Joseph Theodore Leslie "Squizzy" Taylor (29 June 1888 – 27 October 1927) was an Australian gangster from Melbourne. He appeared repeatedly and sometimes prominently in Melbourne news media because of suspicions, formal accusations and some convictions related to a 1919 gang war, to his absconding from bail and hiding from the police in 1921–22, and to his involvement in a robbery where a bank manager was murdered in 1923.
Taylor enjoyed a fearsome reputation in 1920s Melbourne. A "spiv", described as the Australian equivalent of the 'American bootleggers', his crimes ranged from pickpocketing, assault and shopbreaking to armed robbery and murder. He also derived income from sly-grog selling, two-up schools, illegal bookmaking, extortion, prostitution and, in his later years, is believed by some to have moved into cocaine dealing.
Born in Brighton, Victoria, on 29 June 1888, Taylor was the second youngest child of Benjamin Isaiah Taylor, coachmaker, and Rosina Taylor (née Jones). The family struggled financially and, after the family coachmaking business was sold by creditors in 1893, they moved to the inner-Melbourne working-class suburb of Richmond.
With the death of his father in 1901, the 13-year old Taylor began working in the stables of a horse trainer and then as a jockey in Melbourne's inner-city pony circuit.
Taylor soon started to get into trouble with the police and in May 1905 at the age of 16 was arrested for insulting behaviour. He was discharged without conviction by the local magistrates, but this was the first of many court appearances. His first criminal conviction was recorded in March 1906 at the age of 17 when he was sentenced to 21 days imprisonment for the theft of a "fly front grey Melton cloth overcoat".
Although given the names "Joseph Leslie Theodore" by his parents, Taylor preferred to use the name "Leslie". One opinion claims that as a youth, Taylor became known by the nickname "Squizzy" because of an ulcerated, droopy left eyelid. This opinion isn't shared in Squizzy - The Biography, which claims that family sources interviewed by the author state that Leslie's older brother, Claude Taylor, was the original "Squizzy" Taylor. Linking the word "Squizz", which held a crude connotation to urinating at the time, to Claude being a short person, and a "little shit", the name was passed down to Leslie after a brief time of them both being referred to as Big Squizz and Little Squizz, before Claude left Victoria around 1912-14, and the name sticking with brother Leslie.
His first prison sentence behind him, Taylor became part of a larrikin 'push' (or gang) that roamed the streets looking for trouble. His early convictions included theft, assault, inciting to resist arrest, offensive language, throwing missiles and vagrancy.
Under the alias "Michael McGee", he was convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment for pickpocketing the watch and chain of an unsuspecting punter at the Ballarat races in January 1908. After his release from prison Taylor continued to pickpocket, regularly moving from one place to another to avoid detection by the police. He was convicted of pickpocketing in Kapunda, South Australia, in January 1911 and under the alias "David Donoghue" in Christchurch, New Zealand, in November 1912.
Taylor's first wife was Dolly Gray, although it is unclear whether they were ever legally married. Dolly was more than just a girlfriend and wife—she is believed to have played an active role in some of Taylor's crimes, such as his schemes to decoy and extort money from married men.
Robbery and murder of Arthur Trotter (1913)
Arthur Trotter, a commercial traveller from MacRobertson's confectioners, was robbed of £200 and murdered in front of his wife and five-year-old son at his home in Fitzroy, Victoria, in January 1913. Harold "Bush" Thompson, a criminal associate of Taylor's, was arrested and tried for the murder but found not guilty. The police believed that Taylor was Thompson's accomplice in the armed robbery and murder, although no direct evidence could be obtained against him.
Thompson and Taylor were arrested for loitering at the Flemington racecourse with intent to commit a felony in July 1914. Taylor, alias "Leslie Grout", was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour. While Taylor was in Melbourne Gaol, his wife Dolly supported herself by operating a brothel at her house in Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. One night in December 1914 she was admitted to hospital with a bullet wound in her head, received under mysterious circumstances. Although her condition was described as serious, she recovered from her injuries.
Murder of William Haines (1916)
In 1916 Taylor and John Williamson were tried and acquitted of the murder of William Patrick Haines, a 21-year-old chauffeur employed by the Globe Motor & Taxi Company. On the evening of 28 February 1916, a man calling himself Lestrange had telephoned the taxi company to order a car for the following day to take him to Eltham, Victoria. Haines, who was dispatched to drive the customer, was found late on 29 February 1916, shot dead on the floor of his car at the junction of Bulleen and Templestowe Roads, Heidelberg. The police believed that Taylor and Williamson had intended to rob a bank manager who was taking bank money from one branch to another. The police found that a grave had recently been dug near Clayton, several miles away, in which they believed the body of the bank manager was to be buried. Haines had apparently refused to co-operate so was murdered and the armed robbery was aborted.
While the murder charge failed, Taylor was sentenced to imprisonment for twelve months on a charge of vagrancy and one month for obstructing the police in the execution of their duty.
Taylor figured in the "Fitzroy Vendetta", a violent feud between rival criminal pushes that lasted for several months in 1919. One push, from Richmond, was headed by Taylor and the "two-up king" Henry Stokes, while the other one was based in Fitzroy and included Edward "Ted" Whiting, Henry "Long Harry" Slater and Frederick Thorpe.
The feud had its origins in a carefully planned robbery of £1,435 worth of diamond rings from Kilpatrick & Co, a Collins Street jewellers, in June 1918. The robbery, which Taylor is credited by some with orchestrating, was carried out by members of the Richmond and Fitzroy pushes.
When three of their members were arrested and faced trial over the robbery, the Fitzroy push became suspicious that someone from Richmond had tipped off the police and suspicions were raised further when Stokes, a member of the Richmond push, gave evidence for the prosecution in exchange for the police withdrawing charges against him. The two men were found not guilty, but that was not the end of the matter. Outside court after the trial, angry words were exchanged by the opposing factions and both Stokes and Taylor were struck by punches.