The colourful life of an underworld gangster

A debonair crook of the Australian underworld, Keith Kitchener Hull managed to stay out of prison — and alive — when it counted.

A gangster walks a narrow path through life, threatened on one side by prison and the other by death.

Keith Kitchener Hull came very close to both.

After shooting dead a small-statured crim nicknamed Donald the Duck in Sydney, he was himself the target of an underworld shooting in St Kilda.

But Hull, a debonair crook who fraternised with the most bloodthirsty lowlifes in the Australian underworld, managed to stay on the right side of the prison walls — and the right side of the ground — when it counted.

THE DUCK HUNTER

What Donald Day lacked in height he made up for in meanness.

Small enough to be a jockey in his youth before turning to a life of drug-running, prostitution and theft, Donald the Duck, as he was known. was a key player in Sydney’s criminal underbelly.

It was once predicted that he would die as he lived — inside a brothel.

It turns out fate had a sense of humour.

St Kilda, pictured in the early 20th Century, was the scene of the gangland shooting of Keith Kitchener Hull. Picture: State Library of Victoria

The man who gunned down the Duck in a house of ill repute in Sydney’s inner suburb of Surry Hills was a slick 28-year-old Keith Hull.

A salesman and labourer from Prahran, Hull had a habit of finding himself in strife with police, but often managed to slip out of trouble.

In 1938, aged just 20, he was put on trial for stealing a truck full of firewood — but was found not guilty.

Three years later he was back in court for forgery and deception, but was out of jail within nine months.

By 1945 he was mixing with a nasty crew in Sydney, and none were nastier than Donald the Duck.

One morning in January police were called to an address in Surry Hills, known to house prostitutes, and found the Duck dead on a bed on the upper floor — shot through the body and twice through the face.

Keith Hull was up for murder along with three women, including the Duck’s widow.

Eventually only Hull faced trial.

The verdict?

Not guilty. It was self defence, the court found.

Hull would wander back to Melbourne, had a wife and two children, but his life of crime was far from over.

A GANGSTER’S SILENCE

By 1947 Hull was back to his old tricks, and landed in court for involvement in the theft of a truck full of beer.

He was convicted — but had it overturned on appeal and avoided jail.

But trouble was always around the corner.

Hull must have suspected his shooting of the Duck, and his various criminal dealings, would make him an enemy to a lot of dangerous men.

Two of those men were waiting for him in Neptune Ln, near Robe St in St Kilda on a Sunday afternoon in July 1947.

The truck in which Hull was shot and wounded in 1947. Picture: Trove

Hull with his wife outside hospital in a wheelchair after being shot and, right, Charles Martin, one of the men acquitted of the crime. Pictures: Trove

Hull had taken up work as a wood carter and was driving his truck down the lane when the men pounced.

Hull was shot twice with a .32 calibre pistol as he sat in the cabin.

When the victim slumped over the wheel, the gunmen fled.

But Hull miraculously survived.

Doctors later said he was extremely lucky the bullets that struck his abdomen and wrist caused only superficial wounds.

As for the men who shot him?

Hull would not tell police what happened, and refused an offer for police protection.

Seven people were arrested over the shooting, which included a conspiracy to murder Hull’s wife.

Charles Martin and George Barrett were eventually trialled.

Hull broke his silence in court to suggest Barrett had been a friend of Donald the Duck, but a lack of evidence saw both men declared not guilty.

THE SURVIVOR

Despite being at the centre of violence and thuggery during the long-running gangland wars of the mid 20th Century, Hull survived.

His slick sales tactics got him in trouble again in late 1947 when he was caught overcharging a church for a load firewood.

For that he was fined handed a hefty fine.

A 1947 news headline about Hull’s shooting in Neptune Ln, St Kilda. Picture: Trove

In 1951 he was charged with consorting with criminals
— for which a judge ordered him to be imprisoned for just one hour before he walked free.

But Hull ultimately saw the inside of a prison cell again.

By 1954, aged 37, he had wandered to Alice Springs and then to North Queensland where he faced court on a firearms charge.

It was discovered he had skipped bail in Victoria after a driving offence.

Hull argued he had managed to avoid a criminal conviction for about nine years, since he married and had children.

The Queensland judge took pity on him, but Hull was soon up to his old tricks.

He was caught with cocaine kept in a secret pocket in his trousers.

One of the final mentions of the gangster in newspaper records stated he had appealed a six-month jail sentence for failing to pay a 75-pound fine.

In that report, one of the most cunning and evasive figures of the underworld, now down and out, was described as an unemployed man from Melbourne.

Originally published as The colourful life of an underworld gangster