Underbelly: Razor

Its 1927. Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh are the undisputed crime queens of Sydney. Tilly, who was born into poverty in London and became a prostitute at 15, runs the biggest brothel network Australia has ever seen. Her husband, "Big Jim" Devine, leads a team of hired muscle to protect their lucrative business.

Norman Bruhn recruits a gang: the defiant, opium addicted Snowy Cutmore; explosives master "Razor Jack" Hayes and one-egg-short-of-an-omelette George Wallace. Nellie Cameron turns a trick with Norman and sparks fly. She loves that hes a gangster, although cheeky barrow-boy Guido Calletti may also be catching her eye.

Both the police and the underworld are reeling from the unprecedented razorslashing of Sid "Kicker" Kelly. Bill Mackay gets stonewalled by Sid, but that doesnt shake his feeling that something very nastys brewing in Darlinghurst.

Norman Bruhn is dead...but who pulled the trigger? Bill Mackay knows Bruhns death is a result of the razor gang war, and enlists Constable Ray Blissett to pull inthe usual suspects for questioning. The police are met with the criminal code of silence, so Bill Mackay starts raiding Kates sly-grog saloons with a vengeance - taking a leaf out of Bruhns book.

Norman Bruhn is out of the picture but that doesnt mean the remaining underworld crime bosses are putting down their weapons. Tilly Devine, Kate Leigh and Phil "the Jew" Jeffs eye each other warily. Then Jeffs is charged with the rape of mother-of-two, Ida Maddocks - a crime that carries a death sentence.

Cocaine baron Phil Jeffs may have dodged the hangmans noose, but the Ida Maddocks rape charge has left a stain on his reputation and therefore, his drug business. Rather than getting on with things quietly, Phil adulterates Kates cocaine supply and slashes Tillys highest earning girl, determined to put them both out of business for good.

With Kate Leigh behind bars, Wally Tomlinson is put in charge of running her slygrog business and keeping an eye on her daughter, Eileen. Ironically, by plonking Eileen at the saloon so he can keep an eye on her, Wally drops her right in the lap of a smarmy English chap called Albert Duke.

Black Aggie strikes up a romance with Greg "the Gunman" Gaffney and gives-up prostitution. But shes still dirty on Nellie for putting her out of work, so she fronts her with a cut-throat razor. Frank Green intervenes and gives Aggie thrice as many cuts and bruises than she started out with.

With the Wall Street crash making paupers out of millionaires overnight, Kate Leigh puts a bounty on the heads of Big Jim Devine and Frank Green as payback for the murder of Greg Gaffney and the razor attack on Bruce Higgs. But how to find a hired gun whos up to the job?

Charged with Barney Daltons murder, Frank Green enters Long Bay Gaol to find rival Guido Calletti serving time as well, and the traditional fisticuffs over Nellie Cameron ensue. Back in Razorhurst Wally Tomlinson recovers from his bullet wounds and is discharged from hospital, still determined to testify against Frank Green, no matter how hard Kate Leigh tries to persuade him otherwise. While she understands his loyalty to his slain mate Barney she believes hes putting his own head in a noose by naming Tilly Devines gunman.

Bill Mackay, Tom Wickham and the police generally are delighted when the state parliament adds an extremely potent "consorting" clause to the Vagrancy Act. Finally it gives them a powerful weapon in their war against the gangsters.

Thankfully only the outraged Tillys pride is injured, but Big Jim Devine is arrested for her attempted murder. "This time," a gleeful Bill Mackay rejoices with his men, "this time weve got him for sure." But at the 11th hour Tilly refuses to testify against her husband, doubtless hoping her charitable change of heart will have him running back to her, and the charges are dropped.

Phil "The Jew" Jeffs is back in town. He shows off his flash new Darlo nightclub to Kate Leigh, vowing to destroy her and her paltry sly grog shops for putting three bullets into him years before! But Kate spits in his eye and tells him shell still be walking the lanes of Razorhurst long after hes feeding the maggots!