by Leigh Straw
; ‘Eveleigh hold-up’, Sydney Morning Herald, 21 July 1914, p. 7; ‘Eveleigh case’, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 July 1914, p. 6; ‘A hold-up’, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 June 1914, p. 9; James Sharpe, Dick Turpin: The Myth of the English Highwayman, Profile Books, London, 2004; Gillian Spraggs, Outlaws and Highwaymen: The Cult of the Robber in England from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century, Pimlico, London, 2001; Graham Seal, The Outlaw Legend: A Cultural Tradition in Britain, America and Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996; ‘The hold-up’, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 June 1914, p. 20; ‘The hold-up’, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 June 1914, p. 10; Writer, Razor, pp. 13–14; ‘Eveleigh robbery’, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 July 1914, p. 13; ‘Eveleigh robbery’, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 July 1914, p. 19; ‘Police raid’, Sydney Morning Herald, 2 July 1914, p. 9; ‘Eveleigh case’, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 July 1914, p. 6; ‘Eveleigh hold-up’, Clarence and Richmond Examiner, 23 July 1914, p. 5; ‘Eveleigh case’, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 September 1914, p. 4; ‘The Eveleigh hold-up’, Horsham Times, 15 September 1914, p. 8.
Kate Leigh’s evidence
‘Central Criminal Court’, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 September 1914, p. 6; Writer, Razor, p. 15; SRNSW, ‘Re:– History of Kate Lee, No. 2 Police Station, Sydney, 6th July 1914’,
Verdict and sentencing
‘Eveleigh case’, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 September 1914, p. 4; Life in prisons’, Townsville Daily Bulletin, 5 February 1940, p. 10; Blaikie, Wild Women of Sydney, p. 143; ‘The women’s penitentiary’, Sydney Morning Herald, 29 May 1912, p. 5; SRNSW, ‘Re:– History of Kate Lee, No. 2 Police Station, Sydney, 6th July 1914’,
3 SERVING THE COMMUNITY
Alcohol in Australian history
Grabosky, Sydney in Ferment, p. 44; Michael Sturma, Vice in a Vicious Society: Crime and Convicts in Mid-nineteenth Century New South Wales, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1983, pp. 141, 142, 147, 148, 154, 156; ‘The drunkards’ punishment bill’, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 August 1866, p. 5.
Temperance movement
Sturma, Vice in a Vicious Society, p. 154; Ross Fitzgerald & Trevor L Jordan, Under the Influence: A History of Alcohol in Australia, ABC Books, Sydney, 2009, pp. 31–35, 62–65, 214; Quentin Beresford, ‘Drinkers and the anti-drink movement in Sydney, 1870–1930’, PhD Thesis, Australian National University, Canberra, 1984, pp. 1–2; ‘Youthful criminals’, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 September 1889, p. 8.
Alcohol, disease and crime
Grabosky, Sydney in Ferment, pp. 83, 90, 93; Mariana Valverde, Diseases of the Will: Alcohol and the Dilemmas of Freedom, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998, pp. 39, 48; ‘Treatment of inebriates’, West Australian, 7 May 1914, p. 6; GF Bodington, ‘On the control and restraint of habitual drunkards’, British Medical Journal, 28 August 1875, pp. 255–56; ‘A dipsomaniac’, Evening News, 11 January 1899, p. 3.
Inebriates and liquor restrictions
NSW Parliament, Legislative Council, Standing Committee on Social Issues, ‘Report on the Inebriates Act 1912’, Report No. 33, August 2004, Sydney, pp. 15–21; Walter Phillips, ‘ “Six o’clock swill”: the introduction of early closing of hotel bars in Australia’, Historical Studies, vol. 19, no. 75, 1980, pp. 261, 263; Beresford, ‘Drinkers and the anti-drink movement in Sydney, 1870–1930’, p. vii; Writer, Razor, p. 39.
Loss of drinking rights
Australian Star, 5 March 1908, cited in Beresford, ‘Drinkers and the anti-drink movement in Sydney, 1870–1930’, p. 234; Diane Kirkby, ‘ “Beer, glorious beer”: gender politics and Australian popular culture’, Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 37, no. 2, 2003, pp. 245, 246; Tanja Luckins, ‘ “Satan finds some mischief”?: drinkers’ responses to the six o’clock closing of pubs in Australia, 1910s–1930s’, Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 32, no. 3, 2008, p. 302; Beresford, ‘Drinkers and the anti-drink movement in Sydney, 1870–1930’, pp. xiii–xiv, 229; Phillips, ‘ “Six o’clock swill” ’, p. 264.
Sly grog
Phillips, ‘ “Six o’clock swill” ’, pp. 254, 266; Luckins, ‘ “Satan finds some mischief”?’, p. 298; Beresford, ‘Drinkers and the anti-drink movement in Sydney, 1870–1930’, p. 232; McCoy, Drug Traffic, p. 160.
Teddy Barry
NSWBDM, ‘Barry, Edward J/Leigh, Kathleen’, 13114/1922, reproduced marriage certificate in possession of the author; State Penitentiary for Men, Long Bay, ‘Photographic Description and Entrance Books, 1818– 1930’, ‘Edward Barry’, series 1998, item 3/5967, roll 5087; Writer, Razor, p. 11; ‘Family notices’, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 June 1948, p. 10.
Kate Leigh’s groggeries
Luckins, ‘ “Satan finds some mischief”?’, p. 299; ‘Study in scarlet’, People, 15 March 1950, p. 15. Hal Baker, interview with the author, 16 August 2013; ‘Fined for selling sly grog that was water’, Mirror (Perth), 6 February 1954, p. 4; ‘Warns witness of language in Kate Leigh “sly grog” case’, Courier-Mail (Brisbane), 30 January 1954, p. 3; ‘Kate Leigh gets 6 months’ gaol term on sly-grog charge’, Truth (Sydney), 21 March 1943, p. 11; ‘ “Not British justice,” says counsel to S.M. in sly grog case’, Truth (Sydney), 7 February 1943, p. 19; Blaikie, Wild Women of Sydney, p. 149; Grabosky, Sydney in Ferment, p. 119; ‘Hills hotels’, Evening News (Sydney), 5 October 1922, p. 7.
Police investigations
McCoy, Drug Traffic, p. 138; ‘Police raids’, Tweed Daily, 27 September 1920, p. 3; ‘Sly grog raid’, Daily Observer (Tamworth), 29 November 1920, p. 2; Jeannine Baker, interview with her grandmother, Mary Baker, 18 April 1998, transcript given to the author; Blaikie, Wild Women of Sydney, p. 149; ‘Gang war’, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 December 1929, p. 13; ‘Kate Leigh (war worker) wins sly-grog appeal’, Truth (Sydney), 11 October 1942, p. 10; ‘Kate Leigh gets 6 months’ gaol term on sly-grog charge’, Truth (Sydney), 21 March 1943, p. 11; ‘Cache of liquor forfeited’, Canberra Times, 25 May 1943, p. 4; Grabosky, Sydney in Ferment, p. 136; ‘Sly-grog traffic’, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 April 1943, p. 3.
Community appeal
‘From sly-grog to war work’, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 October 1942, p. 9; ‘Highest penalty inflicted. Woman on sly grog charge’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 September 1942, p. 7; ‘Kate Leigh appeals against gaol term’, Truth (Sydney), 13 September 1942, p. 11.
Henry John ‘Jack’ Baker
Note: Baker was always referred to as ‘Jack’ by Kate Leigh, but to his family he was ‘Henry’ or ‘Harry’.
Hal Baker, interview with the author, 16 August 2013; Jeannine Baker, interview with her grandmother, Mary Baker, 18 April 1998, transcript given to the author; ‘Kate Leigh gets 6 months’ gaol term on sly-grog charge’, Truth (Sydney), 21 March 1943, p. 11; ‘ “Not British justice,” says counsel to S.M. in sly grog case’, Truth (Sydney), 7 February 1943, p. 19; Blaikie, Wild Women of Sydney, p. 151.
Sly-grogging from the 1950s and royal commission
‘Kate Leigh starts her new year …’, Mirror (Perth), 10 January 1953, p. 10; McCoy, Drug Traffic, pp. 167–68; ‘Bankruptcy of hotelkeeper’, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 July 1940, p. 4; Kelly, Rugged Angel, p. 191.
Underground drinking
Luckins, ‘ “Satan finds some mischief”?’, p. 298; Bill Jenkings, As Crime Goes by … The Life and Times of ‘Bondi’ Bill Jenkings, Ironbark Press, Sydney, 1992, p. 128.
4 SEX AND SNOW
Gingering
Adam Harvey, ‘US military makes its mark’, The World Today, ABC Radio, 11 November 2011,
’, Truth (Sydney), 12 March 1944, p. 9; ‘Study in scarlet’, People, 15 March 1950, p. 14.
Prostitution history
Roberta Perkins, ‘Control, regulation and legislation’, chapter 2 in Roberta Perkins, Working Girls: Prostitutes, Their Life and Social Control, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra, 1991,
Sydney and prostitution
Frances, Selling Sex, p. 31; Kay Daniels, Convict Women, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1998, p. 209; NSW Legislative Assembly, ‘Select committee into the condition of the working classes of the metropolis’, Votes and Proceedings, vol. 4, 1854–60, p. 68; Michael Ryan, Prostitution in London, with a Comparative View of that of Paris and New York, H Baillière, London, 1839, p. 170; Anleu, Deviance, Conformity and Control, p. 199; Judith Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class and the State, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001 (first published 1980), p. 13; ‘The social evil’, Empire (Sydney), 13 March 1865, p. 2; Raelene Davidson, ‘Prostitution in Perth and Fremantle and on the eastern goldfields, 1895 – September 1939’, MA thesis, University of Western Australia, 1980, pp. 160–61, 166; Havelock Ellis, The Criminal, Walter Scott, London, 1890, p. 218; Anleu, Deviance, Conformity and Control, p. 199; ‘Sydney’s worst slum area is owned by city council’, Sunday Times (Sydney), 15 May 1927, p. 1.
Kate Leigh’s slander case
‘Police Court’, Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 1 May 1897, p. 3; Mark Beahan, interview with the author, 6 August 2015; ‘Action for slander’, Narromine News and Trangie Advocate, 6 November 1903, p. 2.
Common prostitutes and health threats
Allen, Sex and Secrets, pp. 20, 75; ‘Rescue work in the city’, Sydney Morning Herald, 16 June 1903, p. 3; Allen, Sex and Secrets, p. 93; ‘Shocking tale of life of semi-slavery’, Arrow (Sydney), 11 March 1932, p. 24; Frances, Selling Sex, pp. 152, 158; Paul McHugh, Prostitution and Victorian Social Reform, Croom Helm, London, 1980, p. 17; EM Sigsworth & TJ Wyke, ‘A study of Victorian prostitution and venereal disease’, in Martha Vicinus (ed.), Suffer and Be Still: Women in the Victorian Age, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1973, p. 77; Bland, ‘ “Purifying” the public world’, p. 400; D’Cruze & Jackson, Women, Crime and Justice in England since 1660, p. 72.
Urban planning and prostitution
Perkins, ‘Control, regulation and legislation’,
Policing sex and community reactions
Frances, Selling Sex, pp. 155, 244–47; Grabosky, Sydney in Ferment, p. 126; McCoy, Drug Traffic, p. 138; Allen, Sex and Secrets, pp. 73, 93–94, 174, 177; Kelly, Rugged Angel, p. 65; ‘Plea for chastity’, Sunday Times (Sydney), 6 November 1927, p. 5; Jeannine Baker, interview with her grandmother, Mary Baker, 18 April 1998, transcript given to the author.
Kate Leigh and prostitution
Allen, Sex and Secrets, p. 171; SRNSW, New South Wales Police Gazette, 10 December 1913, p. 543, in Police Gazettes, series 10958, reels 3129– 3143, 3594–3606; SRNSW, Supreme Court Papers and Depositions, ‘Supreme Court Sydney and on Circuit [9/7196] R v Kate Leigh, Perjury’, NRS 880 [9/7196]; Christine Nixon, ‘History of women in the police force’, in Patricia Weiser Easteal & Sandra McKillop (eds), Women and the Law: Proceedings of a Conference Held 24–26 September 1991, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra, 1991,
Lillian Armfield
Kelly, Rugged Angel, pp. 40, 42–43, 191, 192, 211.
Sydney brothels
Frances, Selling Sex, p. 219; Darcy Dugan with Michael Tatlow, Bloodhouse, HarperCollins, Sydney, 2012, p. 26.
Community acceptance
‘A girl who just can’t go straight’, Arrow (Sydney), 11 March 1932, p. 25; Matthews, Good and Mad Women, p. 122; Martha Vicinus, ‘Introduction: the perfect Victorian lady’, in Vicinus (ed.), Suffer and Be Still, p. xiv; Frances, Selling Sex, pp. 29, 169, 244–47, 615; ‘Study in scarlet’, People, 15 March 1950, p. 14; ‘The world of limelight. Gangsters love glare of publicity’, Truth (Sydney), 4 October 1931, p. 1.
Cocaine making a comeback
Brenden Hills, ‘Cocaine is becoming one of Sydney’s most popular drugs with drug dealers reaping up to $35,000 a week from users’, Sunday Telegraph, 1 February 2014; Laura Banks, Ian Walker & Sarah Crawford, ‘Sydney pubs are flooded with cocaine’, Daily Telegraph, 21 July 2015.
Cocaine history in Sydney
‘The cocaine habit’, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 19 February 1887, p. 410; ‘Traffic in drugs’, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 April 1928, p. 5. For some good discussions of cocaine history and drugs in Australia, see: Nick Constable, This Is Cocaine, Sanctuary Publishing, London, 2002, chapter 3; Desmond Manderson, From Mr Sin to Mr Big: A History of Australian Drug Laws, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1993, p. 53; McCoy, Drug Traffic, chapters 1 and 2.
Policing drugs
Kelly, Rugged Angel, pp. 124, 128, 129–30, 191; ‘Customs raid. Opium and cocaine seized’, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 August 1925, p. 9; ‘Opium raid’, Tweed Daily, 7 August 1925, p. 3: ‘Surry Hills premises raided by police’, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 24 March 1928, p. 2.
Women and drugs
Kelly, Rugged Angel, pp. 130–31; ‘A cocaine victim’, Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 18 June 1929, p. 1; ‘Drug victims. The curse of cocaine’, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 December 1921, p. 7; ‘Cocaine menace’, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 April 1928, p. 101; McCoy, Drug Traffic, pp. 121–22.
Kate Leigh investigated
Kelly, Rugged Angel, p. 191; ‘Cocaine raid’, Sydney Morning Herald, 2 July 1930, p. 14; ‘Unable to attend. Kate Leigh sick’, Newcastle Sun, 16 July 1930, p. 5; ‘In memorium’, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 July 1937, p. 10; ‘Kate storms in court’, Truth (Sydney), 3 August 1930, p. 15; ‘Costly cocaine’, National Advocate, 14 February 1931, p. 5; ‘Underworld hag-queen of Long Bay’, Truth (Sydney), 1 February 1931, p. 1; Manderson, From Mr Sin to Mr Big, p. 106.
5 RAZORS AND RIVALS
Sydney razor gangs
‘The razor gang. Terrorists of Darlinghurst underworld’, Truth (Sydney), 12 June 1927, p. 15; ‘Paddington gentrification’, Four Corners, ABC TV, 15 December 1962,
Organised crime and drugs
McCoy, Drug Traffic, pp. 142, 153–56.
Matilda Devine
National Archives Australia, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers 1914–1920, ‘Devine, J E’, Statement of service record, NAA: B2455,
Gang violence and police investigations
‘Gang warfare’, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 June 1927, p. 11; Frank Cain, ‘MacKay, William John (1885–1948)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University,
Wally Tomlinson
‘Acquitted’, Maitland Daily Mercury, 13 June 1930, p. 6; ‘ “Fight with fists” advises judge’, Truth (Sydney), 15 June 1930, p. 17.
John ‘Snowy’ Prendergast’s death
‘Says she shot in defence of Crown witness’, Truth (Sydney), 30 March 1930, p. 13; ‘Notorious underworld figure does not fear for life’, Truth (Sydney), 13 April 1930, p. 7; ‘Justified. Killing of Prendergast’, Newcastle Sun, 8 April 1930, p. 6; ‘Woman who defied law for years’, Truth (Sydney), 19 October 1930, p. 17; Sydney Morning Herald, 27 April 1956, p. 1; Writer, Razor, pp. 314–17.
Kate Leigh as violent leader
‘Woman who defied law for years’, Truth (Sydney), 19 October 1930, p. 17; ‘Mystery murder in Palmer St.’, Truth (Sydney), 20 April 1930, p. 20
Kate Leigh consorting and in prison
McCoy, Drug Traffic, p. 138; Grabosky, Sydney in Ferment, p. 138; State Penitentiary for Women, Long Bay, ‘Photograph Description Book, 1930–1970’, SRNSW, NRS 2497, No. 839, 14/3137; ‘Consorting charge. Kate Barry sentenced’, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 January 1932, p. 6; ‘Underworld hag-queen of Long Bay’, Truth (Sydney), 1 February 1931, p. 1; ‘Banished for five years’, Truth (Sydney), 4 June 1933, p. 24; ‘The Leighs have left per prison tram’, Truth (Sydney), 6 August 1933, p. 9; ‘Man shot in Sydney’, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 19 February 1938, p. 3.