William 'Joey' Hollebone

William Joseph Hollebone (1 January 1917 – 28 September 1960), known informally as 'Joey' Hollebone, was a notorious and violent member of the criminal underworld, based in the inter-city suburbs of Sydney, Australia.

William Joseph Hollebone was born on 1 January 1917 at St. Peters in inner-city Sydney, the son of Sydney Hollebone and Mary (née Ludwell).

His father was a bootmaker who had enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force.

Sydney Hollebone embarked on a troopship for England shortly after William's birth; he was briefly mobilised to France but was hospitalised for an inguinal hernia and returned to Australia in October 1918.

He was discharged as medically unfit in March 1919.

William was the fourth-born of eight children in the Hollebone family.

His mother, Mary Hollebone, died in 1926, shortly after the birth of her last child.

In 1927 the family were living at 11 Hutchinson Street, St. Peters.

On 13 July 1927 William's younger brother, seven-year-old Augustus Hollebone, and two other neighbourhood boys were drowned in a water-filled disused brick pit in May Street, St Peters.

The boys had been paddling about on an improvised wooden raft, when it overturned.

In 1933, Hollebone, aged 16 years, was bought before the courts for stealing and placed on twelve months' probation.

Hollebone began serving a decade-long sentence for manslaughter in 1935, during which he met 'Chow' Hayes.

At Newtown Court in January 1935 Hollebone was released on a twelve months' bond "for having goods in custody".

On the afternoon of 7 October 1935 Hollebone and two companions, James Charters and Edward Smith, were involved in a street brawl in King Street, Newtown, that resulted in the death of a 39-year-old greengrocer, Leslie Hobson.

The fight started when a cyclist named Albert Brown was in the process of mounting his bicycle when he was pushed in the back by Smith.

The two began exchanging punches, with Smith's companions joining in.

Brown wrestled one of his assailants to the ground and was hit by a bottle and kicked in the ribs and head.

At that point Alfred Lalor and Leslie Hobson emerged from a nearby hotel and "saw a young man lying in the gutter, with three or four men about him, who appeared to be kicking him".

Hobson called out: "Cut it out. Give him a fair go".

As the two men approached the melée, Lalor was knocked to the ground and kicked in the head.

Hobson began to fight with Hollebone and his companions.

A witness to the events described "a running fight across the street" with bottles being thrown.

Hobson fell, after having tripped on the kerb or been knocked down.

The witness described how two of the attackers, "as quick as lightning", kicked Hobson in the side of the head, one on each side.

A sound "like a crack, or a slap" was heard as they kicked him.

After the vicious attack on Hobson the three men ran away.

An inquest was held at the City Coroner's Court investigating the death of Leslie Hobson on 30 and 31 October 1935.

At the conclusion of the evidence the City Coroner found that Hobson had "died from injuries feloniously and maliciously inflicted" by Hollebone, Charters and Smith.

He expressed the view that "the kicking of a defenceless man on the head while he was lying on the roadway is an act that, if it was not intended to kill, was intended to inflict serious grievous bodily harm, and that comes on to the legal definition of murder".

The Coroner committed the three men for trial, acknowledging that the question of whether the crime was one of murder or manslaughter, if the men were found guilty, was for the jury to determine.

The trial began on 26 November 1935 in the Central Criminal Court, with Hollebone, Charters and Smith each pleading not guilty to murder charges.

In his opening statement the Senior Crown Prosecutor left open the possibility that the jury might reduce the crime to one of manslaughter.

In evidence for the defence, each of the accused men denied they had kicked Hobson.

On the following day the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against each of the accused.

On November 29 Justice Halse Rogers sentenced Hollebone, Charters and Smith each to ten years' penal servitude for the manslaughter of Leslie Hobson.

The defence counsel had asked the judge to extend leniency "on the grounds of their youth, and the fact that there had been some provocation".

However, Halse Rogers was unmoved; in passing sentence he remarked that "the cowardliness and brutality of the final assault could scarcely be exaggerated", adding, "while it was a very serious thing to send three youths to gaol for such a term, it would be more serious... if such crimes as that were dealt with lightly".

The judge observed that "the evidence in the case revealed something of the old 'push' activity and against any revival of such tactics and terrorism the community must be protected".

While 'Joey' Hollebone was serving his sentence in Parramatta Gaol he met John 'Chow' Hayes and the two men formed a partnership that would last until Hollebone's death.

From the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s Hollebone and Hayes were the best-known and feared of Sydney's criminal gunmen, with newspapers regularly reporting on their nefarious activities.