42 Facts About Squizzy Taylor

Joseph Theodore Leslie "Squizzy" Taylor was an Australian gangster from Melbourne.

Squizzy Taylor derived income from sly-grog selling, two-up schools, illegal bookmaking, extortion, prostitution and, in his later years, is believed by some to have moved into cocaine dealing.

Squizzy Taylor soon started to get into trouble with the police and in May 1905 at the age of 16 was arrested for insulting behaviour.

Squizzy Taylor was discharged without conviction by the local magistrates, but this was the first of many court appearances.

One opinion claims that as a youth, Taylor became known by the nickname "Squizzy" because of an ulcerated, droopy left eyelid.

Squizzy Taylor was convicted of pickpocketing in Kapunda, South Australia, in January 1911 and under the alias "David Donoghue" in Christchurch, New Zealand, in November 1912.

Harold "Bush" Thompson, a criminal associate of Squizzy Taylor's, was arrested and tried for the murder but found not guilty.

The police believed that Squizzy Taylor was Thompson's accomplice in the armed robbery and murder, although no direct evidence could be obtained against him.

Thompson and Squizzy Taylor were arrested for loitering at the Flemington racecourse with intent to commit a felony in July 1914.

Squizzy Taylor figured in the "Fitzroy Vendetta", a violent feud between rival criminal pushes that lasted for several months in 1919.

The robbery, which Squizzy Taylor is credited by some with orchestrating, was carried out by members of the Richmond and Fitzroy pushes.

Outside court after the trial, angry words were exchanged by the opposing factions and both Stokes and Squizzy Taylor were struck by punches.

The Richmond push, led by Squizzy Taylor, retaliated against those responsible for taking Dolly's jewellery.

Squizzy Taylor was arrested over a shooting incident in Fitzroy in August 1919.

Squizzy Taylor was initially convicted of loitering with intent to commit a felony and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, however the conviction was overturned on appeal due to a lack of evidence.

Shortly after the marriage Kelly gave birth to a daughter, June Loraine Squizzy Taylor, who was born in Malvern East on 5 June 1920.

The couples' second daughter, Lesley Squizzy Taylor, was born in St Kilda on 6 October 1922.

The birth of another child did not help the couples' already strained marriage and Squizzy Taylor ceased cohabitation with Kelly whilst he was in hiding in late 1922.

The couple had a daughter, Gloria Patricia Squizzy Taylor, born in Prahan on 23 September 1923.

Squizzy Taylor was believed responsible for a series of burglaries throughout 1920 and into 1921.

At the time Squizzy Taylor absconded from bail, tensions were again rising in Fitzroy.

Squizzy Taylor told the incredulous police detectives that he spent most of his time in a flat in East Melbourne and that he had often come out of hiding in disguise, sometimes dressed as a woman but more often as a schoolboy, which was convincing due to his small stature.

Squizzy Taylor was again committed for trial on the charge of breaking into the warehouse and released on bail.

Squizzy Taylor was sentenced to two months' prison for possessing an unregistered firearm.

Squizzy Taylor explained that later in the same evening he had been drinking heavily and, believing that Sterling and his men were pursuing him, he had hidden in the warehouse which was already unlocked.

The police believed that Squizzy Taylor was the organiser of the robbery.

Squizzy Taylor was initially charged with being the occupier of a house frequented by thieves and harbouring the escaped prisoner Murray.

Squizzy Taylor unsuccessfully appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeal and was refused leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia.

The charges that Squizzy Taylor was an accessory to the murder of Berriman were withdrawn; however, he still faced charges of conspiring to rescue Murray from prison, harboring Murray, and of occupying a house frequented by thieves.

Squizzy Taylor was convicted of the less serious charge of being the occupier of a house frequented by thieves and sentenced to six months' prison in June 1924.

Squizzy Taylor was ordered to show cause why he should not be imprisoned indefinitely under the Indeterminate Sentences Act; however, the Supreme Court declined to order an indeterminate sentence, concluding that Taylor's criminal record was not sufficiently serious to warrant one.

Squizzy Taylor was wounded in a gunfight with a rival gangster, John "Snowy" Cutmore, at a house in Barkly Street, Carlton, and died at St Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy, on 27 October 1927.

Squizzy Taylor, hearing of Cutmore's return from Sydney, set out to find him.

Squizzy Taylor staggered outside towards the waiting taxi, while one of his companions fled out the back door of the house.

Squizzy Taylor was helped into the taxi and taken to St Vincent's Hospital.

Squizzy Taylor was unconscious by the time he arrived at the casualty ward and died soon afterwards.

One was that the shooting was an accident and Squizzy Taylor, who was more bravado than bite, had only intended to "put the wind up" Cutmore not realising that he was armed.

Yet another theory was that Squizzy Taylor murdered Cutmore as payback for the death of Norman Bruhn.

The Rise and Fall of Squizzy Taylor, directed by Nigel Buesst, was privately funded and screened at the Carlton Cinema in Melbourne and Union Theatre in Sydney.

In Frank Hardy's 1950 novel Power Without Glory, Squizzy Taylor is portrayed as the character Snoopy Tanner.

Squizzy Taylor was featured in the Australian series Underbelly: Razor, a 13-part series covering the Razor war which occurred in Sydney during the twenties and thirties, which was broadcast in 2011.

The sixth season, Underbelly: Squizzy Taylor, was based on his life.