| Secrets At The Maltese Club |
Monday 13th September 1960:
| Secrets At The Maltese Club |
A body found in a room nailed up from the inside created a major stir some time ago.
The dead man was Sam Borg, sixty-seven, a Maltese cafe owner on whose premises, it was found later, some form of illegal gambling had been conducted. At any rate, fair sums of money were floating about the place.
|
Borg was last seen alive inside a Maltese club in North Melbourne, on 30th May 1960. A few days later, a friend began to worry that he hadn't seen Borg for some time.
He notified the police, who went to Borg's place--and found it locked and bolted. A policeman climbed up a ladder and through a first-floor window, above the door - and discovered Borg's body, battered around the head.
The mystery deepened for a while when police found that Borg's door had been nailed up -- from the inside. Investigations
|
|
later revealed that a murderer must have entered the premises by climbing down through a skylight.
Borg's body was actually under a bed, in an upstairs, disused bedroom. The pyjama-clad body was wrapped in sheets and blankets, with rags around the head. A belt around Borg's body kept the pile of clothing firmly in place.
A fully loaded automatic pistol was found hidden in the mattress of Borg's bed. Police also found £100 in notes, wrapped in rubber bands inside the pillow slip.
|
Police believe that about £1,000 was taken from the Maltese restaurateur. The motive of the crime appeared to be robbery, pure and simple. The killer must have broken in to the premises while Borg was out, armed himself with a chair leg and waited in the spare bedroom.
When Borg came home, the robber waited until the old man had gone to bed, then crept into the bedroom and beat him to death. He then dragged the body into the spare room, nailing the door from the inside and leaving through the skylight.
Some 40 people were interviewed by police, many of them fellow Maltese, but the murderer remains unknown.
|
|
