34. The Sly-Grog Queen
The expansion of Tilly Devine’s criminal enterprises brought her into conflict with Kate Leigh, an Australian-born crime boss specializing in unlicensed bars, drugs, and with her own line in the prostitution racket. Known as the Sly-Grog Queen, Leigh was just as violent as Devine, but shrewder: she was seldom convicted for the violence she ordered or personally dished out.
The rivalry between Leigh and Devine grew into personal enmity, which flared into the Razor Wars. The crime queens’ henchmen would attack each other on the streets, raid and trash each other’s brothels, bars, and stash houses, and tattle on each other to the police. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the sight of slashed bodies and blood splatters on Sydney’s streets became all too routine.