Razor gangs were criminal gangs that dominated the Sydney crime scene in the 1920s. After the passage of the Pistol Licensing Act 1927, the Parliament of New South Wales imposed severe penalties for carrying concealed firearms and handguns. Sydney gangland figures then chose razors as preferred weapons, for their capacity to inflict disfiguring scars.
Background
The upsurge in organised crime was caused by the prohibition of sale of cocaine by chemists, the prohibition of street prostitution, the criminalisation of off-course race track betting and the introduction of six o'clock closing for public bars.
Razors as preferred criminal weapon: 1927–1930
After handguns were criminalised in New South Wales, razors became the weapon of choice amongst Sydney gangsters. Shortly after the Pistol Licensing Act 1927 was passed, a visiting sailor used a cutthroat razor to defend himself from attackers. As a result, razors became a default weapon due to its ease of purchase from barbers shops for a few pence, its ease of concealment, and its use as an instrument of intimidation and threatened or actual mutilation, physical impairment or murder against one's adversaries, prey or hostile spouses. It has been estimated that there were over five hundred slashings within Sydney during the heyday of intensive razor gang criminal activity. Macquarie Street's Sydney Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney in Darlinghurst treated many of these casualties of gangland hostilities. Members of the New South Wales Police and several New South Wales politicians also had connections to the gangs. The two major razor gangs were associated with prominent madams, Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine;. These two gangs began open warfare in 1929, culminating in two riots. One was known as the "Battle of Blood Alley" and was waged in Eaton Avenue, King's Cross. It occurred because drug distributors discovered that Phil Jeffs, another ganglord, was adulterating his cocaine supply with boracic acid. It occurred on May 7, 1929. Later that year, on August 8, 1929, the "Battle of Kellett Street" was waged between rival gangs affiliated with Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine and occurred in Kellett Street, near King's Cross. Considerable amounts of bootleg alcohol and cocaine were consumed beforehand, leading to thrown bottles, physical assaults, firearm exchanges and razor attacks. The gang violence was curtailed in the 1930s by the Vagrancy Amendment Act NSW 1929. It contained "criminal consorting" clauses which prevented known criminals from associating with one other and led to diminished gang violence. At the same time, the Crimes Amendment Act 1930 was also passed, leading to six-month imprisonment terms for anyone found possessing cutthroat razors without good reason. In 1935, newly appointed Sydney Police Commissioner MacKay summoned the feuding Devine and Leigh to his office. While he would not vigorously enforce anti-bootleg and anti-prostitution laws, he announced that the new police powers granted to his constabulary would be used against both women and their criminal enterprises unless there was immediate mitigation of gang violence and cocaine distribution. They did so, which left the New South Wales State Police able to concentrate their attention on the illicit cocaine trade in 1938/39. Following intensive policing of overseas supply routes, the cocaine trade finally began to ebb. With the onset of the Second World War, gang figures enlisted and went to fight in the European and Pacific theatres of that conflict. Even the arrival of US service personnel did not reinvigorate the Leigh and Devine criminal empires, which now faced competition. With these events, the "razor gang" era drew to a close.
Political metaphor
The term "razor gang" is used in Australian political discourse to refer to a group – often a committee – tasked with finding ways to cut government spending. It was first widely applied to the Fraser Government's Review of Commonwealth Functions Committee, which was established in 1980 as a subcommittee of federal cabinet. It had three members – Industry and Commerce MinisterPhillip Lynch, Treasurer John Howard, and Finance Minister Margaret Guilfoyle. The committee's report, handed down in May 1981, found 350 government functions that it believed could be eliminated, reduced, or transferred to other levels of government. This was to produce savings of $500 million. Other notable "razor gangs" have been established by the Rudd Government and the Abbott Government.
