…of the Justice & Police Museum
Posted in 1920s, Femme Fatale, mug shots on Aug 25th, 2010
Tilly Devine stares out from this image taken upon her entry to gaol. She was an incredibly successful villain who, along with her nemesis Kate Leigh, ruled the inner city vice trade for almost 20 years. Tilly began her criminal career as a teenage prostitute on the streets of London. She toughened up quickly in [...]
Posted in 1920s, 1930s, Crooks like us, Negative Archive, mug shots on Mar 17th, 2010
Jean McDonald was a fraudster and confidence trickster. She looks drab and resentful here but her sob stories were ambitious, florid and well-told. Through 1923-24 she methodically extracted money and favours from a gullible Randwick benefactress with tales of heroic war service, sick children and missing husbands. When she needed to [...]
Posted in 1920s, 1930s, Femme Fatale, Negative Archive on Jan 5th, 2010
Recently I strapped on my walking boots and joined the Justice and Police Museum guides for Walk the razor’s edge. The walking tour begins on Oxford Street and snakes through Darlinghurst visiting the haunts associated with underworld vice and crime. Much of the terraced landscape remains unaltered from the 1920s and 30s when it served [...]