How Ann Shiell became Melbourne’s feared slumlord queen
Her name is barely known today, but the formidable Ann Shiell was a powerful crime boss, slum landlord, brothel madam and controller of gangs of thieves in Melbourne in the late 1800s. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
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In the “Marvellous Melbourne” era of the 1880s, the city was in the grip of a development and population boom off the back of the Gold Rush.
But as the good times rolled on, cashed-up city slickers who partied in bustling bars in Bourke St became easy prey for thieves and con artists.
No-one embraced the business opportunity more efficiently than powerful crime boss Ann Shiell, the subject of the first episode in a five-part series on “larrikins and laneways” in the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters, out today.
Melbourne historian Michael Shelford, founder of Melbourne Historical Crime Tours, describes Ann Shiell as a slum landlord, brothel madam and controller of gangs of thieves.
Shelford says Shiell owned most of the properties in crime-ridden Romeo Lane and Juliet Terrace, running from Bourke St to Lt Bourke St a block from Parliament House.
Both streets were lined with brothels and dens of thieves.
Shiell’s modus operandi was to send someone, usually a woman, to a nearby hotel in Bourke St to find a drunken man with a pocket full of cash to lure back to one of her residences.
After a few drinks, accomplices would set upon and rob the victim, often violently.
Shiell was imprisoned for six months in 1866 for receiving stolen goods after one robbery victim turned violent, forcing her to intervene.
As Shiell shouted, “Don’t let the old wretch go!”, victim George Hill was held down and forcibly undressed.
His clothes were passed for inspection to Shiell, who hit the jackpot, finding £146 in his wallet.
After her long stint in prison, Shiell wised up and opted for more of a hands-off approach, while demanding a hefty cut from the proceeds of every robbery.
“She was making money from the rents, she was also getting a cut from all the business that was done, and on top of that she was getting a cut of the thievery,” Shelford says.
“So she was getting a bit of everything.”
In 1868, one of Shiell’s tenants, Sarah Robinson, invited a sailor back to her place in Romeo Lane.
When the man discovered Sarah had robbed him, he attacked her.
When two brothers, Dennis and Michael Clifford, intervened, the three ended up in a knife fight.
Shelford says a policeman saved them from killing each other, but all three required hospital treatment and Dennis Clifford lost an eye.
Shiell’s son, George, was extraordinarily violent and considered by police at one time to be the worst thug in Melbourne.
The family home in Juliet Terrace was directly behind a police station, and George would stand in the street and dare the police to fight.
According to police, George also beat his mother with a stick.
Juliet Terrace and Romeo Lane, since renamed Liverpool St and Crossley St, are now better known for their trendy bars and cafes than their previous lives as seedy crime hubs.
Ann Shiell, who outlived three husbands, died in 1902, aged 76.
Listen now to the interview in today’s new free episode of the In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters on Apple/iTunes, Spotify, web or your favourite platform.
And listen to some of our previous episodes with Michael Shelford from Melbourne Historical Crime Tours including the story of South Yarra’s mysterious Madame Reprah, who showed up a police chief, the champion Collingwood footballer who was a hero cop, and the Essendon Football Club trainer who was also a quack doctor and drug fiend.
And see In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.