The Dark Prince of Melbourne

Bad boys, bright lights and sorry ends: the story of a gangster.

Joseph Leslie 'Squizzy' Taylor was many things to many people: a kind and caring husband, father and stepfather, a reliable son and brother, a generous and considerate neighbour and patron. He was also a criminal willing to consider any type of crime, provided it supported his lifestyle and his ego.

Squizzy graduated from teenage pickpocket to adult murderer, from organising smash-and-grab raids on jewellers to corrupting juries and suborning witnesses. And he was nothing if not newsworthy. Whether appearing at the opening night of a new show at the top end of Bourke Street or climbing the steps en route to an appearance in the Supreme Court, Squizzy was news.

For more than a decade, Victoria's best detectives were unable to pin any one of a dozen major crimes he organised on him. Yet he met his match when street punk turned gunman Snowy Cutmore materialised in a darkened bedroom in a boarding house in Carlton.

In this first detailed biography of arguably Australia's most well-known standover man, Ian W. Shaw traces the life of the criminal who set the trend in city gangster life in not just Melbourne but Australia in The Dark Prince of Melbourne.