11. These Crime Queens Hated Each Other With a Passion
During her time behind bars, Tilly Devine decided to change her life around. Not in a socially desirable way, however: instead of a prostitute, she became a madam. Criminal statutes back then stated that men could not profit from the sale of sex. That left a loophole for female madams. Within a few years of her release, Devine was well on her way to dominating Sydney’s sex trade. That brought her in conflict with Kate Leigh, another Sydney gang boss who resented Devine’s attempts to monopolize the city’s prostitution rackets.
Known as the Sly-Grog Queen, Leigh specialized in unlicensed bars, drugs, and was also involved in the prostitution racket. She was just as violent as Devine, but shrewder: she was seldom convicted for the violence she ordered or personally dished out. The rivalry between Leigh and Devine grew into personal enmity, which flared into the Razor Wars. The crime queens’ henchmen attacked each other in the streets, raided and trashed each other’s brothels, bars, and stash houses, and snitched on their rivals to the police.
