Tilly Devine (1900-1970) was a founding mother of Sydney's underbelly, and, as NSW police commissioner Norman Allan simply said: "She was a villain, but who am I to judge her?"
Luckily Leigh and Alecia love to judge.
Beyond the rivals, razor blades and racketeering, they ask: Was Tilly the original girl (mob) boss? Why did she shoot her fiancé a few months before their wedding? (Yes, the marriage still went ahead.) And while we're here, what drives our national fixation with outlaws like Tilly?
Show sources:
Matilda Mary (Tilly) Devine (1900–1970), Daily Mirror Sydney, 24 November 1970, p 9
Kay Saunders, Notorious Australian Women (ABC Books, 2013)
Nancy Cushing 'The Long History of Australian Gangs' in A History of Crime in Australia (Routledge, 2023)
Judith Allen, 'Devine, Matilda Mary (Tilly) (1900–1970)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University
Anna Clark, Gabrielle Kemmis and Tamson Pietsch, My Darlinghurst (NewSouth, 1st edn, 2024)
- Hosted by Alecia Simmonds and Leigh Boucher
- Supervising Producer: Hannah Reich
- Development Producer: Beverley Wang
- Executive Producers: Clare Rawlinson and Eric George
- Head of ABC Audio on Demand: Jessica Radburn
- Theme: Martin Peralta
- Artwork: Gabriel Virata-Alves
- Sound engineering: Brendan O'Neill
