SYDNEY GANGSTER

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 August 1932, Page 7

SYDNEY GANGSTER

FAITHFUL GIRL FOLLOWER. SYDNEY, August 13. The recent capture of Frank Green, “the most dangerous man in Darlinghurst,” has aroused much interest in Sydney. Green is certainly a celebrity, and from the point of view of (he underworld he well deserves his fame for his resourceful cunning and that efficiency with a “gat” which has earned him the title of “Trigger-finger.” But he does not seem to possess many of the qualities which make a man popular in the average civilised community. According to one newspaper, which displays strong and probably justified prejudice against him, “Green is a gunman, a gangster, a night prowler, a vulture who preys,on unfortunate women, a razor hand, an underworld terrorist.” His face is slightly disfigured by a razor scar, which according to report a skilled surgeon has tried in vain to obliterate. It is an unfortunate distinction for a man for whom detectives are generally on the watch, and Green has striven to hide his identity at various times by dyeing his face, cutting his hair, wearing false moustache and beard, and even contorting his singularly elastic features when he wishes to escape unfriendly observation.

A few months back he was arrested and received a three months’ sentence for “consorting”—a favourite way of relieving society temporarily of the presence of undesirables —and while at Long Bay he was allowed to appeal and to answer the charge of robbing and attempting to shoot Jim Devino, his rival for supremacy in Sydney’s underworld. This gave him the opportunity for “walking out on his bail” —and he has been in hiding ever since. For reasons that few people have fathomed, the police, though they knew approximately where he was, did not arrest him, but contented themselves with sending messages advising him to surrender himself, and there is reason to believe that Green was contemplating this course when he was finally tracked down.

WELL SERVED AND GUARDED. There must be something in Green which appeals to the loyalty and affection of some of his followers, for he lias been well served and guarded. The girls,, Nellie Cameron, his most iaithlnl satellite, lujs almost sacrificed her life f or him. for she was severely wounded by the. gunmen who shot Green down a few months ago near St. Vincent’s Hospital. She has been assiduous in concealing his hiding place and supplying his wants, and though often “trailed” by the police she has eluded their vigilance and put them off the track. With the help of “Diamond Jack"—another loyal retainer of Green’s, whose name suggests his profession—the girl Camer'”i has not only kept him successfully ‘in smoke," but has supplied his needs by levying tribute for him on other inhabitants of the underworld. However, even good things come to an end. Green seems to have spent qtiite a pleasant vacation, gambling, attending the races, going to boxing matches and coursing trials, and liv-

ing in the manner befitting a gentleman of leisure. And all the. time, Jim Devine, the rival ‘uncrowned king" of • i»t■ •«f'.>nt. has been going about with a bodyguard, prepared to “shoot, it out" if ever “Triggerfinger Frank" should appear mt the horizon. Devine is a man of undoubted courage—incidentally he is said to have a passion for aviation, and his greatest, ambition is to lly to England. But it is

no discredit to him to assume that it. is. something of a relief to him to know that his most daugorous enemy, v, ho It.' ilu eatened to shoot, him on sight, is at lea-.t temporarily in safe keeping. According to one newspaper here, when the word went round that Green was cnnghi. "half til’ Surry Hills and Woolloomooloo wnß in mourning and the other half was intoxicated with

delight.” Cut the cane and decent pari of Sydney may well be satisfied to know that this dangerous man.has not been able to defj- the law iridiy finitely, and that the desperate criminals on whose aid he seems able" to rely for the time, being leaderless.