THIEVES' ORGANISATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 April 1919, Page 5

THIEVES' ORGANISATION.

OPERATIONS IN PITZROY. ' WAR AMONG THE GANG. There is war between the thieves in Melbourne (says the Melbourne Age) During the last few months there have been several mysterious /shooting cases and serioUß assaults in Fitzroy, to which no special significance was attached at the time. But the singular reticence of the men concerned in these affrays, and the consequent futility of police investigations, have excited public wonder. For weeks past, this drama of the underworld has been going on, and the struggle has assumed serious proportions. The climax came quits recently. Then, according to a most reliable authority, attempts were made on the lives of two men, who were recognised by the other thieves and by the police as the directors of many big robberies. Owing to the peculiar and silent nature of the fight, and the difficulty in gaining full information, the police seem practically powerless to cope with the situation. The trouble, it is said, originated in a series of disagreements between the achial thieves and the men who planned several important robberies last year. The point in dispute was the division of the spoil. Crime as practised by the members of this select circle is eonducted on a business basis. The operations are directed by a head whose word is law—the only law they recognise. This man -rules like an autocrat. It is his business to think out the jobs; to select the safes to be operated upon; to direct the robberies and burglaries from outside. It appears these "middlemen" have been appropriating more of the proceeds than the men who had executed the thefts considered they were entitled to. The arguments were not confined to words. Most of the purties carried guns —and used them. Of late the firing of revolvers in Fitzroy has become a matter of not infrequent occurrence, but more often than not no significance has been attached to these outward signs of the duel. In a recent shooting case four men entered a libuso in Fitzrov, fired a number of shots at a man In bed,»and left the place. The fact could ijot be concealed, because the man had to be taken to a doctor for treatment, so the authorities got to know of it. But exhaustive enquiries by the detectives and police elicited no definite clue as to the motive for the shooting; the wounded man was obstinately uncommunicative, and a description of the assailants could not be obtained from anyone else in the vicinity. But the account between the parties concerned will probably be settled another way. They do not want to call in the police. They have a way of their own of arranging these disputes, and the police are the last people in tho world they want to have anything to do with.

Another stago of this vendetta amongst the thieves has been reached a second man having been assaulted' As in the first ease, police inquiries were useless—the real motive for the attack was not divulged. But it was ascertained that t lie trouble had been accentuated by tho threatened vengeance of other thieves, who complained that they had been kept out of many jobs through tho agency of this . "reflSSitf.. -M t£m**im site

several robberies, it is declared, had proved him untrustworthy from theil ,\| point of view. It is an accepted fact *? in criminal circles that If the proceed l '"-* of certain burglaries are not "placed" ~| with this particular "middleman" tht '' freedom of the perpetrator of the crimt ■'.'". is often in jeopardy. As an exampli ■ t of the power exercised by these men, 'f the nourishing sly-grog trade at Fite> -•? roy.is a striking illustration. In thii '*? locality control of the business is said 5' to be vested in the hands of one matt ■■>, \ and' it is an unwritten law that befor< a new sly-grog shop is opened his ap- -•■-) proval must be gained. If, on the * 5 other hand, the applicant persists jn ■** opening this illicit beer shop without " t iiis permission, information somehow ' 1

mysteriously finds its way to the police '.,'" authorities, and it is very unusual for '..-.* the shop to Jast any length of time. Incredible as these facts may seem to "'f the outside public, they are matters of j common knowledge to the inhabitant* "■'* in these parts of Fitzroy, and also to " the police. <, A