Kate Leigh

Last updated • 8 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Kate Leigh
Kate Leigh 1915.jpg
Kate Leigh in April, 1915
Born
Kathleen Mary Josephine Beahan

(1881-03-10)10 March 1881
Dubbo, New South Wales
Died4 February 1964(1964-02-04) (aged 82)
St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney
Burial place Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park
Nationality English Australian
Other names
  • Kathleen Lee
  • Kathleen Barry
  • Kathleen Ryan
  • Queen of the Underworld (nickname)
[1]
Occupation(s)Gangster, brothel madam, cocaine trafficker
Years activec. 1920s–1950s
Known for
Spouses
  • James Ernest Leigh (m. 1902, div. 1921)
  • Edward Joseph Barry (m.1922, dec'd. 1948)
  • Ernest Alexander Ryan (m. 1950, dec'd. 1954)

Kathleen Mary Josephine Leigh (née Beahan; 10 March 1881 – 4 February 1964) (other names included Kathleen Barry, and Kathleen Ryan) was an Australian underworld figure who rose to prominence as a madam, illegal trader of alcohol and cocaine, and for running betting/gambling syndicates from her home in Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia during the first half of the twentieth century. Leigh, known as the ‘Queen of Surry Hills’, was a sly groger and fence for stolen property.

Contents

She was a leading figure in the notorious Sydney razor gang wars. She was known for her continuing feud with fellow vice-regal underworld figure Tilly Devine, a madam based at Woolloomooloo, as well as her acts of generosity for the unemployed during a repressive era, and her wartime patriotism. [1]

Early life

Leigh was born on 10 March 1881 in Dubbo, New South Wales, the eighth child of Roman Catholic parents Timothy Beahan, a boot-maker, and his wife Charlotte (née Smith). [2] Her childhood and teenaged years included childhood neglect, time in a girls' home at age 12, [2] and an out-of-wedlock pregnancy; her daughter Eileen May Beahan was born in 1900. [3]

Marriages

James Leigh

Leigh married James Ernest (Jack) Lee (or Leigh) (1882–1959) on 2 May 1902. Lee was born in Tumut to a Chinese father and an Australian born mother, and became an illegal bookmaker and petty criminal. [4] They separated in 1905 when Lee was imprisoned for assault and robbery. Following his trial, Kate Leigh was convicted of perjury and for being an accomplice to the assault, after being accused of lying under oath to protect her husband; her conviction was overturned on appeal. The marriage broke up soon after the trial, though they were not divorced until 1921. Kate anglicised her part-Asian surname from Lee to Leigh, and she was mostly known by that name for the rest of her life, regardless of future marriages. Kate's daughter Eileen also used the name 'Leigh' until she married in 1920. [4]

Edward Barry

Kate married for the second time on 26 September 1922, to a Western Australian-born musician Edward Joseph 'Teddy' Barry (1892–1948), a sly-grog dealer and small-time criminal. [5] The marriage only lasted for a few years, after which she reverted to using her previous surname of 'Leigh'. Though long separated, he died in Kate's home at 2 Lansdowne Street, Surry Hills on 26 June 1948, and was buried at Botany Cemetery three days later. [6]

Walter Tomlinson

During the late 1920s Kate lived with Walter "Wally" Tomlinson (or Thomlinson) (c.1899–1968), whom she had employed as one of her bodyguards. [5] He was charged in 1916, at age 16, with Shooting At, With Intent To Murder [7] and had a reputation as a tough standover criminal by the late 1920s. That relationship—which featured prominently in an Australian television drama on Leigh's role in the razor gang wars—ended with Tomlinson's departure, and Leigh then pursued a de facto relationship from 1932 to 1949 with her business partner, Henry 'Jack' Baker (1897–1965). [5]

Ernest Ryan

Her third and last marriage was at St John's Anglican Church, Fremantle, on 18 January 1950, to old friend and convicted criminal Ernest Alexander "Shiner" Ryan. [8] They were separated six months later, and Ryan died in Western Australia in 1954. [5]

Career

Sydney underworld figure Kate Leigh, holding a graphlex camera, 1951 Kate Leigh Crime Boss 1951 SLNSW FL16371074.jpg
Sydney underworld figure Kate Leigh, holding a graphlex camera, 1951

Leigh earned income, variously over these years, as a sly-grog trader, drug dealer, and as a madam; [5] she became a major New South Wales (NSW) underworld figure, and has been referred to as its "Queen of the Underworld." [2] From 1919 to 1955 Leigh's main enterprise was the highly profitable sly-grog trade, which ensued after the NSW State Parliament legislated for six o'clock closing of drinking establishments (governed by the Liquor Act 1916, Liquor Licensing Act 1927). At its peak, Leigh ran at least twenty [9] bootleg outlets. [10] Although she made much of her fortune from the illegal sale of alcohol, Leigh is reported to have never drunk (or smoked). [5]

Leigh also exploited the passage of the Dangerous Drugs Amendment Act 1927 in NSW by providing lucrative illicit criminal distribution networks for the high-demand cocaine it criminalised. Leigh derived her supplies from a corrupt network of doctors, dentists, chemists, and sailors, and amassed considerable wealth from the activity. [11] These activities—the defense of these business turfs—and ongoing feuds with rival organised crime leaders in NSW led Leigh to be a prominent figure in Sydney's brutal razor gang wars of the 1920s and 1930s. [5]

Hence, from her Surry Hills home she became an organised crime entrepreneur, charging excessive prices for a full range of illicit goods and services, including after-hours drinking venues, sly-grog, prostitution, illegal betting, gambling and, from the mid-1920s, cocaine trafficking. [12] 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 cocaine by standing over and slashing decoys (often working prostitutes) with razors. [5]

Leigh was also engaged in a violent feud with her rival Tilly Devine, a Sydney madam based in Woolloomooloo that lasted 20 years.[ citation needed ] The two women physically fought one another on numerous occasions and their respective gangs conducted pitched battles in Eaton Avenue and Kellet Street, King's Cross in May and August 1929. In 1936, newly appointed Sydney Police Commissioner MacKay warned them both to tone down the violence or else risk serious imprisonment. The NSW Police also intensively policed incoming vessels for overseas cocaine suppliers in 1938–39, but it was naval transit restrictions associated with the World War II that led to devastating interruptions of Leigh's overseas cocaine supply. [13]

Leigh was also personally involved in violence, though she was never convicted of any such offense. On 27 March 1930, she shot and killed John William "Snowy" Prendergast [14] when he and other gangsters broke into her home at 104 Riley Street, East Sydney. She was not indicted for the killing, [15] or for shooting Joseph McNamara [16] nearby in Liverpool St, Darlinghurst on 9 December 1931.

However, Leigh was imprisoned on drug-related charges. In July 1930, Leigh's house at 104 Riley Street was raided by a NSW drug squad, including Sydney's most famous policewoman, Lillian Armfield. [17] Leigh was found in possession of cocaine and was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. [18] [19]

Through alleged personal connections throughout officialdom, she continued business throughout the 1930s and 40s despite frequent police raids and a mass of minor convictions. She was charged on 107 occasions and was sent to prison on 13 occasions. [5] Appearing in courtrooms with flamboyantly expensive clothes and diamonds, her wealth was legendary. When appearing in court, Kate would wear diamond rings on every finger of both hands. [20] During her heyday, Kate Leigh owned and operated more than thirty different sly grog hotels at different locations in inner Sydney that generated thousands of pounds in profit annually. [5]

She lived in a terrace house at 2 Lansdowne Street, Surry Hills from 1933 until the house was demolished in 1950. [21] This house was also used by Leigh as her main illegal hotel or Sly-grog shop during this time and was known in Sydney as the LansdowneHotel, not to be confused with the legal 'Lansdowne Hotel' in City Road, Broadway. Her then de facto husband and bodyguard, Henry George "Jack" Baker, was shot outside this house by the well known Sydney criminal, John 'Chow' Hayes on 19 February 1938. [22] [23] The house was raided by undercover police on 4 March 1938 [24] resulting in 48 bottles and 4 kegs of beer being confiscated. Three months later a police witness at Sydney Licensing Court stated that the premises at 2 Lansdowne Street, Surry Hills was "a notorious sly grog shop – The Worst in Sydney". [25] Kate Leigh was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment on 7 September 1942 for having sold liquor without a licence at 13 Pearl Street and 2 Lansdowne Street, Surry Hills. [26]

Bankruptcy and decline

Leigh was undoubtedly one of Sydney's wealthiest women during the 1930s and 1940s but the Taxation Office sent her into bankruptcy in 1954 for unpaid income tax and fines dating back to 1942. [27] Leigh's Statement of Affairs was given at a Bankruptcy Court hearing in Sydney on 30 September 1954 as "Assets of £1960 consisting of furniture and three properties in Devonshire Street". Her Liabilities were shown as £7130. In 1955 the NSW government changed the law to allow legal hotels to serve alcohol until 10 pm, an act that virtually killed off the Sydney sly-grog trade and put purveyors such as Leigh out of business. [5] Leigh was famously quoted in the Australian media as stating "The bloom has gone off the grog". [28]

At the time of her death, aged 82, Kate Leigh was living in virtual poverty in a small room above one of her old illegal hotels at 212 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills and was financially dependent on her nephew, William John Beahan, [29] who ran a mixed business in the shop in the downstairs part of the premises. She resided at 212 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills from 1951 until her death in 1964. [5]

Death

Continuing to live at Surry Hills, she suffered a severe stroke on 31 January 1964 at her residence at 212 Devonshire Street and was rushed to hospital. [2] She died on 4 February 1964 at St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst, and her funeral was held on 7 February at St Peter's Catholic Church in Devonshire Street, Surry Hills and was attended by over 700 mourners. [30] [31] She was buried in Botany Cemetery, now known as Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park in the Roman Catholic Section 29K, Grave 896 as Kathleen Ryan. [32] She was survived by her daughter, Eileen May Ranson (née Beahan, 1900–1987). [5] Leigh was remembered by the press as much for her patriotism during World War II and for generous charitable acts in support of the unemployed in harsh times as for her criminal history. [5]

Television series

Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine's criminal feud was the subject of a 13-episode true crime television drama on Australia's Nine Network, titled Underbelly: Razor , which was the fourth in the Underbelly anthology series, it screened between 21 August 2011 until 16 November. Leigh was portrayed by Danielle Cormack, with Tilly Devine played by Chelsie Preston Crayford, the series itself was based on a Ned Kelly Award winning book written by Chris Walker.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surry Hills</span> Suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Surry Hills is an inner-east suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney. Surry Hills is surrounded by the suburbs of Darlinghurst to the north, Chippendale and Haymarket to the west, Moore Park and Paddington to the east and Redfern to the south. It is often colloquially referred to as "Surry".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Squizzy Taylor</span> Australian gangster

Joseph Theodore Leslie "Squizzy" Taylor was an Australian gangster from Melbourne. He appeared repeatedly and sometimes prominently in Melbourne news media because of suspicions, formal accusations and some convictions related to a 1919 gang war, to his absconding from bail and hiding from the police in 1921–22, and to his involvement in a robbery where a bank manager was murdered in 1923.

This is a timeline of major crimes in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abe Saffron</span> Australian businessman (1919–2006)

Abraham Gilbert Saffron was an Australian hotelier, nightclub owner, and property developer who was one of the major figures in organised crime in Australia in the latter half of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Razor gang</span> Criminal gangs from 1920s Sydney

Razor gangs were criminal gangs who dominated the Sydney crime scene in the 1920s. After the passage of the Pistol Licensing Act 1927, the Parliament of New South Wales imposed severe penalties for carrying concealed firearms and handguns. In response, Sydney gangland figures began to use razors as their preferred weapons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tilly Devine</span> Australian criminal

Matilda Mary Devine, known as Tilly Devine, was an English Australian organised crime boss. She was involved in a wide range of activities, including sly-grog, razor gangs, and prostitution, and became a famous folk figure in Sydney during the interwar years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barney Dalton</span> Australian rugby league footballer (1891-1929)

Bernard Hugh Dalton was an Australian pioneer rugby league player In the Australian competition – the New South Wales Rugby League. He was born in 1891 in Sydney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park</span> Cemetery in Sydney, Australia

Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, Eastern Suburbs Crematorium and Botany General Cemetery, is a cemetery and crematorium on Bunnerong Road in Matraville, New South Wales, in the eastern suburbs district of Sydney, Australia.

Underbelly is an Australian television true crime-drama series which first aired on the Nine Network between 13 February 2008 and 1 September 2013, before being revived on 3 April 2022. Each series is based on real-life events. There have been six full series, with season 7 being a miniseries. A 2014 series titled Fat Tony & Co is a sequel to the first series but is not branded under the Underbelly title.

Underbelly: Razor, the fourth series of the Australian Nine Network crime drama anthology series Underbelly, originally aired from 21 August 2011 to 6 November 2011. It is a thirteen-part series detailing real events that occurred in Sydney between 1927 and 1936. The series depicts the "razor gangs" who controlled the city's underworld during the era and the violent war between the two "vice queen" powers, Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh. It is also the last season in the Underbelly franchise that contains 13 episodes. In contrast to the previous Underbelly instalments, which were based on books by John Silvester and Andrew Rule, Razor is based on the Ned Kelly Award-winning book of the same name, written by Larry Writer.

Lillian May Armfield ISM KPFSM was an Australian nurse and pioneering Sydney female police detective, one of the first women to serve in that role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nellie Cameron</span> Australian prostitute

Nellie Cameron, known as "The Kiss of Death Girl", was a notorious Sydney prostitute in the 1920s and 1930s, who was featured extensively in the 2011 Australian television mini-series Underbelly: Razor. Cameron was associated with the cocaine-fuelled ravages of the razor gang violence of that era, commonly associated with her contemporaries Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, both criminal entrepreneurs who controlled much of Sydney's illegal sex industry and Sly-grog distribution during that period. Nellie Cameron received 73 criminal convictions during her life of crime, mainly for soliciting and vagrancy, and had the distinction of becoming the first woman in Australia to be convicted of consorting with criminals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dulcie Markham</span> Australian prostitute

Dulcie May Markham was a prominent Sydney prostitute and associate of gangland figures in Sydney during the 1930s, 1940's and 1950s, when she was closely involved with the razor gang milieu of that era of organised crime within that city. During her criminal career, she had amassed 100 convictions in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia for prostitution, vagrancy, consorting, assaulting police and the public, keeping a brothel, drunkenness, and drunk driving, and was sent to prison on numerous occasions. Markham was known in the media as The Angel of Death, The Black Widow, Pretty Dulcie, Australia's most beautiful bad woman, Bad Luck Doll, and The One-Way Ticket.

John Frederick "Chow" Hayes was an Australian criminal who became known as Australia's first gangster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William 'Joey' Hollebone</span>

William Joseph Hollebone, known informally as 'Joey' Hollebone, was a notorious and violent member of the criminal underworld, based in the inter-city suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Hollebone began serving a decade-long sentence for manslaughter in 1935, during which he met 'Chow' Hayes. From the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s Hollebone and Hayes were the best-known and feared of Sydney's criminal gunmen, with newspapers regularly reporting on their nefarious activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Bruhn</span>

Norman Bruhn was a notorious and violent Australian dockworker, armed robber and standover man with links to the criminal underworld in both Melbourne and Sydney. In September 1926 Bruhn relocated with his family from Melbourne to Sydney, where he attained a brief ascendancy by targeting the underworld vice trade, using violence and intimidation against cocaine traffickers, prostitutes and thieves. Bruhn's criminal gang used the straight razor as a weapon of terror and are attributed as Australia's first 'razor gang', at the beginning of a period of gang violence in Sydney in the late-1920s known as the 'razor gang wars'. His period of domination of the inner-city vice economy was opposed by the more established criminal networks in Sydney. In June 1927 Bruhn was shot twice in the abdomen in an inner-city laneway in Darlinghurst. He died in Sydney Hospital the following morning, refusing to name his assailant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John "Snowy" Cutmore</span>

John Daniel"Snowy"Cutmore, was an Australian criminal, well known in the criminal underworld of both Melbourne and Sydney during the inter-war years until his violent death in 1927. Cutmore was raised in inner-city Melbourne and was a prominent member of the Fitzroy Push, a lawless gang involved in prostitution, sly-grog and violence. Throughout his criminal career Cutmore displayed a willingness to relocate to another state to evade police attention, often travelling between Melbourne and Sydney. For a short period from late 1926 he was a member of Norman Bruhn's criminal gang in Sydney, attributed as Australia's first razor gang at the beginning of a period of gang violence in Sydney in the late-1920s known as the 'razor gang wars'. Cutmore was shot and killed in his mother's home in Carlton in October 1927, in an underworld gunfight that also resulted in the death of his rival, Squizzy Taylor.

Criminal activity in New South Wales, Australia is combated by the New South Wales Police Force and the New South Wales court system, while statistics about crime are managed by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Modern Australian states and cities, including New South Wales, have some of the lowest crime rates recorded globally with Australia ranked the 13th safest nation and Sydney ranked the 5th safest city globally. As of September 2018 the City of Blacktown (495.1) and City of Penrith (475.7) had the highest rates of violent crime per 100,000 in Sydney. Rural areas have comparatively high crime rates per 100,000 with rural shires such as Walgett Shire (1350.3) and Moree Plains Shire (1236.2) having some of the highest violent crime rates in the state. The overall NSW crime rate has been in steady decline for many years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Amsberg</span> Barrister and judge in New South Wales, Australia

George Frederick Amsberg was an Australian barrister and judge of the District Court of New South Wales. He was a prominent member of the Sydney Jewish community. In his legal practice Amsberg defended some of Sydney's most high-profile criminals. In 1953, after becoming a judge, Amsberg was appointed as a Commissioner to preside over the highly political Royal Commission of Inquiry into the conduct of Joshua Arthur, a New South Wales government minister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vera Purdy</span> Australian gangster

Vera Purdy was an Australian prostitute and underworld figure. She was associated with reputed and convicted thieves, committed offences from Victoria to Queensland, and was a drug addict. Her obituary described her as 'volatile Vera Purdy, demi-mondaine, pickpocket, dope fiend, veritable she-cat, one of the most picturesque feminine figures to make her way through Australia's underworld'. Described as a 'tall, trim, peroxide blonde' died relatively young at 31.

References

  1. 1 2 Judith Allen. "Kathleen Mary (Kate) Leigh (1881–1964)". Leigh, Kathleen Mary (Kate) (1881–1964). Australian Dictionary of Biography.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Allen 1986
  3. ↑ "Birth #684/1900 – Eileen May Beahan". New South Wales Register of Birth, Deaths and Marriages. Mother: Kathleen M.J. – Father: unknown.
  4. 1 2 Blaikie 1980
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Writer 2001
  6. ↑ "Notice of death of Teddy Barry". Sydney Morning Herald. 28 June 1948. Funeral notice, 29 June 1948
  7. ↑ Thomlinson, Walter (18 February 1916). "A Shooting Case. Quarter Sessions before Judge Murray". Sydney Morning Herald . p. 16.
  8. ↑ "Shiner Ryan Weds". The Daily News . Perth. 19 January 1950. p. 4.
  9. ↑ Russo, Naomi (23 May 2016). "Sydney's Jazz Age Criminal Queens Ruled the Streets With Razors". Atlas Obscura. Archived from the original on 18 January 2024. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  10. ↑ Writer 2009 , p. 17
  11. ↑ Writer 2009 , pp. 34–5
  12. ↑ "Kate Leigh Sentenced, Cocaine Supply". Sydney Morning Herald. 2 August 1930. p. 10.
  13. ↑ Writer 2009 , pp. 92, 112, 205, 213
  14. ↑ "Underworld Crime In Surry Hills. Wounded Man's Death". Canberra Times . 28 March 1930. p. 3.
  15. ↑ "Underworld Feud. Woman Discharged for Surry Hills Shooting". Canberra Times. 9 April 1930. p. 2.
  16. ↑ "Sydney Shooting Affray". Canberra Times. 12 December 1931. p. 2.
  17. ↑ Kelly 1961
  18. ↑ "Cocaine Charge. Kate Leigh in Court". Sydney Morning Herald. 3 July 1930. p. 8.
  19. ↑ "Cocaine Raid – Violent Woman Prisoner". Sydney Morning Herald. 2 July 1930. p. 14.
  20. ↑ Jenkins, Bill- memoirs
  21. ↑ Keating 1991
  22. ↑ "Man Wounded – Surry Hills Shooting". Sydney Morning Herald. 19 February 1938.
  23. ↑ Hickie 1990
  24. ↑ "Liquor Forfeited". Sydney Morning Herald. 14 April 1938.
  25. ↑ "Notorious Sly Grog Shop". Sydney Morning Herald. 16 June 1938.
  26. ↑ "Highest Penalty Inflicted – Woman on Sly Grog Charge". Sydney Morning Herald. 8 September 1942.
  27. ↑ "Tax Debt of Kate Leigh". Barrier Miner . Broken Hill. 26 May 1954. p. 3.
  28. ↑ "Witness says 'Kate Leigh' is a Proud Type". Sydney Morning Herald. 1 October 1954. p. 8.
  29. ↑ "Disorderly House order Lifted". Sydney Morning Herald. 1 August 1953.
  30. ↑ "Kathleen Ryan: Death Notice". Sydney Morning Herald. 5 February 1964.
  31. ↑ "Kathleen Ryan: Funeral Notice". Sydney Morning Herald. 6 February 1964.
  32. ↑ "Grave search", Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park website

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.