The most notorious criminals
in Richmond 1900s
Squizzy Taylor
Joseph Leslie Theodore Taylor also known as Squizzy was born on
the 29th of June 29 in Brighton Leslie tried to make a career as a
jockey but instead he started to become well known to the police
Between 1913 and 1916
Taylor was linked to several more violent crimes including the
murder and robbery of Arthur Trotter and also the murder of
William Patrick Haines, a driver who refused to contribute in the
hold-up of a bank manager at Bulleen.
Taylor was tried
For the murder of
Haines but was
found not guilty.
‘Squizzy’ was also apart of the Fitzroy vendetta in 1919 which ended in
the shooting of several men. After several other gang fights he was
wounded in a gunfight at a house in Barkly Street, Carlton, and died in
St Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy, on 27 October 1927.
Henry Stokes
Henry Stokes became well known to the underworld in the early 1900s
He owned a large brick building in the internal suburb of Richmond in
which his center of operations of his his gambling empire. He was well
known as the two up king this was a type of gambaling name.
The police would often raid the building but to avoid this he had a
arrangement of electric bells as a warning sign.
In 1914 he and Squizzy Taylor formed an alliance this meant Taylor got a huge profit out of Stokes’
gambling income, and in return stokes would get defense and assurance that if any rivalry rose up then
Squizzy would intimidate the competition and therefore they would back away.
Henry Stokes was well-known for the shooting on Little Collins Street in 1921, which ended in the death
of “Long” Harry Slater (rival gang). When Squizzy died in 1927 Stokes became a solo, he sustained to
use Squizzy’s methods and in the year Taylor had died he was charged with the blowing up a rival two
up school but then still ended up a free man.
In 1934 however, he plotted to steal 100,000 pounds from the bank, but failed, he then spent the next
four years in jail as a consequence. Henry stokes lived a pretty good life for such a bad criminal but in
1945 in suffered from a heart attack and passed. He left behind 15,000 pounds, this was a lot less than
expected and many people wanted to know the whereabouts of the remaining money, but it was never
found.