... individuals who do not hesitate to draw a razor or revolver to avenge some fancied wrong, and who make their living by trading upon the depravity of their fellow men and women.
Truth (Sydney), 13 January 1929
Sydney’s underworld bosses were tough, resolute and violent – mess with one and you would know you had been in a fight. Many had spent time in juvenile justice homes, where they made contacts who helped them to graduate to bigger and nastier crimes. They then rose up from the ranks to create their own empires. Having clawed their way to the top, they jealously guarded their turf and employed ‘staff’ to do their dirty work. Most bosses were entrepreneurs who changed their rackets from opium to sly grog to cocaine as the illicit markets shifted. All generally adhered to the same criminal code – always shoot first.
Charles Passmore
26 November 1928 Suspected of cocaine possession
Known to police as the ‘King of the Underworld’ and to media as the ‘Cocaine King’, Passmore, like many other bosses, had a lengthy and diverse criminal record, with convictions for fraud, theft, selling sly grog, dealing cocaine, and armed robbery. He employed a gang of low-level criminals, including at least one American armed robber and a disabled returned serviceman who was a street dealer for Passmore’s cocaine empire. Police considered Passmore a criminal mastermind, and indeed he showed great acumen as he reshaped his business to fit new illicit markets. In 1929, he was convicted of taking part in a robbery during which two bank employees were shot and wounded. He was sentenced to 12 years’ prison.
Kate Leigh
2 July 1930 Suspected of cocaine possession
Leigh was known as the ‘Queen of the Underworld’. She was a bold felon who reigned over the majority of Sydney’s sly-grog market before adding cocaine distribution to her portfolio of illegal activities. Reputed to have had a punch like a kick from a mule, she ran her empire on her own terms, hiring men to assist her but always maintaining sole control of the businesses. Fellow boss ‘Chow’ Hayes said, ‘If you were sweet with Kate, she’d do anything for you and give you anything. But if you crossed her, she’d shoot you’ (David Hickie, Chow Hayes: gunman, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1990).
Phillip ‘Phil the Jew’ Jeffs
9 August 1922 Suspected of drinking in an unlicensed premises and being found in a premises frequented by thieves
Jeffs was involved in various rackets, including sly grog, theft, prostitution, cocaine and illegal gambling. Known as a gunman early in his career, he later cultivated a more refined reputation by setting up nightclubs that sold sly grog to a better class of customer. He reputedly had many influential friends in business, politics and the police force. Jeffs made a lot of money from crime; during the Depression of the 1930s it was common in Sydney for a wealthy person to be described as being ‘as rich as Phil the Jew’. He also made a lot of enemies. He was shot during a gang war in 1929 but recovered from his wounds. Following the criminal honour code, Jeffs told police he could not identify his assailant.
‘Botany’ May Smith
10 May 1928 Suspected of supplying cocaine
Smith was known as ‘Botany May’ because she once lived in the industrial suburb of Botany in south-eastern Sydney. However, she operated her businesses out of a Surry Hills terrace, from where she ran a brothel, fenced stolen property and, later, supplied cocaine to some of Sydney’s second-tier drug dealers. She was clever, cunning and violent. Constable Lillian Armfield, one of Australia’s first female police officers, once knocked on Smith’s door then kept it open for fellow officers as part of a police raid. In response, Smith ran to the back of the house, grabbed a red-hot flatiron off the stove and chased Armfield. The Surry Hills house was often under police surveillance, as many of the city’s petty criminals were known to frequent the property.
People in the Specials photographs were yet to have their day in court. The lack of signs that the person was in custody, such as handcuffs, meant the images could be shown to a witness during a criminal investigation without prejudicing the person against the suspect
William John MacKay (1885–1948), known as Bill, was a Scottish-born police officer who played a major role in policing Sydney’s underworld during the 1920s
On 22 June 1927, the original razor gangster, Norman Bruhn, was shot to death by a gunman lurking in the shadows outside Mac’s sly-grog shop in Charlotte Lane, just around the corner from Stanley Street in Darlinghurst
Join writer Larry Writer, author of Razor: Tilly Devine and the razor gangs in his latest instalment of walking the mean 1920s streets as featured on his Razorhurst walking tours
Step into Sydney’s seedy underworld with Larry Writer, author of Razor: Tilly Devine and the razor gangs as he explores the mean streets of Kings Cross, Woolloomooloo, East Sydney and Darlinghurst as featured on his Razorhurst walking tours
Join Bruce Smythe Senior Project Designer, as he takes us behind the scenes of the design of our 'Underworld: mugshots from the Roaring Twenties' publication