How did Squizzy Taylor influence the

Melbourne underworld?

Ronald Gu

Introduction• Joseph Leslie Theodore Taylor (29 June 1888 – 27 October

1927)• Australian Melbourne-based gangster• 'Squizzy Taylor' became a household name in 1920s

Melbourne for his criminal exploits making newspaper headlines

• Taylor was fatally wounded in a gunfight with long-time rival gangster, John Daniel 'Snowy' Cutmore, in October 1927

• Pickpocketing, assault and shop breaking to armed robbery and murder

• Tell on other criminals just to get him out of trouble

Earlier life• Joseph Leslie Theodore Taylor• Born in Brighton, Victoria, on 29

June 1888, Taylor was the second youngest child of Benjamin Isaiah Taylor

• In 1901, Taylor began working in the stables of a horse trainer and then as a jockey on Melbourne's inner-city pony circuit.

• Start getting in trouble with the police for insulting behaviour.

• Known as Squizzy

Pickpocketing & minor offences (1907-1912)

• Taylor became part of a larrikin gang0 that roamed the streets looking for trouble. His early convictions included theft, assault, inciting to resist arrest, offensive language.

• Under the alias 'Michael McGee', he was convicted and sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment for pickpocketing the watch and chain of an unsuspecting punter at the Ballarat races in January 1908

• Taylor married Charlotte Haines, as known as 'Dolly Gray', at Fitzroy, Victoria, on 17 January 1912. She is believed to have played an active role in some of Taylor's crimes, such as his schemes to decoy and extort money from married men.

• Pickpocketing & minor offences (1907-1912)• Arthur Trotter, a commercial traveller from

MacRobertson’s confectioners, was robbed of £200 and murdered in front of his wife and five-year-old son at his home in Fitzroy, Victoria, in January 1913

• Glenferrie robbery & murder of Thomas Berriman (1923)

• Thomas Berriman, the manager of the Hawthorn branch of the Commercial Bank, was robbed of £1,851 and fatally wounded outside Glenferrie Station, Hawthorn, in October 1923. While on his way to Glenferrie station with a small suitcase of bank money, Berriman was approached by two suspicious men, one of whom offered to carry his suitcase. When Berriman refused to hand over the suitcase, one of the men drew a revolver and shot him in the chest.

• Taylor was a central figure in the 'Fitzroy Vendetta', a violent feud between rival criminal gangs that lasted for several months in 1919. One gang, from Richmond, was headed by Taylor and the 'two-up king' Henry Stokes

• Murder of William Haines (1916)• In 1916 Taylor and John Williamson were tried and

acquitted of the murder of William Haines, a young chauffeur employed by the Globe Motor & Taxi Company. In March 1916, a man had telephoned the taxi company to order a car to take him to Eltham, Victoria.

• The police believed that Taylor and Williamson had intended to rob a bank manager who was taking bank money from one branch to another.

Death• Taylor was wounded in a

gunfight with rival gangster, John Daniel "Snowy" Cutmore, at a house in Barkly Street, Carlton, and died at St Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy, on 27 October 1927. Cutmore, a standover man associated with the Razor Gang of Sydney, was also fatally wounded. John 'Snowy'

Cutmore

Bibiography• Websites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squizzy_Taylor• Primary Resources: Historical Society