another, and making common cause against the police. Some of them have been brought to the bar of justice, but Certain of them escaped, much to the discouragement of ‘the police. They resort to all kinds of tricks. One Illiln recent. ly got out of a prison yard by crawling between the overhead bars, and was only caught. 'in Albury because he had lamed himhelf in jumping from a train.

About a dozen of them were being taken through the city in la pl‘iSoll Vllll- - tore up the floor, and one by~'oT‘e. dropped through unnoticed. There were only two or three in the Van when it reached its clestiiiatioir, and the police have since been chasing the missing ones all over the country. The shooting on Satur(l:ly has the marks of the vendetta all over it. This young Woman lived with her crippled brother ‘in {L iniserable little house. Three men called, and she went inside with them. A nmment. later she cried out to her brother for help. The latter hurried in, and one man presented a revolver at him. He thrust it aside just as the weapon. exploded. The woman. hit the assailant with a fire iron. He turned the revolver on her, and one

bullet went through h01"n0so. and an--o_tllcr wounded 1101' very gravely ‘in the abdomen. The man ran away.

‘ When the police came, the Woman in. sistecl that her wounfl was self-iufiieted_ The police found and arrested a man who Was identified by the cripple as he who had fired the shots-. He proved lo be one of the crinrinals who had escaped from Elie prison van. Many years ago Sy’t'l‘ney was ’rel'l'orised by gangs of young cl'imilla.l”s. The aut‘nori’ries fifiéilly broke up the gangs by inflicling the rleafli penalty on certain men found guilty of an atrocious crime, and by flogging all who were in ‘any way associated with the gangs. 'l‘he cat-o’-nine~t:lils achieved What elaborate police and jury: systems failed to do. It has been suggested tllat something of the same kind may be fried in Melbourne.