Brother to Leslie ‘Squizzy’ Taylor, ‘Big Squizzy’ Claude Taylor lived a colourful life of crime
Older sibling to underworld king Leslie “Squizzy” Taylor, Claude “Big Squizzy” Taylor lived a colourful life of crime, was shot in the groin by his estranged wife and helped kick off a razor gang war. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST.
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Claude Taylor was a heavily tattooed gangster, garrotter, razor-slasher, burglar, and gunman in Melbourne and Sydney in the early 1900s.
Known about the streets as “Big Squizzy”, Claude Taylor was the older brother of Australia’s most famous gangster: Leslie “Squizzy” Taylor.
Claude was born in 1886, two years prior to Squizzy. They were raised in the working-class suburb of Richmond. In their teens, Claude and Squizzy joined a gang of street criminals known as the Bourke Street Rats.
The Bourke Street Rats were a loosely organised group of pickpockets, garrotters and pimps. In 1907, they dealt justice to William “Lofty” Prentice for bullying prostitutes in Fitzroy. Claude held a gun at Lofty’s head, while Squizzy and other members of the gang beat him with metal bars, revolver butts, boots and fists.
On the information of a member of Lofty’s gang, arrest warrants were issued under the offenders’ nicknames. The first two warrants were for: “Little Squizzy” (Leslie “Squizzy” Taylor) and “Big Squizzy” (Claude Taylor).
Six of the gang, including Claude and Squizzy, were found guilty of assault and sentenced to seven days in prison.
In 1908, Claude and two other crooks decided to rob a photography studio. While Claude was having his photo taken in one room, his companions ran off with the till from another. The photographer developed the photo, gave it to the police, and Claude was sentenced to three months in prison.
In 1910, Claude and Squizzy were involved in a brawl in a Chinese cook-shop on Little Lonsdale St. Police arrived to quell the disturbance and were attacked by Claude, Squizzy, and the rest of the crowd. One of the police reported that he pulled out his gun because he was in fear of his life.
Claude received a fine and Squizzy two months in prison.
The next year, Claude was in country Victoria during the Maryborough Show. In that era, it was common for criminals to follow the show and racing circuits to prey on the large crowds.
Out the back of a wine cafe, Claude attacked a drunken man, choked him into insensibility, and stole his money. It was Claude’s hand tattoos that were his undoing on this occasion.
They were used to identify him in Melbourne several months later. The judge sentenced Claude to three years in prison, with fifteen strokes of the cat o‘nine tails.
After this, Claude got a tattoo of a crucifix on his back. The theory was that he’d be spared the lash in future because the flagellator would hesitate to strike a sacred image.
Claude enlisted in the army at the beginning of WWI but went missing almost immediately and never saw service. Instead, he was frequenting “Little Lon” – Melbourne’s inner-city brothel district.
There he took a fancy to brothel madam Esther Rowe. He stalked Esther’s husband with a gun. Within a year she’d divorced her husband and married Claude.
The marriage to Claude was a rocky one. They were living apart in 1919 when Esther knocked on his door and shot him in the groin.
Claude relocated to Sydney in the early 1920s. In 1924 he was caught trying to break into a shop and was sentenced to three years.
In April 1927, Claude, and four others, invaded Rupert Carr’s house in Druitt Place, Sydney. Rupert woke to see Claude leaning above him on the bed.
“Are you Black Rupe?” Claude asked. He then slashed Rupert from ear to ear with a razor. The wound was inches deep in parts and almost separated his nose from his face. Rupert leapt from bed and ran screaming from the house.
He managed to stagger to the police station, from where he was conveyed to hospital. His wounds required 47 stitches and he lost the tip of his nose permanently.
Rupert’s wife, Vera, was knocked out with a blow to the head, and her ear was almost severed by the razor.
The judge said that it was one of the most heinous crimes he’d encountered. He sentenced Claude to five years.
By the time the trial was over, razor slashings were becoming frequent in Sydney’s underworld. The era 1927 to 1930 became known as that of the “razor gang wars”. Claude saw these years out from the safety of his prison cell.
READ MORE
LOFTY PRENTICE: THE VIOLENT VETERAN
PERCY RAMAGE: A MOST VIOLENT PRISONER
WILLIAM BUCK: THE ENFORCER OF LITTLE LON
Just three months into Claude’s sentence, his brother Squizzy was killed in a shootout with gangster “Snowy” Cutmore in Melbourne. The shootout, which also claimed Cutmore’s life, was believed to have been connected to Sydney’s razor gang wars.
Esther and Claude were divorced in 1929.
Claude led an apparently quiet life after his release from prison in 1932. He worked as a wharf labourer, and, in 1940, married Ruby Lennox, a Surry Hills boarding house keeper. They were still married when he died, in 1961, of kidney disease, aged 75.
— Michael Shelford is the host of Melbourne Historical Crime Tours
Listen to the interview now in today’s new free episode of the In Black and White podcast on Apple/iTunes, Spotify or web . And listen to our previous podcasts including the Essendon Football Club trainer who was a quack doctor, or the story of Australia’s Willy Wonka.
Originally published as Brother to Leslie ‘Squizzy’ Taylor, ‘Big Squizzy’ Claude Taylor lived a colourful life of crime
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