UNSOLVED! Some Memorable Murders - MANY OTHER CRIMES Where Police Have Failed - The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) - 27 Nov 1935 (original) (raw)

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Wed 27 Nov 1935 - The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957)
Page 7 - UNSOLVED! Some Memorable Murders

Without attempting to suggest reasons

—some of which may perhaps favour the

police—it is obvious from a casual glance

over the records that investigation of

crime in Victoria, at any rate during the

last few years, has not been followed with

the degree of success that the public is

entitled to expect. The public requires

that its police force, for which it pays so

highly, shall be reasonably efficient, and

when seeking the cause of failure of the

force to solve serious crimes it is disposed

to blame the administration rather than

the operatives. Murder is one of the crimes

that the public, for its own protection,

expects to be traced to its source and

sheeted home to the perpetrator; but,

though the public memory is reputed to

be short, the people of Victoria cannot

forget that some of the most appalling

homicides in the records of Australian

crime have been committed in Victoria in

the last few years, and that the mur-

derers have not been apprehended. Most

people can, without much thought, recall

at least six or seven murders, all of which

excited horror and alarm at the time, and

none of which has been followed by con-

Most people for instance can recall the

tragedy of little Mena Alexandra Grif-

fiths of Caroline street South Yarra,

whose body was found in an empty house

at Ormond on November 10, 1930. The

police displayed much activity directed

toward solution of this mystery, and their

search for the murderer led them far

afield. The offering of a reward was sug-

gested, but the Chief Commissioner of

Police (Sir Thomas Blamey) said that he

did not think it was necessary. After

many weeks a young man was arrested at

Leeton (N.S.W.) and charged with the

crime, but the man had no difficulty in

establishing a complete alibi. That is one

mystery that remains unsolved.

A similar lack of success attended the

endeavours of the police to discover the

murderer of Mr Arthur Brennan, a re-

spected resident of North Fitzroy, who

was shot dead at point-blank range by a

man who was attempting to break into the

house of a neighbour. At the request of

a woman who lived near by Mr Brennan

went to find out what was happening. He

tried to detain the intruder who turned

and shot him dead. In this case the

police had a good description of the cul-

prit. No reward was recommended in this

case either. There has been no arrest.

So far as the public knows the police

have not yet discovered who murdered

Adeline Hazel Wilson, aged 16 years, whose

strangled body was found in a vacant

allotment near her home in Ormond on

January 10, 1931. The circumstances of

this tragedy were particularly distress-

Giovanni Garetto aged 34 years,

farmer, was shot dead outside his home

at Werribee on September 3, 1932. The

coroner found that he had been murdered

by a person or persons unknown. He is,

or they are, still unknown.

On December 30, 1932, a man was

murdered with an iron bar in a boarding-

house at Terang. His head had been

smashed in and money that he had been

carrying had vanished. That mystery is

On the night of September 23, 1933,

Mr George Joseph Mudford, a resident

of Sheffield street, West Preston, went

out to deal with an intruder in his poul-

try farm. He fired a barrel loaded with

saltpetre at the intruder, who turned upon

Mr Mudford, wrested the gun from his

grasp, and battered him to death. Neigh-

bours saw the murderer jump over a fence

and run away. So far as the public

knows, he is still at large.

James John, aged 25 years, labourer, left

his club early in the morning on Septem-

ber 22, 1933, to walk to his home in Gore

street, Fitzroy. A motor-car pulled up at

the kerb just in front of him. From it

stepped a man who drew an automatic

pistol, fired five shots into John, sprang

back into the car, and with several com-

panions, drove rapidly away. John died

in hospital shortly afterward but his

assassin has not been convicted.

In April of the same year the body of

Richard Campbell, a young man, was

found with two pistol bullets in it, lying In

Canterbury road, near the St. Kilda rail-

way station. Two men who had been seen

in his company shortly before were sought

by the police, but without success.

Few people living in Melbourne last year

will forget the appalling circumstances in

which a young woman named Jean Mac-

kenzie was done to death in an apartment

in Princes terrace off St. Kilda road, on

the night of June 8. The woman had

been battered with a heavy billet of wood,

so that her features were almost unrecog-

nisable, her body was found lying almost

nude, and round the neck, was tightly

drawn a noose of rope. It was evident

that she had been attacked with insane

ferocity. In this case a reward was offered

for information leading to the arrest of

the murderer, but the response was in-

conclusive. Jean Mackenzie's murder is

still unavenged by the law.

Few crimes in recent years have aroused

such public horror and indignation as did

the murder of Ethel Belshaw, the 12 year

old daughter of a stock inspector at Tarwin

Lower. On January 2 of this year her

body was found face downward in some

dense shrub at Inverloch. Her hands

and legs were tied and one of her stock-

ings was bound tightly round her neck,

while the other had been thrust into her

mouth. There were about 10,000 holiday

makers in the Inverloch district at the

time of the tragedy, and an appeal was

made by the police through the news-

papers for information which might lead

to the identification of the murderer. In-

dicative of public sentiment is the fact

that nearly every person who was in the

district communicated with the police

offering help. In spite of this the tragedy

of Ethel Belshaw seems likely to remain

one of the many unsolved major crimes

Still another mystery is the murder of

Mr. Henry Thomas Norwood, relieving

stationmaster at Carnegie, who was shot

by "some person or persons unknown" on

the night of October 1, 1934. For infor-

mation leading to the apprehension of the

murderer a reward of £250 was offered

but nobody has yet been convicted.

This list does not include the murder

of a girl whose partly burned body was

discovered under a culvert on a road lead-

ing north from Albury (N.S.W) in Sep-

tember, 1934. Although the body of the

girl was found six or seven miles across

the Victorian border, detectives from both

Victoria and New South Wales co-operated

in the investigation, but nothing that

would indicate whether the murder was

committed In Victoria or in New South

Wales has yet been announced by the

police. The identity of the girl and of

her murderer remain unknown.

So much for the unsolved murders-

and the list is by no means complete.

Crimes of a non-capital nature — as-

saults, robberies and outrages of various

kinds—are much more numerous than

murders; and the proportion of these that

has gone undetected is just as high, if

not higher. By way of example may be

mentioned the theft on June 12, 1934, of

several gold plates studded with valuable

amethysts, emeralds, and other gems, from

the altar of St Patrick's Cathedral. It

was a daring robbery and a shocking

sacrilege: the loss was estimated at more

than £1,000; but the sin has not been

visited upon anyone as yet.

On the morning of November 10, 1931,

the community was shocked to learn that

a bomb had been exploded on the ver-

andah of Sir Stanley Argyle's home in

Toorak. It was pure good fortune that

nobody in the house was injured. The

Chief Secretary of the day (Mr Tunne-

cliffe) announced that "the Ministry took

a serious view of the crime," and a reward

of £250 was offered for information. No

Thieves entered the English, Scottish,

and Australia Bank at Oakleigh on the

night of January 20 of this year and tried

to break into the strongroom. It was the

second time that that bank had been

entered by thieves within a few weeks.

They were scared off, leaving their safe-

breaking implements behind them. No-

Mr. K. M. Niall was entertaining some

guests at his home in Orrong road, Toorak,

on the evening of February 25, 1935.

Thieves entered a bedroom and stole

pearls, diamonds and other jewellery to

the value of more than £600. Nobody

has been convicted of this crime.

In similar fashion the home of Mrs.

W. A. Winter-Irving, in St George's road,

Toorak, was entered by a silent thief on

the night of April 9. He escaped with

about £ 1,000 worth of pearls, gem-studded

watches, platinum brooches, diamonds,

and sapphires. In this case, too, the police

investigations proved fruitless.

Mr. George F. Mitchell, son of the

mayor of Essendon, tackled an intruder in

his home at Essendon on the night of

March 26. He was wounded, but the

culprit has not been found.

There are many more such cases. The

number of them is one of the most dis-

turbing features of crime and crime in-

vestigation in Victoria to-day.