THE MELBOURNE BANK ROBBERY. How the Thieves Were Traced.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 108, 27 June 1885, Page 6

THE MELBOURNE BANK ROBBERY. How the Thieves Were Traced.

The plain-clothes branch of the police force during featurday and Sunday arrested five men and four women who are suspected to be implicated in the audaciouß robbery which took place in Simpson's Road on Wednesday, when three armed men successfully gagged and bound the manager and clerk of the branch National Bank of Australia and robbed the establishment of its contents. When on Wednesday morning last a message waa flashed along tho wire to the detective department of the police force that by armed men the National Bank in Simpson's Road had been robbed, action was prompt and decisive. Inspector Kennedy gathered his men together, and Detectives Ward, Lovie, Considine, and Causey were singled out. Their instructions were short and to the point: "Arrest tho thieves. Spare no effort." Half an hour afterwards they were on the spot, and the unravelling! of the skein of mystery and forging of the links of evidence commenced. it was known that five men were implicated, that they had accomplished their deed while masked and armed, and thatthey had driven away in a cart. Who they were, and to where they had gone, was the secret to be mastered. All the lesidents in the neighbournood of the bank were questioned as to what they might have observed, and the haunts of thieves were examined to find who were missing. In the evening a gentleman was met who had seen the cart and men driving away from the bank. This evidence was of great value. The gentleman who gave it, tho Rev. J. A. Stuart, was passing the bank just as tho robbery had terminated, and saw those men emerge from the rear and suspiciously make their way towards a cart standing in Shelleystreet, in close proximity. The vehicle, he obseived, advanced to meet them, and as soon as they had mounted it drove off. Mr Stuart was sufficiently observant to notice the dreaa of the men, and of this he gave accurate details. The fust clue v> as gained, Night did not impede the labours of the detectives, and through the midnight hours the search continued, and the scent grew warmer with each advance. The watched characters were sponding monoy ficely, and their pauunours and companions wero carousing gaily. Still the ovidenco was not sufficient. On Thursday morning intelligence came that tho bags in which tho money was taken a* ay had been found in Studley Park. Mr Baron informed tho proper authorities, who, acting immediately, had the blacktrackers on tho ground before 10 o'clock. But tho heavy rain made all hope of tracing the robbers by footprints futile, and the only discovery was a small cartrige box, which at least went to confirm the suspicion Two or throe hours later a gardener residing at Kew came to tho police, and said that on Wednesday ho had s-eon three ill-looking men making their way to thie gully. The trackers were at once taken back and the search lecnmmenced. This time they wore rewarded by discovering a Beaufort coat neatly foldod up under a bank. From here tracks were traced to where the bags were found. Night falling, tho search hud to be discontinued, but proofs were abundant that tho mon had leturned to Collingwood, and not, as was thought, made their way into the country. Small as these clues seemed, thoy were invaluable, and the net was fast woaving over tho heads of the guilty. The meshes were di awing around them closer and closer, though Friday night and the next day until 3 o'clock, when the last link in the chain had poon completed, and at that hour Joseph Yates, aged 34, a labourer, and a native of the Isle of Man. wa3 arrested in the house of Madeline Sullivan, the woman and a girl named lladley being taken with him. On Yates were found two £5-notes, one sovereign, two half-sove-reigns, and some silver, and between the mattress and tho bed, in one of the rooms, live sovereigns and 3G half-sovereigns were discovered. The man was not at all disconcerted by his arrest, and informed the detoctives in a jocund way, "If you'd copped meyesteHay, you'd a' got more money." All three wero taken to tho watch houso, aud charged uith vagrancy, for tho time being. fetil\ there were others to be caught, and the detectives roado their way to a house in a right-of-way off Spring street, in which lived a woman named Maggie Welch and a girl named Ryan, where tho detcctivos seized two men named George Alcock, alias Canny, aged 23 yours, who follows the occupation of a dealer ; and George Fortune, a labourer, aged 34. A sum of £5 Gs was found on tho men, and with the woman they were at once incarcerated. Daylight breaking, the detectives were as active as ever, notwithstanding that they had not slept since the case was placod in their hands, and they proceeded to Sandridge, where in a Btreet close to the railway station the house of a man named Jackson ivas forced open, and then the last arrests were made. Two were knows criminals— Tiger McMahon and Charlej Millidge, alias Book Millidge — were handcuffed. They were possessors of £23 10a in gold and £10 in notes, some of tfhich were on the National Bank, besides an amount of crape shaped as masks. But what was more to the detectives, whose duty it was to prove their prisoners guilty, was that in the yard at the rear of the house were the horse and cart used by the thieves on the day the robbery took place. As soon as their prisoners had been safely secured in thd lockup, the detectives took both horse and cart to Richmond, where they were positively identified by the Rev. J. A. Stuart and several other persons, several of whom saw them in Studley Park, where the bags were found ; and, further, two or three positively assert d that McMahon and Millidge were in tho cart at the time. All the men are well known as habitual criminals, and as companions both in and out of gaol.— " Telegraph."

The police report, that drunkenness was 1 prevalent among women in South Dunedin, is characterised as " uncalled for, unmanly, and untrue."