How durries polished off notorious Sydney gangster Chow Hayes
OF all the times during his criminal career he could have been taken out by a bullet or beaten to death, it was his smoking that finally polished off notorious Sydney gangster Chow Hayes.
NSW
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WHEN notorious gangster John “Chow” Hayes was living at Lidcombe with his niece Dolly (my mum) she would cook a nice meal for him because he said prison food was very ordinary.
We used to visit him in prison every weekend where he would complain about the food. Chow said the stew they served up in jail was so bad it was known among the inmates as “grey death”.
After spending much of his life in institutions, Chow was not used to the huge range of foods that were available on the outside.
My eldest, Gabrielle, recently reminded me of the time Chow grabbed a cheese slice out of the fridge. Dolly used to make him cheese and tomato toasted sandwiches, which were his favourite food.
So Chow had grabbed a slice of cheese and was just going to eat it all by itself. He was sitting on the lounge and chewing it when he complained to Dolly, saying “these cheese slices are shit”.
We all looked at him and Dolly said: “You are eating the bloody plastic wrapper, stupid.” He didn’t know they were individually wrapped.
We all cracked up, even Chow had a laugh. I will say one thing though; for all of his violent tendencies, he did have a good sense of humour.
Chow loved Gabrielle dearly, and he wrote letters to her every week when he was in jail. I still have all those letters. He did have a soft side, but it was rarely seen as he had to keep up his tough guy image, which he did well.
He lived to be 83, but for all his fame or notoriety only five people attended his funeral.
The prison food must have been good in some way, as when Chow was released his health went downhill.
He got stuck into junk food, smoked a packet of “the makins” a day (roll your own smokes), he drank about 15 beers a day, or more, and never worked at any physical job past 15 years of age.
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He never played any sport and was always overweight. However, he loved his cricket and footy … but only to watch.
Of all the times during his criminal career he could have been taken out by a bullet or beaten to death, but it was his smoking that finally polished him off.
*BOB SCOTT IS CHOW HAYES’ NEPHEW