The Razor gang wars, 1927-31

The suburbs of Darlinghurst, Woolloomooloo and Kings Cross in Sydney in the late 1920s and early 1930s was a world in turmoil with vicious razor gangs battling for control of the criminal underworld. The upsurge in organised crime in the late 1920s is usually attributed to several factors:

the prohibition on prostitution the prohibition on selling cocaine through legalised outlets such as chemists, and six oclock closing of public bars and hotels.

The razor gangs were the criminal underworld that ran organised crime often centred on these three areas. They are called razor gangs because of the cut throat razor (a straight shaving blade) that was the weapon of choice, especially after the Pistol Licensing Act of 1927 meant automatic gaol time for anyone caught carrying an unlicensed firearm.

Gang leaders
The razor gangs at the heart of the razor gang wars of 1927-31 were led by two very different women: Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh. Tilly Devine, known as the Queen of Woolloomooloo ran a string of brothels centred around Darlinghurst and the Cross, and in particular, Palmer Street. Kate Leigh, known as the Queen of Surry Hills, was a sly groger and fence for stolen property. Tilly and Kates battle for supremacy led to a running battle in the streets of Sydney that left many people dead, disfigured or doing gaol time.

A map of Sydney c.1927 (SR Map 6235) showing where the Razor Gangs controlled

Tillys story
Street walker
Matilda Twiss was born in Camberwell, London in 1900. She began working as a prostitute after she left school. Tilly was flirty, vivacious, buxom and pretty and she was soon earning good money. She met James Edward Devine in 1916 and it was a case of opposites attracting. They married in 1917 and soon had a son. Tilly followed Jim to Sydney in 1919, leaving behind her infant son to be raised by her parents.

Marriage
James Edward Devine, or Big Jim, was born in Victoria in 1892. Whilst serving as an Australian Digger in World War I he met and married Tilly Twiss. Jim was known to be sour and sullen and quick to temper. He was also a small time crook who could provide protection for Tilly when she worked as a prostitute and went on to sell cocaine through Tillys brothels.

Gaol term

By 1925 Tilly was well-known to police. She had a long list of past convictions; the numerous offences ranged from common prositute to indecent language, offensive behaviour and assault. The police report is a snapshot of the life that Tilly was leading upto 1925, a life that involved working the streets at night, clashes with Police, and lots of parties and heavy drinking. Tilly served two years in the State Reformatory, Long Bay for maliciously wounding Sydney Corke with a razor blade. The stint inside convinced her to make some important career changes when she was released. She decided to start her own brothels rather than continuing as a street walking prostitute. Tilly was able to pursue a long career as a madam because the law stated that it was only illegal for men to live off the earnings of prostitutes. She quickly set up a number of brothels around Palmer Street when she was released from gaol.

Arch-enemy
Kate Leigh, born 1887, had a personal rivalry and enmity with Tilly that lasted for many years. They headed two of the most powerful razor gangs and were out to protect their own. Kate ran a sly-grog business which provided illegal alcohol after 6pm when the pubs had to shut. Both women were rich, powerful, violent and tried to outdo each other with furs and jewels. While Kate was a tough adversary for Tilly, she had a generous side and loved to be in court to see daily proceedings, sometimes bringing her vegetables to prepare for her evening meal.

Gang members
Francis Donald Green (Frank Green) was born in Sydney in 1902. He became known as The Little Gunman, reflecting his stature of 1.65m. His prison record states that Green had brown hair and eyes, along with an L-shaped scar on his right cheek (a razor scar) and several bullet wounds on his body. Green worked as a gun for hire and Tilly used him to protect her brothels in the late 1920s. Green had an explosive temper, not helped by the fact he was an alcoholic and cocaine addict. Green had a falling out with the Devines after the 1929 shooting of Gregory Gaffney and he faded to obscurity before dying from stab wounds inflicted by his girlfriend in 1956. Guido Calletti was born in Sydney in 1902. He was in trouble with the law from the age of eight and by the time he was 25 Calletti was the leader of the Darlinghurst Push, a small group of street brawlers and stand-over men. Calletti worked as a pimp, thief and hired thug, interspersed with periods of work as a labourer and co-owner of a fruit barrow. Calletti had an on-going love affair with Nellie Cameron (and rivalry with Frank Green) whom he eventually married in January 1934. Calletti died of gunshot wounds in 1939. For many years Tilly employed bodyguards to protect her. One of her bodyguards was Sid McDonald who worked for Tilly at the height of the Razor gangs wars. McDonald was born in Queensland in 1898 and had a string of minor charges and gaol time. McDonald took part in the gunfight at Tillys home in 1929. Nellie Cameron was born in 1912 on Sydneys North Shore. In 1926 she ran away from home and found work as a prostitute. Nellie was well known for her beautiful looks, sex appeal and hour-glass figure. Her relationships with gangsters (and their deaths) Norman

Buhn, Frank Green and Guido Calletti, led to her becoming known as the Kiss of Death Girl. Cameron committed suicide in 1953, aged 41, after outliving her gangster lovers.

Gunfight at Tillys
On 17 July 1929 Kate Leighs gang, led by Gregory Gaffney, ambushed Frank Green and Sid McDonald; the Devines, McDonald and a wounded Green all retreated to the Devines Maroubra home waiting for next attack which occured at midnight. Gaffney was shot dead by Big Jim. Court evidence shows that Jim stated he fired more to frighten the assailants away than to harm. He was found not guilty of murder at his trial as he was protecting his property.

Divorce
Tilly filed for divorce from her husband Jim in 1942 after years of physical abuse. Their opposite personalities and hedonistic lifestyle finally took a toll on their relationship. Tilly went on to marry seaman Eric Parsons in 1945. Jim returned to Melbourne and died sometime in the 1960s.

Brief timeline of major Razor Gang War events

1926
Nov 1926 Norman Bruhn, a standover man from Melbourne, arrived in Sydney and set up in the Cross. He came into conflict with both Kate, Tilly and Phil the Jew Jeffs (ran drugs and gambling in the Cross).

1927
22 June 1927 Bruhn shot dead in Surry Hills, possibly by Frank Green. 7 May 1929 Battle of Blood Alley in the Cross. A 30 minute brawl between Jeffs and a rival gang. Jeffs was shot but recovered.

1928
1928 Escalating street violence throughout the year.

1929
17 July 1929 Frank Green and Sid McDonald ambushed in Woolloomooloo by a group of Kate Leighs men led by Gregory Gaffney. Devines and McDonald, along with a wounded Green, retreated to the Devines Maroubra home waiting for next attack which occured at midnight. Gaffney shot dead while Tomlinson and Dalton survive. Big Jim found not guilty of murder at trial. 8 August 1929 Battle on Kellett Street occured while Kate was in gaol. Tilly on offensive and attacked Kates sly-grog shops in a pitched battle.

5 Sept 1929 Big Jim and Frank Green shot Tomlinson and Dalton in the street. Dalton died but Tomlinson survived and namedonly Green as his assailant.

1930
Jan 1930 Tilly arrested as Vagrancy (Amendment) Act 1929 comes into effect. The Act is an attempt to curtail gang violence by giving Police new powers to arrest and goal anyone found to be habitually consorting with thieves, prostitutes or vagrants. Tilly promises judge to leave Sydney for two years. Mar 1930 The first of Greens murder trials started but jury deadlocked. Green is eventually acquitted at a second trial. Green has falling out with Devines and no longer works for them.

1931-32
Both Tilly and Kate feel the effects of the Depression on their business and also spend more time in gaol due to the Vagrancy Act. Kate declared bankrupt in 1954 and died in 1964. By 1959 Tilly had to sell off her extensive property holdings in order to pay the Tax Office 20,000. She was left with only one brothel and her Maroubra house.

Sources
Larry Writer, Razor: a true story of slashers, gangsters, prositutes and sly grog, Macmillan, 2001. Matilda Devine, Australian Dictionary of Biography Kate Leigh, Australian Dictionary of Biography

Research by
Suzanne Upton, Archivist Public Access
http://gallery.records.nsw.gov.au/index.php/galleries/people-of-interest/tilly-devine-the-razorgang-wars-1927-31/

Leigh, Kathleen Mary (Kate) (18811964)

by Judith Allen Kathleen Mary Josephine (Kate) Leigh (1881-1964), crime entrepreneur, was born on 10 March 1881 at Dubbo, New South Wales, eighth child of native-born parents Timothy Beahan, bootmaker, and his wife Charlotte, ne Smith. Reputedly she was neglected and at 12 was incarcerated in Parramatta Industrial School for Girls. In Sydney from 18 she soon 'got into trouble'. On 2 May 1902 Kate married James Lee (Leigh), whom police described as an illegal bookmaker and petty criminal. He was imprisoned in 1905 for assaulting and robbing their Glebe landlord with his wife's assistance. Moreover, a perjury conviction and five years imprisonment were the outcome of her attempt to 'clear' her spouse by alleging that he only attacked the landlord when he

found him in bed with Kate, who was negotiating their arrears of rent. Upon release from gaol, their separation continued. Her relationship with Samuel 'Jewey' Freeman, brought her wider contacts with the criminal underworld. He and Ernest 'Shiner' Ryan were convicted for the armed robbery of the payroll for the Eveleigh railway workshop on 18 June 1914reputedly the first armed robbers to use a getaway car in the history of Australian crime. Leigh tried to give Freeman an alibi but was again sentenced to five years imprisonment for perjury early in 1915. Although police recorded only thirteen minor convictions (mostly prostitution-related, despite her later denials that she ever worked as a prostitute), they noted that she often provided bail and alibis for gangsters and racketeers. In 1919-55 Leigh's main enterprise was the lucrative 'sly-grog' trade, induced by six o'clock closing. In Sydney on 26 September 1922 she married Edward Joseph Barry (d.1948), dealer. From her Surry Hills home she became an organized crime entrepreneur, supplying at extortionate prices the fullest available range of illicit goods and services, including after-hours drinking venues, sly-grog, prostitution, illegal betting, gambling and, from the mid-1920s, cocaine. Acquiring the title 'Queen of the Underworld', Leigh obtained loyalty and protection from a male network of gangsters, but often had to protect them and was adept with a rifle. Rival gangs eroded her profits from the cocaine trade by standing over and slashing decoys (often working prostitutes) with razors. In March 1930 she shot and killed 'Snowy' Prendergast when he and other gangsters broke into her home. She was not indicted for the killing, or for shooting Joseph McNamara on 19 December 1931. Perhaps feeling the pinch of competition, her rival Tilly Devine publicly denounced Leigh as a 'white slaver' and 'dope-pusher', who enjoyed immunity from prosecution by means of unnamed Labor contacts in municipal politics. In 1930 Kate Leigh was charged with possessing cocaine and with consorting; sentenced to two years imprisonment, she was allowed to pay a 250 fine in lieu of serving the second year. During the Depression she also processed stolen goods for resale: in 1933 she and two men were convicted of receiving hosiery; however a young policeman secured suspension of her sentence on condition she returned to her family at Dubbo for two years. Despite frequent police raids and numerous minor convictions, Leigh's sly-grog trade continued throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Her wealth was legendary. At times described as corpulent, 'flowsy' and leathery-skinned she was noted for her court-room appearances in silver fox furs and large-brimmed hats, her fingers cluttered with diamond rings. In January 1950 she flew to Western Australia and married 'Shiner' Ryan (d.1957) on 18 January at Fremantle. They lived together in Sydney for six months, Kate continuing business as usual. After disputes about domicile he returned to Fremantle. In 1954 she was declared bankrupt for failing to pay some 6191 in arrears of taxes. Continuing to live at Surry Hills, she died on 4 February 1964 and was buried in Botany cemetery with Catholic rites. Her daughter survived her. Much of the press, ignoring her connection with organized crime, treated her as the kindly provider of a social service in a repressive era, against whom no real 'wrong-doing' was convincingly proved, and pointed to her wartime patriotism and generosity to the unemployed.

Devine, Matilda Mary (Tilly) (19001970)

by Judith Allen and Baiba Irving Matilda Mary (Tilly) Devine (1900-1970), madam, was born on 8 September 1900 at Camberwell, London, daughter of Edward Twiss, bricklayer, and his wife Alice, ne Tubb(s). On 12 August 1917 at the Church of the

Sacred Heart of Jesus, Camberwell, she married James Edward Joseph Devine, an Australian digger and exshearer. He returned to Australia in 1919; Tilly followed in the 'bride' ship, Waimana, reaching Sydney on 13 January 1920. Jim Devine became a hire-car proprietor in Sydney and acted as protector, chauffeur and 'get-away' man when Tilly began to work as a prostitute, enabling her to operate independently of both the police and the underworldat the cost of frequent arrests. From 18 June 1921 she had seventy-nine convictions on prostitution-related charges, such as offensive behaviour and indecent language, until May 1925, when she was imprisoned for two years for malicious wounding; she had walked into a barber's shop and slashed a man with a razor. She was referred to by the press as the 'Worst Woman in Sydney' and 'The Queen of the Night'. Colourful reports appeared about her court-room performances which were always witnessed by a packed gallery. In the late 1920s Jim Devine became more deeply involved in underworld activity, then dominated by cocaine and 'sly grog' traffic and competing razor gangs, while Tilly emerged as a 'chaperone of magdalenes'. The base of their combined operations was their house at Maroubra. Tilly's arrests in the 1930s were fewer, but were usually for the more serious charge of consorting with known prostitutes, and resulted in a year's 'voluntary absence' in England and several short prison sentences. By the beginning of World War II Tilly Devine had a well-established business, comprising properties in Palmer Street, Woolloomooloo, and a staff which included 'bouncers' and bodyguards: she was excellently placed with her rival Kate Leigh to capitalize on the demand in wartime Sydney for brothel services. Now affectionately known as the 'Queen of the 'Loo' she held lavish parties, contributed generously to the war effort, dressed opulently, and became notorious for her array of diamond rings. No longer needing her husband's protection, and hindered by his increasing violence towards her, she divorced him in August 1943 on the grounds of cruelty. On 19 May 1945 at her home, 191 Palmer Street, she married, with Presbyterian forms, Eric Parsons, a seaman. In 1953 she visited London to see the Coronation procession. Nevertheless, during the war and postwar years she appeared in court periodically on assault and similar charges. Tilly Devine continued to operate her Palmer Street brothel until 1968. However, in the 1950s and 1960s, the scale and prominence of her operations lessened. In 1955 she had to pay more than 20,000 in income tax and fines. She had suffered from chronic bronchitis for twenty years when she died in Concord Repatriation General Hospital, Sydney, on 24 November 1970; she was cremated with Catholic rites. Her estate was valued for probate at $11,007. One of the beneficiaries was the son adopted during her second marriage. The two children of her first marriage had predeceased her. Since her death, Tilly Devine has attained almost legendary stature incidents in her life inspired Peter Kenna's play, The Slaughter of St Teresa's Day (1973), and her exploits are often referred to and recounted in the communities in which she operated.