Squizzy - The Biography: The Forensics - The Man - The Vendetta

by Roy Maloy

Comparable to only Al Capone, Ned Kelly, the Kray Twins and Bonnie and Clyde, Squizzy Taylor was perhaps the most prolific and iconic criminal in the history of Western civilisation but has until now gone unrecorded. For over 100 years since his death, almost no author has had the tenacity to take on the enormous task of compiling a biography of the man who existed behind the legend that became Squizzy Taylor. But now, Australia’s most prolific true crime biographer, Roy Maloy, presents the story of Squizzy Taylor in one complete work. Spanning over 150 years of history, from his father’s upbringing in Sandhurst, through his adolescence as a street pickpocket, violent thug and standover man, passing by the Fitzroy Vendetta, and his year long escape from the law with Ida Pender to the pistol fight that took his life, this is truly an epic and spectacular work that finally preserves and presents the father of modern Australian crime - Squizzy Taylor.

404 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 19, 2020

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fascinating. The author has a huge back catalogue of other books I’d read some of beforehand. This should be noted at the start, because I found that he references people in his other books who are key players, and knowing who they are is very beneficial to knowing who Squizzy was. The book acknowledges that there was only one other book printed about Squizzy (Larakin Crook) before this one, and that it was written in the 70’s using limited research material this book moves through some sections quite quickly, which I enjoyed, because it moves with you, but, the problem there is that Squizzy’s actual career was huge, and his crimes so many, that sometimes this book will name a crime and the hearing that went with it all on the same page, almost glossing over it, whereas it was actually an enormous case that could have had its own chapter. Simply put, this book treads a middle ground well of trying to make it a whole summary of Squizzy’s life, without getting bogged down and making it an academic dry piece. Well referenced with newspaper and other relevant book references noted page bu page in footnotes. If there’s a second edition I’d love to see an index of names at the back.

[Mark Latchford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Squizzy Taylor, a 2 bit thugs who roamed Melbourne in the 1910s and 1920s before being gunned down on the bedroom of one his gangster enemies, is probably best forgotten, for his achievements seemed to be zero.
A number of books have already been written about this unlovable hoodlum and therefore, this latest publication seems quite pointless. The author’s research is broad but his narrative not deep. Rather he seems to have written out long troves of material from newspapers often about only vaguely relevant other criminals. Very little investigation about the background of Taylor nor any analysis of the times or society in which he enjoyed his 5 minutes of fame. If Squizzy’s story is to be retold then best kept to a crisply written journal article not a 450+ page dirge. The book needs a forensic editor, some obvious errors corrected (including quite a few typos and printing errors where lines jump). No index is also a problem. No hypothesis or even a conclusion reminds the reader it really is a summary of newspaper articles from a century ago.