Tilly Devine

Matilda Mary Devine (née Twiss, 8 September 1900 – 24 November 1970), known as Tilly Devine, was an English Australian organised crime boss.

She was involved in a wide range of activities, including sly-grog, razor gangs, and prostitution, and became a famous folk figure in Sydney during the interwar years.

Devine was born the daughter of bricklayer Edward Twiss, and Alice Twiss (née Tubb) at 57 Hollington Street, Camberwell, London in the United Kingdom.

The NSW Vagrancy Act 1905 prohibited men from running brothels; it did nothing to stop women with criminal gangs' support and bribes to the police from running criminal enterprises.

Historian Larry Writer has noted that the Devines ran diversified operations.

Elite "call girls" were available for politicians, businessmen and overseas guests of significance, while "tenement girls" were young working-class women who resorted to casual prostitution to supplement their drug spending, clothing and meagre earnings during times of Australian criminal and narcotic culture, absence of a comprehensive welfare state and unemployment.

Older female prostitutes, "boat girls", catered to itinerant sailors or working-class men.

Devine does not seem to have run similar operations for the gay sex market during this time because she believed it was not right.

Devine's wealth was legendary, although it was all earned from crime.

She owned much real estate in Sydney, many luxury cars, looted gold and diamond jewellery and travelled by ship in first class staterooms.

Much of her wealth was also used to pay bribes to the police sectors, and fines for her criminal convictions that spanned fifty years.

Devine faced numerous court summons and was convicted on 204 occasions during her long criminal career, and served many gaol sentences in New South Wales gaols, mainly for prostitution, violent assault, affray and attempted murder.

She was known to the police to be of a violent nature and was known to use firearms.

James Edward Joseph (Jim) Devine was an WWI ex-serviceman and shearer, who was a violent 'stand-over' man, a convicted thief, a pimp, drug dealer, vicious thug and gunman.

He was also an alcoholic.

Shortly after Tilly separated from Jim, long time criminal associate, Donald Alexander Kenney (1906–1963), known as 'Skinny Kenney', became Tilly's lover and stand-over man.

From 1915 onwards to 1919, she spent time at Bow Street Court and Lock Up for prostitution, theft and assault.

The couple had one son, Frederick Ralph Twiss, born in Camberwell, Southwark, London in 1919.

Her career in prostitution began when she was a teenager and continued after she was married.

She and many English women were usually found soliciting on the wide footpaths on The Strand, at night.

When Jim returned to Australia she followed him back on the bride ship Waimana, arriving in Sydney on 13 January 1920.

Her son stayed in London and was brought up by her parents.

Both Tilly and Jim Devine rapidly became prominent illegal narcotics dealers, brothel owners and crime gangs members in the Sydney criminal milieu.

Tilly Devine, known as the ‘Queen of Woolloomooloo’ ran a string of brothels centred around Darlinghurst and the Cross, and in particular, Palmer Street.

Kate Leigh, known as the ‘Queen of Surry Hills’, was a sly groger and fence for stolen property.

By 1925 Tilly was well known to police.

In five years she had accumulated a long list of convictions; the numerous offences ranged from common prostitute to indecent language, offensive behaviour and assault.

The police report is a snapshot of the life that Tilly was leading up to 1925, a life that involved working the streets at night, clashes with Police and lots of parties and heavy drinking.

Devine became infamous in Sydney, initially as a prostitute, then later as a brothel madam and organised crime entrepreneur.

Devine committed a number of high-profile murders in Sydney between 1929 and 1931: notably, the murder of criminal George Leonard "Gregory" Gaffney on 17 July 1929, secondly, as an accessory to the murder of Barney Dalton on 9 November 1929 (with infamous Sydney gangster and assassin, Francis Donald "Frankie" Green) and, thirdly, the accidental shooting of taxi driver, Frederick Herbert Moffitt on 16 June 1931.

Although he was charged with murder on more than one occasion, he was always acquitted, successfully arguing self defence.

He shot and killed Gaffney and Moffitt outside his and Tilly's Maroubra residence.

Tilly and Jim Devine's marriage was marred by domestic violence.

As Tilly ran out of the house, Jim fired a number of shots at her in a similar way to the murder of George Leonard Gaffney in 1929.

Tilly escaped unscathed, the only damage being one of her brand new stilettos – the left one.

Their terrified neighbours called the police resulting in Jim being arrested and charged over the incident.

On 9 January 1931, Jim was charged at Central Police Court with the attempted murder of his wife after a heated argument at their Maroubra home.

He was later acquitted, on 16 January 1931, because Tilly refused to testify.

The Devines separated in the early 1940s and were finally divorced in January 1944.

At 16 she married an Australian serviceman, James (Jim) Edward Joseph Devine, (born Brunswick, Victoria, 1892, died Heidelberg, Victoria, 18 August 1966), on 12 April 1917 at the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Camberwell, London.