MURDERS DESCRIBED.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1920, Page 5

MURDERS DESCRIBED.

GANG VISITS EACH HOUSE. WIVES WITNESS TRAGEDIES. Received Nov. 22, 8.5 p.m. London, Nov. 22. Captain Crawford owes" his life to the coolness of his wife, who was in bed. He was dressing in the bedroom and heard a knock at the door. He thought it was his own men, and he opened the door, whereupon three revolvers were aimed at him. The men refused to believe he was connected with the army service, and accused him of being a secret service agent. The men searched the room and became threatening. Captain Crawford said his wife was not very well, and lie added: "If you are going to shoot me take me downstairs, as it would be unpleasant for my wife." The leader of the gang realised he was spending overmuch time, and the garig quitted in a hurry, warning Captain Crawford to leave the country in twenty-four hours. In'another case four men entered a house and ordered a maid to show the way to Captain Fitzgerald's room, and two remained on guard while the leader ' and another followed the maid. Captain Fitzgerald was shot dead. Twenty men rushed into the hall of a house' in lower Mount Street, and when the door was opened they followed a servant into Lieutenant Mahon's rooms and fired five shots, which proved fatal. Then they demanded another officer's room, but the officer refused to open the door. The occupants of a neighboring house beckoned to passing ! auxiliaries, who opened a fusillade on | the house. The gang rushed through | the back doors and one was captured. ! The officer who was locked in was im- ! harmed. | Fifteen men entered the Gresham ' Hotel, held up the staff with revolvers, | examined the register, and compelled the ! porter, at the point of a revolver, to I lead ""the way to Captain McCoraack's i room. He was sitting up in bed react- ! ing a newspaper, and received four bul- ' lets fatally. i Wilde, a civilian, who was in another I room, hearing firing, jumped from his ' bed and rushed to lock the door, but : he fell dead before he reached the door. While this gang was escaping through upper Mount Street they encountered auxiliaries, and a brisk exchange of shots occurred. One assassin was wounded and three others were captured. Twenty men rushed intq a house occupied by a civilian named Smith, and ordered Captain McLean and a civilian named Callow out of their beds. They took them to a spare bedroom at the top of the house, Smith being ordered to accompany them, and they shot the three, McLean and Smith being shot dead and Callow being grievously wounded. Ten m'en called at a house in lower Ba?shott Street and proceeded to Captain Newbury's fiat. They knocked awl the wife answered, and when she saw the men she slammed and locked the door in their faces. The g an S later burst the sitting-room door, and then forced the bedroom. Captain Newbury and his wife (R-sisted without avail, and the gang wounded Captain Newbury, who fled through the window, his wife vainly clinging to the assassin's arm. Seven shots were fired, Captaini Newbury being killed at the window, Ms body falling across the window I ledge.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. | RIOTS IN BELFAST. BRIEF DETAILS AVAILABLE. J Received Nov. 23, 1 a.m. London, Nov. 22. Riots have commenced in Belfast. Some shooting occurred, and several were wounded.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. MILITARY HELP. ' REINFORCEMENTS IF NECESSARY. Received Nov. 22, 11.45 p.m. LondonfNov. 21. The authorities have arranged to despatch large military reinforcements to Ireland if necessary. ■ Mr. Lloyd George was spending the wiek-end in the country, and Mr. Winston Churchill (Secretary for War) remained in telephonic communication with Dublin Castle during the whole of Sunday.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn, MANNIX GIVES HIS VIEWS. BLAMES TROOPS FOR TROUBLE. Received Nov. 22, 8.40 p.m. London, Nov. 22. Archbishop Mannix, in a speech at Bolton, stated that no outrages occurred in Ireland until troops were sent there. There was not any murder gang he knew of, or, if one existed, Sinn Fein alone

| WAR AGAINST THE CROWN. I 'AUTHORITIES KNEW TOO MDOT. ! i HOW. ONE ASSASSIN WAS TAKEN. Received Nov. 22, 8.40 p.m. London, Nov. 22. I Dublin Castle, in a atatement, says the jajsasains employed revolvers and operated in gang's of four to twenty. The ,Gresham Hotel and seven dwellings were visited, with one or more murders in every case, and the procedure was the same in almost every instance. It would seem the murder gang was greatly concerned lately owing to the increased pressure of the machinery of justice, and they were acutely conscious that the Crown had recently gained an intimate knowledge of their methods and plans, and also the names, the whereabouts, and the history of the criminals. As the prospects of dispersing the gang were greater than ever, they launched an attack upon the machinery of justice. It is officially stated the murderers succeeded in destroying a quantity of valuable documentary evidence. Only one assassin was captured. He was severely wounded by an officer, who immediately fell dead, shot by others of the gang. There was no news until a nurse arrived at the barracks and announced that two officers lay dead' in; her gar-den.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. I WHY OFFICERS WERE SHOT. VICTIMS ENGAGED ON TRIALS. HINDERING THE EXTREMISTS. Received Nov. 22, 7.35 p.m. London, Nov. 22. Considerable promiscuous shooting occurred i.i various parts of the city during the day. There was extraordinary military activity, aeroplanes flying over the city. It is believed in official quarters that the policy of the assassins was the murder of officers connected with the military machine and those engaged in preparing evidence for a number of courtmartial! The authorities recently received information implicating criminals through the discovery of important documents, which had already led to notable results, and about a score of men were arrested owing to evidence found in captured documents. They apparently belong to the inner circle of the Republican murder gang. This view is confirmed in official circles in London. Nearly all the officers and civilians killed were engaged in the court-martial side of administration. It is pointed out that Che assassins searched the premises in all cases for papers', hoping to thus arrest the machinery of justice and safeguard Sinn Fein extremists from capture. There were a number of other arrests impending. An official list shows a major, six captains, three lieutenants, two cadets, and two civilians were killed, and two colonels, a captain, a lieutenant, and a civilian were wounded. In one instance se'venteen cadets of an auxiliary division were passing Mount Street on a lorry when a woman shouted from a window that an officer had been murdered. The officer in charge sent two to get help, and the remainder surrounded or entered the house, and arrested a man within and also two others in the neighborhood. All were armed with revolvers. The soldiers found two officers, whom the assassins, in their haste, had failed to injure. The woman said the gang had obtained admission by saying that they had a letter to deliver. They proceeded '■ to a bedroom where two officers were in bed. and they fired four shots, killing Lieutenant Mahon, of the Tank Corps. They missed another officer, who, warned*by the firing, hid behind a door. When the men entered ho dropped on his knee. The men fired about a dozen shots, and fled. All the shots missed. The auxiliaries who went for help were shot dead in the street, evidently bv men who saw the lorry stopj. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. RAID AT A PARK MACHINE GUNS ON THE CROWD. MANY CASUALTIES. London. Nov. 21. At a Gaelic football match in Dublin armed forces with armoured cars and machine-guns entered the field, firing in all directions. Several persons ifvere shot dead and hundreds wounded/during the stampede that followed. Fifteen thousand spectators, were at the football match. The game had been in progress a quarter of aiwjiouv when ;he armed forces appeared, " Ten were killed and 70 wounded. REPUBLICAN COMMANDER MISSING. London, Nov. 20. Michael Collins, commander-in-chief ot the Irish Republican army, has disappeared. It is rumoured that he is the victim of reprisals. Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. A PRIEST MURDERED. London, Nov. 21. The body of Father Griffin, concernI ing whom a question was asked in the House of Commons on Friday, has been recovered. The body of Father Griffiin was found in a cavity in a mountain side near Galway with a bullet, mark on the left . temple. Father Griffin, although a Sinn Feiner, has strongly denounced Sinn Fein methods in his sermoni-