Captured: Portraits of Crime 1870-1930 - Flipbook - Page 59
then pawned the goods. While Lee pleaded guilty to receiving stolen goods, he
denied having broken into the house. Lee was released after serving his sentence
but was soon again charged with stealing. He appeared at Central Police Court on
10 July 1903 accused of possessing a silver watch which was suspected of being
stolen. He was found guilty and sentenced to three months hard labour. At his
sentencing, Lee asked the magistrate to give him back the watch, which had been
confiscated. Not surprisingly, the magistrate declined his request.
In April 1904 Lee faced Newtown Police Court and was found guilty of stealing
a suit, prayer book, trousers, boots and a clock from Charlie Ah Loo of Arncliffe.
He was sentenced to six months hard labour. A few weeks later he appeared before
Darlinghurst Court on charges of break, enter and stealing. Due to his record and
police suspicions that he was involved in up to forty burglaries, the judge
sentenced him to five years penal servitude on each charge to be served concurrently.
Admitted again to Darlinghurst Gaol, Lee was photographed on 2 May 1904 wearing a
striped tie and three-piece suit.
By June 1908 Lee was back on the streets. In 1909 he was charged with having
‘burglariously’ entered Foh Sing’s house at Rockdale on 1 October. In his defence,
he claimed to have become lost on his way back from the Royal National Park and
denied having entered the dwelling. But a witness, Joe Kee, saw Lee going through
every room in the house. Kee and Sing’s armed neighbour, Conrad Frank, caught
the thief and took him to police. Newtown Police Court set bail at £80, however,
when Lee’s criminal history was mentioned, the magistrate raised the bail to £200.
Lee was acquitted of the charges at Darlinghurst Quarter Sessions, but on
9 November 1909, was found guilty at Redfern Police Court of another count of
stealing and sentenced to four months hard labour.
Lee’s last known appearance in the NSW Gaol Photographic Description Books
was in February 1911 after being sentenced to six months hard labour for occupying
a house for the purpose of prostitution. Police had raided 12 Little Hay Street,
Sydney, and found a near-naked 22 year old woman, Florrie Andrews, embracing a
Chinese man in a bedroom with Lee watching on. The man claimed that Lee had offered
him the services of a “nicey young girl”. Police observed that the young woman
appeared to be under the influence of a narcotic. She claimed to have been drugged
by Lee. Police concluded that Lee was a blackmailer, a pimp and a briber who preyed
on the Chinese community.
In 1923, a ‘Willie Quinn’— which, along with Ah Nam, Low Quinn, Tommy Sands,
Ah Fung and Ah Quinn was one of Lee’s aliases — was the victim of an assault by
landlady Josephine Bewes. In her attempts to evict the ‘very bad man’, as she
described him, Bewes attacked Lee with a tomahawk in Terry Street, Surry Hills,
severing an artery on his chin and cutting his arm. It is not known what became of
Lee following the attack. However, on 15 September 1935, a Willie Lowe Quing of
Waterloo, died of pneumonia and senility in Rookwood Asylum, aged 70 years. He was
interred in the Botany Cemetery on 18 September 1935 under the surname, Quinn.
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