Part Two: The End Of The Razor Wars

It’s the 7th May, 1929. Nearly two years since gangster Norman Bruhn was gunned down in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Surry Hills. The man who’d tried to interfere with the stronghold Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh had on East Sydney had failed, and paid with his life in the process. But two years on from his death, the streets are still dripping with the blood of razor victims. With or without Norman Bruhn, chaos still reigns on the streets of Darlinghurst.

Tilly’s brothel empire is raging, and locals still can’t get enough of Kate’s sly-grog, but there’s another organised crime kingpin in town. His name is Phil Jeffs, and in Kings Cross, if you’re looking for somewhere to gamble or something to snort, he’s your man. He fancies himself as Australia’s very own Al Capone. Smartly dressed and well-spoken, he might look the part, but Phil Jeffs isn’t to be trusted. 

Phil runs the fourth floor of a building on William St, Wooloomooloo, called the 50/50 club. It’s a den of debauchery, where police take back-alley payments to turn a blind eye to rife prostitution and drug dealing. It’s inside the 50/50 club where he’s been cheating his suppliers. The cocaine on the streets of East Sydney is being cut with washing powder, boric acid and other substances. Diluted. It means the likes of Tilly’s girls and Kate’s standover men are being sold an adulterated product. It means Phil Jeffs is ripping them off.  

The rival gangs have found out about Phil’s trick and they want blood. So in scenes reminiscent of a Hollywood Western, angry gangsters challenge Phil and his men to settle their dispute on the streets of Kings Cross. They’re there to show Phil how they feel, in the only way these mobsters know how to. With violence. 

It’s just after 10pm in Eaton Avenue, a shadowy street off Bayswater Road. It’s no mistake these gangs are gathered here. Eaton Avenue is better known as Blood Alley by locals. A notoriously rough spot where muggings and street brawls are commonplace. 

The men on Blood Alley know exactly what they’ve come for, and it’s not just cut-throat razors to fear. Whatever they can get their hands on, boots, clubs, bricks all fly through the air. Many of the men are heavily armed, and for thirty long minutes, gunfire illuminates this dimly-lit patch Kings Cross.

Finally, the police arrive. The mobsters disperse and Phill Jeffs escapes by jumping on the back of a car. But the battle of blood alley follows him home. And before Phil Jeffs goes to bed on this chilling May night, gangsters will break into his home and shoot him multiple times, as Razorhurst continues to live up to its name.

CREDITS

Host: Emma Gillespie

Guests: Larry Writer & Leigh Straw

Producer: Gia Moylan

Audio Producer: Rhiannon Mooney

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