by Leigh Straw
Chow Hayes
Margaret Throsby interview with Chow Hayes, 1990, ABC Radio,
Underbelly: Razor family feud
Zoe Nauman, ‘Making up for my evil gran Tilly Devine’, Sunday Telegraph, 17 July 2011,
Rivalry between Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine
Nauman, ‘Making up for my evil gran Tilly Devine’, Sunday Telegraph, 17 July 2011; Louis Nowra, Kings Cross: A Biography, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, 2013, p. 147; ‘Lively “welcome home” for Tilly Devine’, Truth (Sydney), 11 January 1931, p. 18; ‘Underworld hag-queen of Long Bay’, Truth (Sydney), 1 February 1931, p. 1.
The story about Kate Leigh sitting on Tilly Devine was shared with me by a local one day as I sat outside our Palmer Street house. He told me various stories about the street and this was one he delighted in retelling. I have heard different versions of this story, and while some of the details vary, the part about Kate Leigh sitting on top of Tilly Devine features in them all.
Rivalry and the newspapers
‘Says Tilly to Kate. Underworld hymn of hate’, Truth (Sydney), 29 June 1930, p. 15; ‘Into cells again. Kate Leigh shrieked at judge’, Truth (Sydney), 12 October 1930, p. 1; Blaikie, Wild Women of Sydney, p. 131; ‘Kate didn’t like being classed with Tilly’, Mirror (Perth), 27 March 1943, p. 12; ‘Notes from the city’, Scone Advocate, 9 January 1948, p. 3.
Kate Leigh more popular than Tilly Devine
‘Says Tilly to Kate. Underworld hymn of hate’, Truth (Sydney), 29 June 1930, p. 15; Hal Baker, interview with the author, 16 August 2013.
6 EILEEN LEIGH
Introduction to Eileen Leigh
‘Infamous woman freed under licence – why?’, Truth (Sydney), 1 June 1947, p. 32; Allen, Sex and Secrets, p. 11; Matthews, Good and Mad Women, pp. 175–76; ‘Kate storms in court’, Truth (Sydney), 3 August 1930, p. 15; ‘Notes from the city’, Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Observer, 6 June 1947, p. 1.
Young Eileen Leigh
James Franklin, ‘Convent slave laundries? Magdalen asylums in Australia’, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, vol. 34, 2013, pp. 70–90; NSWBDM, ‘Earle, Albert/Leigh, Eileen’, 9728/1920, reproduced marriage certificate in possession of the author.
Eileen’s entry into crime
‘Birds of prey: nest in dismal, dilapidated dens’, Truth (Sydney), 30 January 1921, p. 7; Matthews, Good and Mad Women, pp. 88, 175–76; Lake, Getting Equal, p. 53; Martin Crotty, Making the Australian Male: Middle-class Masculinity 1870–1920, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2001; Angela Woollacott, ‘Gender and sexuality’ in Deryck M Schreuder & Stuart Ward, Australia’s Empire, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009, (first published 2008 edition), pp. 324–25, quoted in Patricia Grimshaw, ‘Gendered settlements’, in Patricia Grimshaw, Marilyn Lake, Ann McGrath & Marian Quartly, Creating a Nation 1788–1990, McPhee Gribble, Melbourne, 1994, p. 178.
The good mother
‘What a good mother does’, Freeman’s Journal, 27 May 1920, p. 12; ‘Mothers and morality’, Truth (Sydney), 1 September 1912, p. 1; Sydney Morning Herald, 2 December 1932, p. 4; ‘Demand for ban on “good time mothers” ’, Truth (Sydney), 2 January 1949, p. 23.
Kate Leigh as a court mother
‘Eileen, Allanah! A frail fairy “fitted” ’, Truth (Sydney), 29 October 1922, p. 5; ‘Disturbed court’, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miner’s Advocate, 9 October 1929, p. 9.
Eileen compared to her mother
‘A fool for 12/11 – shoplifter’, Truth (Sydney), 22 March 1936, p. 12.
Eileen’s criminal career
‘Eileen Leigh still here’, Truth (Sydney), 26 March 1933, p. 11; ‘Pore [sic] Eileen!’, Truth (Sydney), 18 September 1932, p. 13; ‘Eileen Earl [sic] pops in again’, Truth (Sydney), 1 July 1934, p. 13; ‘Divorce Court’, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 May 1927, p. 8; ‘Kate Leigh’s daughter makes an effort to vindicate herself’, Arrow (Sydney), 25 March 1932, p. 6; ‘Eileen Earle discharged’, Truth (Sydney), 23 April 1933, p. 17; ‘Infamous woman freed under licence – why?’, Truth (Sydney), 1 June 1947, p. 32; ‘Woman hurt in Surry Hills shooting’, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 August 1947, p. 4; ‘Jury acquits man charged with shooting’, Truth (Sydney), 8 February 1948, p. 7.
Eileen and Kate Leigh in business together
‘Defence “lot of lies”, says judge’, Truth (Sydney), 17 August 1947, p. 46; Newcastle Sun, 6 April 1948, p. 3; ‘Bottles, fists fly in Lansdowne St. brawl’, Truth (Sydney), 12 September 1948, p. 4.
Eileen Leigh’s later life
‘Kate Leigh’s daughter makes an effort to vindicate herself’, Arrow (Sydney), 25 March 1932, p. 6; ‘Woman gaoled for theft: daughter of “queen of underworld” ’, Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 6 December 1950, p. 4.
7 SURRY HILLS MATRIARCH
Kate Leigh’s notoriety in the papers
‘Cocaine raid. House surrounded. Violent woman prisoner’, Sydney Morning Herald, 2 July 1930, p. 14; ‘This notorious woman and her chauffeur’, Truth (Sydney), 10 February 1929, p. 24; ‘Woman who defied law for years’, Truth (Sydney), 19 October 1930, p. 17; ‘Underworld hag tries to attack “Truth” representative’, Truth (Sydney), 6 March 1932, p. 15; ‘Two bragging crooks live on the fat of the land’, Truth (Sydney), 27 August 1933, p. 13; Yvonne Jewkes, Crime and Media, Sage Publications, London, 2004, p. 3; Penfold-Mounce, Celebrity, Culture and Crime, p. 99.
Newspapers turn Kate Leigh into a household name
‘Kate Leigh loses £200’, Truth (Sydney), 28 April 1929, p. 13; ‘Gaol for Kate’, Truth (Sydney), 16 June 1929, p. 16; ‘Kate Leigh arrested’, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 December 1931, p. 6; ‘Consorting charge. Kate Barry sentenced’, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 January 1932, p. 6; ‘Kate Leigh. Robbery charge dismissed’, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 October 1931, p. 10; ‘Kate’s driver gets 15 months’, Truth (Sydney), 27 July 1930, p. 17; Penfold-Mounce, Celebrity, Culture and Crime, pp. 4–7, 69.
Kate Leigh crafting courtroom identity
‘Into cells again. Kate Leigh shrieked at judge’, Truth (Sydney), 12 October 1930, p. 1; ‘Notorious underworld figure does not fear for life’, Truth (Sydney), 13 April 1930, p. 17; ‘Pore [sic] Eileen!’, Truth (Sydney), 18 September 1932, p. 13; Jenkings, As Crime Goes by …, p. 129.
Criminal celebrity
Penfold-Mounce, Celebrity, Culture and Crime, pp. 75, 76–77, 79, 104–108.
Community identity
Luckins, ‘ “Satan finds some mischief”?’, p. 297; ‘Into cells again. Kate Leigh shrieked at judge’, Truth (Sydney), 12 October 1930, p. 1.
Kate Leigh’s management of her public image
‘No murder trial, claims Kate Leigh’, Mirror (Perth), 1 April 1950, p. 2; ‘Xmas party For children’, Truth (Sydney), 15 December 1946, p. 59; ‘Study in scarlet’, People, 15 March 1950, p. 13; ‘Sydney underworld figure Kate Leigh, at left, with Father Christmas, 5 January 1948’, Sydney Morning Herald, 5 January 1948, Fairfax Syndication,
Community support
Jeannine Baker, interview with her uncle, Hal Baker, 2 May 1998, transcript given to the author; author’s correspondence with Baker family members, August 2015; Jeannine Baker, interview with her grandmother, Mary Baker, 18 April 1998, transcript given to the author; ‘Study in scarlet’, People, 15 March 1950, p. 13; anonymous former Surry Hills local, interview with the author, July 2015; Sydney Morning Herald, 6 February 1964, p. 5; Allen, Sex and Secrets, p. 174; ‘Woman bound over’, Barrier Miner (B
roken Hill), 3 June 1933, p. 1.
Kate Leigh’s personal views of herself
Mirror (Perth), 27 March 1943, p. 12; ‘Study in scarlet’, People, 15 March 1950, pp. 14–15; ‘Witness says Kate Leigh is proud type’, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 October 1954, p. 8; ‘Study in scarlet’, People, 15 March 1950, pp. 14–15.
Matriarch of Surry Hills
‘Study in scarlet’, People, 15 March 1950, p. 11; Hal Baker, interview with the author, 16 August 2013; ‘Kate’s the girl for him, says W.A. beau’, Truth (Sydney), 6 November 1949, p. 3.
8 ‘UNDERWORLD ROMANCE OF THE CENTURY’
Eveleigh lovers and friends
‘Life in prisons’, Townsville Daily Bulletin, 5 February 1940, p. 10; ‘Former underworld queens are in the limelight again’, Truth (Sydney), 7 January 1951, p. 9.
Shiner Ryan’s background
‘Recollections of some notable criminals’, Daily News (Perth), 20 January 1934, p. 17; ‘ “Shiner” Ryan tried – but failed’, Mirror (Perth), 22 October 1938, p. 17; ‘Recollections of some notable criminals’, Daily News (Perth), 20 January 1934, p. 17; ‘Two undesirable immigrants from South Australia’, West Australian, 10 October 1905, p. 4; ‘Perth’s pushes’, Truth (Perth), 7 May 1904, p. 3; ‘Reformation of Ryan’, Register (Adelaide), 17 July 1926, p. 9; ‘Ryan’s appeal dismissed’, Advertiser (Adelaide), 27 June 1930, p. 22; ‘Gunman’s remarkable record’, Daily News (Perth), 16 November 1932, p. 2; ‘Recollections of some notable criminals’, Daily News (Perth), 20 January 1934, p. 17; ‘ “Shiner” Ryan tried – but failed’, Mirror (Perth), 22 October 1938, p. 17; ‘Shiner Ryan prefers watches to women’, Daily News (Perth), 25 November 1949, pp. 1, 9; Ron Davidson, High Jinks at the Hot Pool: The Mirror Reflects the Life of a City, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle, 1994, p. 214.
Shiner Ryan and Kate Leigh’s romance
‘Kate Leigh to wed Shiner Ryan, she tells friends at dance’, Truth (Sydney), 26 July 1942, p. 13; ‘Former underworld queens are in the limelight again’, Truth (Sydney), 7 January 1951, p. 9; Hal Baker, interview with the author, 16 August 2013; ‘Kate’s the girl for him, says W.A. beau’, Truth (Sydney), 6 November 1949, p. 3; ‘Kate Leigh leaves for Adelaide’, Newcastle Sun, 23 November 1949, p. 3.
The wedding
‘Kate in no mood to talk after tiring air trip’, Mirror (Perth), 26 November 1949, p. 8; ‘Kate was married without her rings’, Mirror (Perth), 21 January 1950, pp. 9, 11; ‘Kate Leigh here – wearing £1,000 worth of jewellery’, Mirror (Perth), 26 November 1949, pp. 1, 9; ‘Shiner Ryan may marry’, Daily News (Perth), 29 July 1942, p. 4; ‘Kate was married without her rings’, Mirror (Perth), 21 January 1950, pp. 9, 11; ‘Newlyweds book posh Sydney club’, Mirror (Perth), 21 January 1950, p. 11; ‘Kate’s the girl for him, says W.A. beau’, Truth (Sydney), 6 November 1949, p. 3; ‘Shiner Ryan weds NSW woman here’, Mirror (Perth), 17 January 1950, p. 2.
The Ryans separate
Davidson, High Jinks at the Hot Pool, p. 223; ‘Former underworld queens are in the limelight again’, Truth (Sydney), 7 January 1951, p. 9.
Shiner’s last years
Wendy Wilson, interview with the author, 10 September 2015; ‘Kate and “Shiner” at war again’, Truth (Sydney), 7 June 1953, p. 48; Metropolitan Cemeteries Board, ‘Summary of Record Information – Ernest Alexander Ryan’,
9 REMEMBERING KATE LEIGH
People interview and sly-grog case
‘Study in scarlet’, People, 15 March 1950, pp. 11–15; ‘Locked vice squad chief in bedroom!’, Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 24 April 1953, p. 1; ‘Fined for selling sly grog that was water’, Mirror (Perth), 6 February 1954, p. 4.
Taxation case
‘The bloom has gone off sly grog, Kate says’, Truth (Sydney), 8 August 1954, p. 12; ‘Kate Leigh in form from witness box’, Cootamundra Herald, 15 October 1954, p. 1; Tanja Luckins, ‘Pigs, hogs and Aussie blokes: the emergence of the term “six o’clock swill” ’, History Australia, vol. 4, no. 1, 2007, p. 12; ‘Time gents! … For a word on beer’, Truth (Sydney), 7 November 1954, p. 7.
Death of Kate Leigh
Sydney Morning Herald, 6 February 1964, p. 5; Jenkings, As Crime Goes by …, p. 132; Sydney Morning Herald, 6 February 1964, p. 5.
Popular interest in Kate Leigh
‘Razor gangs revisited, cabaret-style’, City of Sydney Media Centre,
Kate Leigh’s tradition
Seal, The Outlaw Legend, pp. 189–92; Allen, ‘Leigh, Kathleen Mary (Kate) (1881–1964)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography,
Quintessentially Australian
Marise Williams, ‘The gender politics of Underbelly Razor’, Southerly, vol. 72, no. 2, 2012, p. 22; ‘Underworld hag-queen of Long Bay’, Truth (Sydney), 1 February 1931, p. 1; Blaikie, Wild Women of Sydney, p. 159; Russel Ward, The Australian Legend, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1958, pp. 1–2.
Outlaw, matriarch and larrikin
Seal, The Outlaw Legend, p. 184; Blaikie, Wild Women of Sydney, p. 160; Vicki Jensen & Kristyan M Kouri, ‘Introduction: women criminals and the crimes they commit’, in Vicki Jensen (ed.), Women Criminals: An Encyclopedia of People and Issues, vol. 1, ‘Issues related to women and crime’, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California, 2012, pp. 3–24; ‘Study in scarlet’, People, 15 March 1950, p. 15; Hugh Anderson, The Rise and Fall of Squizzy Taylor: A Larrikin Crook, 2nd edn, Pier 9, Sydney, 2011 (first published Jacaranda Press, Brisbane, 1971); Bellanta, Larrikins; Writer, Razor, p. 320.
Dubbo and Narromine
Mark Beahan, conversation with the author, 30 August 2015; ‘Dubbo crime queen’s ride’, Daily Liberal (Dubbo), 24 April 2012,
Kate Leigh’s life ledger
Kate Leigh obituary, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 February 1964, p. 5.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Newspapers
Advertiser (Adelaide)
Arrow (Sydney)
Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney)
Barrier Miner (Broken Hill)
Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal
Canberra Times
Clarence and Richmond Examiner
Courier-Mail (Brisbane)
Daily Mirror (Sydney)
Daily Telegraph (Sydney)
Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate
Empire (Sydney)
Evening News (Sydney)
Examiner (Launceston)
Farmer and Settler (Sydney)
Mirror (Perth)
Narromine News and Trangie Advocate
National Advocate (Bathurst)
Newcastle Sun
Northern Miner (Charters Towers)
People (Sydney)
Scone Advocate
Sunday Telegraph (Sydney)
Sunday Times (Perth)
Sunday Times (Sydney)
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advocate
Sydney Morning Herald
Time Out (Melbourne)
Townsville Daily Bulletin
Truth (Perth)
Truth (Sydney)
West Australian
State Records New South Wales
New South Wales Police Gazettes, series 10958, reels 3129–3143, 359
4–3606
State Penitentiary for Men, Long Bay, ‘Photographic Description and Entrance Books, 1818–1930’, series 1998
State Penitentiary for Women, Long Bay, ‘Photograph Description Book 1910–1930’, NRS 2496
State Penitentiary for Women, Long Bay, ‘Photograph Description Book 1930–1970’, NRS 2497
Supreme Court Papers and Depositions, NRS 880
Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, NSW
NSW Government, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, ‘Barry, Edward J/Leigh, Kathleen’, 13114/1922, reproduced marriage certificate in possession of author
NSW Government, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, ‘Beahan, Catherine Mary Josephine’, 11430/1881, reproduced birth certificate in possession of the author
NSW Government, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, ‘Beahan, Eileen May’, 684/1900, reproduced birth certificate in possession of the author
NSW Government, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, ‘Beahan, Timothy/Smith, Charlotte’, 2129/1868, reproduced marriage certificate in possession of the author
NSW Government, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, ‘Earle, Albert/Leigh, Eileen’, 9728/1920, reproduced marriage certificate in possession of the author
NSW Government, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, ‘Lee, James/ Beahan, Kathleen’, 2948/1902, reproduced marriage certificate in possession of the author