The Argus at KellyGang 20/8/1879 (2)

From KellyGang
Jump to: navigation, search
(full text transcription)

see previous

Lancefield robbery

The blackfellows tracked the two men to Heathcote, and then lost the trail through a heavy fall of rain obliterating the footprints. Constable Feeley was then dispatched by Superintendent Hare to Wild Duck Creek, and at a spot some five or six miles south west of Heathcote he found that the men had hired a horse and cart, in which they left for Sandhurst. The following telegram has been received by Captain Standish -"Constable Feeley was dispatched by Mr Hare to Wild Duck Creek, and he reports that two men called at a house on Saturday morning, and there hired a horse, cart, and boy to drive them to Sandhurst. They showed 30 or 40 sovereigns. Lowe, one of the prisoners arrested, came to the colony from California in 1867, and was convicted at Heathcote on the 14th May, 1872, for robbery under arms. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, but subsequently was brought up on habeas corpus and received one years additional imprisonment for stealing the gun which he used in the robbery in question. It may be mentioned that on Monday Detective Kennedy recommended that Lowe's photograph should be shown to the authorities of the bank at Lancefield, as he was under the impression that he was one of the offenders.

FURTHER PARTICULARS

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT)

SANDHURST, Tuesday

The news that the two men who stuck up the Commercial Bank at Lancefield had been captured last night in Sandhurst, caused an intense feeling of excitement in this district this morning, and the subject has been not alone the principal, but almost the only topic of conversation throughout the day. At an early hour this morning a crowd began to gather in the neighbourhood of the lock up, which is separated from the police court chamber in the town hall only by a narrow street, and at the time the Court was opened (10 o'clock) and the prisoners were removed from their cells in the lock up there must have been over 2,600 persons straining and scuffling to obtain a view of the robbers. The police court was crowded. The Bench was occupied by the Mayor (Mr Sterry), and Masers Holdsworth, Osborne, Edwards, and Davis, JPs. When the names of the prisoners were called, and the charge of robbing the bank read, Mr W Brown intimated that he appeared for the Commercial Bank. Sergeant Webb, however, applied for a remand for a week on the grounds that the prisoners had only been arrested at an early hour that morning, and consequently the police had had no opportunity to obtain the information necessary to enable them to proceed with the case. The application was immediately granted.

In connexion with the arrest the police are honestly entitled to a very great amount of credit. The work was done so quietly that until the men were arrested and safely lodged in the lock up, there were perhaps not half a dozen persons in the place who knew anything of their movements.

continued

.1. , .2. , .3. , .4. , .5. , .6. ,


 ! The text has been retyped from a microfiche copy of the original.

We have taken care to reproduce this document but areas of the original text may been damaged.

We also apologise for any typographical errors.