by Leigh Straw
She was an Aussie battler. Faced with harsh and tough conditions in a city she didn’t know, a young Kate Beahan persevered and against the odds became one of the city’s wealthiest women. Despite her wealth, she maintained a certain level of ordinariness in her life because she never forgot what hardship was like. She could have left Surry Hills for a large house in the suburbs but that wasn’t Kate’s style. She profited from crime, but some of those profits at least went back into her local community, to the ‘Hills’ people she loved so much.
What can we make of Kate Leigh’s life ledger? Was the balance sheet more in favour of her reformed image or had she done enough through her years of crime that no amount of community work could redress the balance? The police who knew Leigh for decades and worked many cases relating to her criminal operations are perhaps best placed to offer judgment. Former Deputy Commissioner of Police WR Lawrence was one of the first to hear about Kate Leigh’s death in February 1964. As family and friends made arrangements for the church service and burial at Botany Cemetery, Lawrence fronted the media, telling them he would be attending the funeral. His words that day offer a valuable final assessment of Leigh’s life: ‘Certainly she had a criminal record, but she did all she could to help the needy and young offenders. She warned many of the youngsters about the futility of crime.’
The two Kate Leighs of Devonshire Street are not incompatible. Kate Leigh’s life is a blueprint for how to run a successful criminal empire and convince the public you’re a good sort too.
NOTES
Notes have been arranged by chapter, in order of the main discussions.
INTRODUCTION: ‘UNCROWNED QUEEN OF SLUMLAND’
Nellie Cameron’s funeral
‘Study in scarlet: an uncrowned queen of slumland drips with diamonds and charity’, People (Sydney), 15 March 1950, p. 11; ‘Nellie’s emotions’, Arrow (Sydney), 4 December 1931, p. 1; ‘Death of notorious underworld blonde’, Examiner (Launceston), 10 November 1953, p. 4; ‘Underworld mourns Sydney “queen” ’, Advertiser (Adelaide), 11 November 1953, p. 1; George Blaikie, Wild Women of Sydney, Rigby, Adelaide, 1980, pp. 181–82; Judith Allen, ‘Leigh, Kathleen Mary (Kate) (1881–1964)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University,
Detectives at the funeral
Alfred W McCoy, Drug Traffic: Narcotics and Organised Crime in Australia, Harper & Row, Sydney, 1980, p. 138; Peter N Grabosky, Sydney in Ferment: Crime, Dissent and Official Reaction 1788–1973, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1976, p. 126; State Records New South Wales (hereafter SRNSW), State Penitentiary for Women, Long Bay, ‘Photograph Description Book 1930–1970’, ‘Kate Leigh’, NRS 2497, No. 839, 14/3137; ‘Consorting charge. Kate Barry sentenced’, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 January 1932, p. 6.
Kate Leigh’s career and notoriety
‘Gang rule must go!’, Truth (Sydney), 3 January 1932, p. 1; ‘Gang war’, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 May 1929, p. 11; ‘Drug habit. Far reaching effects’, Sydney Morning Herald, 14 April 1928, p. 14; ‘Woman bound over’, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 3 June 1933, p. 1; Larry Writer, Razor: Tilly Devine, Kate Leigh and the Razor Gangs, Pan Macmillan, Sydney, 2009 (first published 2001), p. xxi; Ruth Park, The Harp in the South, Penguin Books, Melbourne, 2009 (first published Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1948), p. 42.
Kate Leigh and Sydney crime
Blaikie, Wild Women of Sydney, pp. 129–60; Judith A Allen, Sex and Secrets: Crimes Involving Australian Women Since 1880, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1990; Raelene Frances, Selling Sex: A Hidden History of Prostitution, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2007; McCoy, Drug Traffic, pp. 123–25, 135–36, 139–41.
Women and crime
Kay Saunders, Notorious Australian Women: The Sensational Lives and Exploits of Some of Australia’s Most Notorious Women, ABC Books, Sydney, 2013, p. 193; Clive Emsley, Crime and Society in England, 1750–1900, Pearson Longman, London, 1987, p. 32; Mary S Hartman, Victorian Murderesses: A True History of Thirteen Respectable French and English Women Accused of Unspeakable Crimes, Robson Books, London, 1985, p. 2; Jill Julius Matthews, Good and Mad Women: The Historical Construction of Femininity in Twentieth-Century Australia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1992 (first published 1984), p. 88; Marilyn Lake, Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1999, p. 53; Alana Piper, ‘ “A growing vice”: the Truth about Brisbane girls and drunkenness in the early twentieth century,’ Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 34, no. 4, 2010, pp. 485–97; Clare Wright, Beyond the Ladies Lounge: Australia’s Female Publicans, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2003; Jill Julius Matthews, ‘Dancing modernity’, in Barbara Caine & Rosemary Pringle (eds), Transitions: New Australian Feminisms, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1995, pp. 74–87; Melissa Bellanta, Larrikins: A History, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 2012, chapter 2; Melissa Bellanta, ‘The larrikin girl’, Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 34, no. 4, 2010, pp. 499–512; Allen, Sex and Secrets, p. 11; Emsley, Crime and Society in Twentieth-Century England, p. 99; ‘Three men charged’, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 April 1930, p. 8.
Kate Leigh as tough criminal
‘Mama knew best!’, Truth (Sydney), 2 August 1953, p. 52; Tara Moss, ‘The lure of the bad girl’, transcript from speech at the Justice and Police Museum, Sydney, 2009, see
Sydney celebrity
‘Kate’s the girl for him, says W.A. beau’, Truth (Sydney), 6 November 1949, p. 3; ‘He complained he couldn’t turn Kate’s water into wine’, Truth (Sydney), 31 January 1954, p. 10; David Nash & Anne-Marie Kilday, ‘Introduction’, in A Kilday & D Nash (eds), Histories of Crime: Britain 1600–2000, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York, 2010, p. 5; Ruth Penfold-Mounce, Celebrity, Culture and Crime: The Joy of Transgression, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2010, pp. 61, 68–69; ‘Recollections from a Surry Hills family’, written communication with the author, 5 November 2015; Hal Baker, interview with the author, 16 August 2013; Sydney Morning Herald, 6 February 1964, p. 5; ‘Kate Leigh bankrupt’, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 1 April 1954, p. 3; ‘Former underworld queens are in the limelight again’, Truth (Sydney), 7 January 1951, p. 9.
The worst woman
Vince Kelly, Rugged Angel: The Amazing Career of Policewoman Lillian Armfield, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1961, p. 191; ‘Worst woman in Sydney’, National Advocate, 7 February 1912, p. 1; ‘A girl who just can’t go straight’, Arrow (Sydney), 11 March 1932, p. 25; ‘Three men charged’, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 April 1930, p. 8; Shani D’Cruze & Louisa A Jackson (eds), Women, Crime and Justice in England Since 1660, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2009, p. 163; ‘Notes from the city’, Scone Advocate, 10 June 1947, p. 3; ‘Study in Scarlet’, People, 15 March 1950, p. 15.
1 A WAYWARD GIRL
Kate Beahan’s birth and family
NSW Government, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (hereafter NSWBDM), ‘Beahan, Catherine Mary Josephine’, 11430/1881, reproduced birth certificate in possession of the author; Allen, ‘Leigh, Kathleen Mary (Kate) (1881–1964)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography,
Kate Beahan’s toughness
Mark Beahan, communication with the author, August 2015; Blaikie, Wild Women of Sydney, p. 132.
Beahan children and crime
Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 28 July 1894, p. 2; 13 April 1898, p. 3; 29 January 1896, p. 2; 12 March 1910, p. 5; Linda Mahood, Policing Gender, Class and Family, Britain 1850–1940, UCL Press, London, 1995, p. 15.
Lost children
Peter Pierce, The Country of Lost Children: An Australian Anxiety, Cambridge University Pr
ess, Cambridge, 1999; ‘A child’s sufferings’, Dubbo report in Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, 30 March 1885, p. 3.
Street kids
‘Notes and comments’, Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 20 August 1898, p. 2.
Kate Beahan’s parents in trouble with the law
‘Country news’, Australian Town and Country Journal, 10 February 1900, p. 15; ‘Country notes’, Australian Town and Country Journal, 16 October 1897, p. 13; ‘Police news’, Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 9 March 1904, p. 3.
Young Kate Beahan and crime
‘Police Court’, Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 1 May 1897, p. 3; Mahood, Policing Gender, Class and Family, Britain 1850–1940, p. 80; Robert van Krieken, ‘State intervention, welfare and the social construction of girlhood in Australian history’, TASA Sociology Conference, Flinders University, Adelaide, 10–13 December 1992,
State intervention
Krieken, ‘State intervention, welfare and the social construction of girlhood in Australian history’, p. 17; Barry Godfrey, Paul Lawrence & Chris A Williams, History and Crime, Sage Publications, London, 2008, chapter 8; Mahood, Policing Gender, Class and Family, Britain 1840–1940, pp. 5–6; Eamonn Carrabine, Pamela Cox, Maggy Lee, Ken Plummer & Nigel South, Criminology: A Sociological Introduction, Routledge, London, 2009, pp. 313, 363–64; D’Cruze & Jackson, Women, Crime and Justice in England Since 1660, p. 137.
Parramatta Girls Industrial School
‘Action for slander’, Narromine News and Trangie Advocate, 6 November 1903, p. 2; ‘Police Court’, Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 5 May 1897, p. 2; Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Report of Case Study No. 7: Child Sexual Abuse at the Parramatta Training School for Girls and the Institution for Girls in Hay, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2014,
Sydney, Federation and Kate Beahan’s child
Erin Ihde, ‘1 January 1901: Australia federates, Australia celebrates’, in Martin Crotty & David Andrew Roberts (eds), Turning Points in Australian History, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2009, pp. 90–91; Phillip Knightley, Australia: Biography of a Nation, Jonathan Cape, London, 2000, pp. 54, 59; Writer, Razor, pp. 10–11; NSWBDM, ‘Beahan, Eileen May’, 684/1900, reproduced birth certificate in possession of the author; Writer, Razor, pp. 10–11; ‘Action for slander’, Narromine News and Trangie Advocate, 6 November 1903, p. 2.
Single mothers
Matthews, Good and Mad Women, pp. 111–12; Shurlee Swain (with Renata Howe), Single Mothers and Their Children: Disposal, Punishment and Survival in Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995, pp. 1, 4, 10; John Welshman, Underclass: A History of the Excluded, 1880–2000, Hambledon Continuum, London, 2006, pp. 2, 21, 22; Sharyn L Roach Anleu, Deviance, Conformity and Control, Pearson Longman, Sydney, 2005, p. 402.
Vagrants
SRNSW, State Penitentiary for Women, Long Bay, ‘Kate Leigh’, NRS 2496, 188 (3/6007); Allen, ‘Leigh, Kathleen Mary (Kate) (1881–1964)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography,
Kate and James Lee (Leigh)
State Penitentiary for Men, Long Bay, ‘Photographic Description and Entrance Books, 1818–1930’, James Lee, No. 10317; Sydney Living Museums, ‘Celestial city: Sydney’s Chinese story’, online exhibition,
Other historical works refer to Kate Leigh being found guilty of perjury and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in Long Bay Gaol. I could find no record of this conviction and instead found only ‘acquittal’ details in newspapers. The only perjury conviction listed on Kate Leigh’s prison record is for her alibi in the case against Samuel Freeman in 1914. See: ‘Central Criminal Court’, Sydney Morning Herald, 22 November 1905, p. 6; ‘Action for slander’, Narromine News and Trangie Advocate, 6 November 1903, p. 2.
End of the marriage and opium
‘Whose opium’, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 1910, p. 4; McCoy, Drug Traffic, pp. 70–82.
Kate Leigh as ‘rogue’
SRNSW, ‘Re:– History of Kate Lee, No. 2 Police Station, Sydney, 6th July 1914’, ‘Robbery Under Arms – The Eveleigh Heist, 1914’, NRS 880 [9/7196], online exhibition,
2 FROG HOLLOW THIEVES
Staff at Parramatta
‘ “Dens of iniquity”, says counsel’, Truth (Sydney), 8 March 1942, p. 28; ‘Raided: four arrests in Surry Hills’, Truth (Sydney), 10 February 1929, p. 1; Daily Guardian, 11 March 1926 and 23 April 1930, mentioned in Christopher Keating, Surry Hills: The City’s Backyard, 2nd edn, Halstead Press, Sydney, 2008, p. 74.
Immigration, settlement and urban planning
Keating, Surry Hills, pp. 16–19, 21, 28, 29, 35, 44, 47, 53, 58, 65, 69, 78–79, 83; Anne O’Brien, Poverty’s Prison: The Poor in New South Wales 1880–1918, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1988, p. 22; Knightley, Australia, p. 44; Michael Pacione, Urban Geography: A Global Perspective, Routledge, London, 2005, p. 167; Writer, Razor, pp. 3–4; ‘Sydney’s worst slum area is owned by city council’, Sunday Times (Sydney), 15 May 1927, p. 1; City of Sydney Oral History Project, interview with Richard Mewjork, Oral Histories, 12 September 2011,
Street life in Surry Hills
Blaikie, Wild Women of Sydney, pp. 23–24; Jeannine Baker, interview with her grandmother, Mary Baker, 18 April 1998, transcript given to the author; Park, The Harp in the South, p. 48; ‘Study in scarlet’, People, 15 March 1950, p. 15.
Irishness and poverty
O’Farrell, The Irish in Australia, p. 155. O’Farrell also refers to Ruth Park’s work and the saying that the Irish were ‘hard working, hard drinking, and as carefree as the day was long’; AL Beier, ‘ “Takin’ it to the streets”: Henry Mayhew and the language of the underclass in mid-nineteenth-century London’, in AL Beier & Paul Ocobock (eds), Cast Out: Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global and Historical Perspective, Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio, 2008, pp. 93–94.
Underclass
Welshman, Underclass, pp. xii–xiii, xvii, xiv; Robert MacDonald, ‘Dangerous youth and the dangerous class’, in Robert MacDonald (ed.), Youth, the ‘Underclass’ and Social Exclusion, Routledge, London, 1997, p. 4. Also quoted in: Robert MacDonald, ‘ “Essentially Barbarians”? Researching the “Youth Unde
rclass” ’, in Pamela Davies, Peter Francis & Victor Jupp (eds), Doing Criminological Research, Sage, London and Singapore, 2011, p. 181; Abby Margolis, ‘Subversive accommodations: doing homeless in Tokyo’s Ueno Park’, in Beier & Ocobock, Cast Out, p. 352.
Crime and gangs
Welshman, Underclass, pp. xii–xv; ‘Lust & larrikinism’, Truth (Sydney), 12 October 1913, p. 2; ‘Sydney’s worst slum area is owned by city council’, Sunday Times (Sydney), 15 May 1927, p. 1; Writer, Razor, p. 8; Keating, Surry Hills, p. 76; Bellanta, Larrikins, chapter 3; Geoffrey Pearson, Hooligan: A History of Respectable Fears, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1983; Alan Wright, Organised Crime, Routledge, London and New York, 2011 (first published 2006), pp. 29, 31, 41–42; Jacob Riis, The Battle with the Slum, Montclair, New Jersey, 1902; Kelly, The Shadow, chapter 12; Emsley, Crime and Society in England, 1750–1900, p. 96; ‘Sydney bludgers’, Farmer and Settler, 1 June 1915, p. 4.
Kate Leigh, gangs and Frog Hollow
State Penitentiary for Men, ‘Photographic Description Book’, ‘Samuel Freeman’, NRS 2467, No. 13845, 3/6086; Writer, Razor, p. 7; ‘Life in prisons’, Townsville Daily Bulletin, 5 February 1940, p. 10; ‘City improvements’, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 September 1923, p. 14; Keating, Surry Hills, pp. 74, 97; Allen, ‘Leigh, Kathleen Mary (Kate) (1881–1964)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography,
Eveleigh Heist
NSW Government, ‘Eveleigh Railway Workshops’, Heritage online database,