PARK TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1922, Page 5

PARK TRAGEDY.

AMAZING DISCLOSURES. SYDNEY'S UNDERWORLD. GANGS OF PROWLERS. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright, Received Oct. 31, 7.20 p.m. Sydney, October 31. The inquest has opened on Mrs. Daisy Kearney, whose decomposed body was dug up in Moore Park a few weeks ago. She was reported missing from her home 15 months ago. A post-mortem examination disclosed that she was battered to death on the head. The inquest is bringing light on some secrets of Sydney’s underworld. The discovery of the body was the outcome of admissions made during a family quarrel by a man allegedly belonging to one of the gangs of night prowlers which infest the parks, bag-snatching and levying blackmail. This man, giving evidence at the inquest, stated he and a companion, on the night Mrs. Kearney disappeared, were in the vicinity of where the body was found, and they saw a man carrying the body of a woman. After watching they spoke to the man, who said the woman was all right, and he gave £1 to each to go away. When the man left they went to the spot and found blood and a pair of ear-rings. Next morning they revisited the spot and discovered the sand disturbed. They started digging with a shovel found there, but became frightened and fled. They kept the fact a secret, except from witness’s wife through whom it leaked. Other evidence showed that Mrs. Kearney received warnings to desist inquiries regarding the circumstances surrounding the death of her brother from a supposed accident, but whom she suspected was the victim of an underworld gang. It is understood the police hold evidence that blood-money is being squeezed from Mrs. Kearney’s murderer, and the crime is one of a series connected with the operations of park prowlers.