TRUE CRIME AUSTRALIA
The acclaimed true crime account of Sydney’s infamous criminal razor gangs, now with a new final chapter and previously unpublished photographs
In the 1920s and ’30s in inner Sydney, some of the most terrifying criminals in Australia’s history waged war with razor and gun. As gang fought gang, the streets echoed with the sound of violence and ran with blood.
Razor chronicles in compelling detail the nether word ruled by fabled vice queens Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, and financed by the spoils of illegal drugs and alcohol, prostitution, gambling and extortion. Gangsters such as Guido Calletti, Big Jim Devine and Frank “the Little Gunman” Green killed, robbed and slashed with impunity. Facing them were the police – some corrupt, some honest, and a few as tough and feared as the razor gangs they fought.
Razor is the fascinating true story of the people who lived and died in this world of violence and vice. Razor brings a city’s dark past back to life, and ensures that you will never look at inner Sydney in quite the same way again.
First published 2001 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 335-338) and index.
Devine, Tilly. | Leigh, Kate. | Criminals — New South Wales — Sydney — History — 20th century. | Crime — New South Wales — Sydney — History — 20th century. | Female offenders — New South Wales — Sydney — Biography. | Sydney (N.S.W.) — History — 1901-1945.