Melbourne City crime: Carlton baby farmer, Brownout Strangler among most shocking crimes
Melbourne City has a reputation as the cultural and foodie capital of Australia. But that wasn’t always the case. Here are some of the most shocking crimes from Melbourne’s dark past.
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Melbourne wasn’t always laneway cafes, cocktail bars and tourist attractions.
Some of Victoria’s most shocking crimes took place in the city’s old buildings and cobble stone lanes.
Here’s some of the most haunting historic crimes to take place on the streets of Melbourne city.
The Opera House Tragedy
Jilted lover John James MacGregor Greer shot his wife Annice and her French lover M.A.
Louis Soudry at the old Melbourne Opera House on July 24, 1880.
Mr Greer opened fire during a performance of the Huguenots before turning the gun on himself.
He made a full confession to his crimes in the cab on the way to the hospital.
“I hope the Frenchman will die, but I don’t care whether my wife dies or not,” he said,
according to a newspaper story in The Argus.
The titillating saga of jealousy, which began while the three were sailing to Melbourne on
board the Garonne, captivated the public’s imagination.
Mrs Greer and her French lover survived the incident, while Mr Greer succumbed to his
injuries a week later.
Baby Farmer murders
In 1893, Melbourne woman Frances Knorr was accused of murdering three-week-old Gladys
Crighton, after her body was discovered in a backyard of a property she had rented.
The death was believed to be a result of the practice of “baby farming” – informal childcare
arrangements which had a high mortality rate.
The bodies of two more infants were later uncovered at other properties linked to Ms Knorr.
The grim discovering appalled 19th century Melburnians and raised serious concerns about the practice of baby farming, which was rampant in a time when most working women did not have access to other childcare.
Ms Knorrs was publicly vilified for her perceived promiscuity and criminal ties, having two children by different fathers, one a known felon.
She was sentenced to death by hanging, which was a controversial sentence for a woman.
Crime at Heffernan Lane, Chinatown
Now a foodie haven, Heffernan Lane, Chinatown was once a hotspot of gambling, drug-use
and unsavoury characters.
Since its construction in 1841, the strip earned a reputation for dodgy dealings, which worsened after illegal gambling venues such as the Shanghai Club opened in the area.
Gambling was illegal in Victoria except for at the races, and police cracked down in the 1910s.
In 1912 80-year-old Ah Woo made headlines after he lost his life savings playing fan-tan and went on a stabbing rampage at Heffernan Lane, wounding a banker.
And Bank robber Harry Quong, who lived on Heffernan Lane, also contributed to the stretch’s bad name after he shot a cop at Highett Railway station in 1932.
The Brownout Strangler
Melbourne woman Ivy Violet McLeod, 40, was found strangled and beaten in Albert Park on
May 3 1942, sparking a desperate search for her killer.
The bodies of two other women Pauline Thompson, 31, and Gladys Hosking, 40, showed up in quick succession, making it clear police were hunting Melbourne’s first serial killer.
Police began searching for a dishevelled American man who had been seen with two of the victims shortly before they were killed.
Witnesses eventually picked 24-year-old US soldier Eddie Leonski out as the killer.
He had been stationed in Melbourne during the World War II.
Mr Leonski was tried under American military law on Australian soil in what is believed to be the first and only time that has occurred.
The “Brownout Strangler” – so called because of the practice of dimming the city’s lights to deter bombings – was hung in Pentridge Prison.
The Gun Alley Murder
When the body of Alma Tirtschke, 12, was found in Little Collins St in 1921 it set the course
for not only one of the city’s worst unsolved crimes, but also one of its biggest miscarriages
of justice.
With public interest in the tragedy high, police were under pressure to make an arrest, eventually rounding up Colin Ross, the owner of the bar near where her body was found.
The key piece of evidence was the discovery of golden hairs on a blanket in his saloon
that, to the naked eye, appeared to belong to Ms Tirtschke.
He was tried for murder and hanged, but in 2008 he was posthumously pardoned after modern forensics proved the hair did not belong to the victim.
The Easey St Murders
The killing of young mum Suzanne Armstrong, 28 and friend Susan Bartlett at their home in
Collingwood in 1977, remains one of Victoria’s most controversial cold cases.
It’s believed the killer washed himself at the house before fleeing through the backdoor.
It wasn’t until neighbours grew concerned enough to check why the “two Sues” weren’t answering their door or telephone that they discovered the horrible scene.
Ms Armstrong’s child was found alive among the carnage.
Police made a list of hundreds of suspects, but never found the killer.
Those who have revisited the case over the passing decades noted many missed leads and the case has been reopened twice to no success.
Squizzy Taylor’s Carlton shootout
Gangster Joseph Theodore Leslie ”Squizzy” Taylor also known as the underworld “dandy” for his impeccable taste in fine suits, was charged with everything from theft to as well as his role in a number of murders over his criminal career.
But it was an ill-fated attempt to exact revenge on a former gangland rival John “Snowy” Cutmore that ended Mr Taylor’s life of crime in 1927.
Mr Cutmore was in bed with the flu at his mother’s house in Barkly St, Carlton when Squizzy bust into the house and opened fire.
The two gangsters exchanged fire, each fatally wounding the other.
The suburban shootout, which also left Mr Cutmore’s mother injured, attracted such public attention that crowds lined the street to see Squizzy’s hearse on its way to his final resting place in at Brighton cemetery.
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Contact Grace at grace.mckinnon@news.com.au
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