Dubbo grandmother Gloria Millgate was seven-years-old when a big black car carrying the “Queen of the Underworld” stopped in front of her grandparents’ humble weatherboard home in Narromine’s Alagalah Street.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The door of the car opened and out stepped the already infamous Kate Leigh.
“She had on this big black hat, fur around her neck and diamonds on her fingers,” Mrs Millgate said yesterday.
“Naturally, I thought big rich lady coming to see my grandparents.”
It was the first and last time that Mrs Millgate laid eyes on the sinner-cum-saint who turned out to be the sister of her grandfather, John Beahan, a hard-working, quiet and honest bootmaker.
Tomorrow night the Millgate family, including three sons and nine grandchildren, will be glued to the television in the hope of discovering how their ancestor found her way into a life of crime.
Kate Leigh and her nemesis Tilly Devine are the focus of the much-publicised Underbelly: Razor, screening on Channel Nine at 8.30pm.
Mrs Millgate, a resident of Dubbo for 48 years, is also looking for clues to solve a family mystery.
“From what I can gather there’s no trace of any of her other brothers,” she said. “We don’t know what happened to them.”
Kate Leigh was born in Dubbo in 1881 to a Roman Catholic family of at least 11 children.
An exhibition at Western Plains Cultural Centre in Dubbo has told of her “poor and violent” childhood.
On the streets of Sydney by her teenage years, she fell into the arms of gangsters only to find her feet by providing Sydney with sly grog, prostitutes, illegal betting, gambling and eventually cocaine.
For 30 years, Kate Leigh and her arch-enemy Tilly ran the male-dominated Sydney Underworld.
Kate was in and out of jail and marriage, and unafraid to meet violence head-on. On the other hand she gave the children of Surry Hills a Christmas party every year, fed the needy, found factory work for Mrs Millgate’s father and his brother when times got tough, and never smoked or drank alcohol.
The Millgates understand that Kate Leigh “raised for a time” a boy who became a well-known entertainer.
“He came with her to Narromine on that day,” Mrs Millgate said. “She had a good side as well to her.”
Mrs Millgate’s sons suggest that Kate Leigh isn’t the only strong and determined woman perched on the family tree.
But that’s where the comparison between the crime queen and their mother begins and ends.
“I’ve led a completely different life,” Mrs Millgate said.