10. After Decades of Workplace Discrimination, This Heroic Policewoman’s Bosses Capped Her Career With a Final Insult
As Sydney’s Razor Wars raged on in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the sight of slashed bodies and blood pools and splatters on the city’s streets became all too common. While crime queens Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine went after and tore each other, Lillian Armfield went after them, and patiently tore down their criminal empires. Her most powerful weapons were doggedness, coupled with kindness. Instead of arresting prostitutes, Lillian showed them compassion and helped them get out of the life.
Between that kindness to exploited workers and a ruthless pursuit of their bosses, Lillian decimated the crime queens’ businesses. She drastically reduced their workforce, drove the once-prosperous Leigh and Devine to impoverishment, broke their power, and ended the Razor Wars. Lillian even put Leigh behind bars on drug charges. The heroic detective stayed on the police force for over three decades, and finally retired in 1949. That was when the establishment dished out its final discriminatory insult: unlike her male colleagues, she was not given a pension.