The word on the street was strong that Kate Leigh had offered Wally
Tomlinson and Barney Dalton many thousands of pounds to kill Jim
Devine and Frank Green as payback for the murder of Gregory Gaffney.
Frank Green, who, having recovered from being shot by Leigh's man
Gregory Gaffney, had made it his mission to destroy Kate Leigh's gang.
At about 4:40pm, Tomlinson was drinking with Dalton, and their cohorts
Edward Brady and a razor-man named Charles Conners, in Sharland's
Strand Hotel. Green entered the saloon alone. He sauntered up to the
bar and ordered whiskey. Then, with a murderous leer, he provoked
Tomlinson and Dalton and declared loudly that he was happy to
accommodate trouble if anyone cared to give him any. Further more, he
said, Big Jim Devine was outside and ready to back him up. The Leigh
men were unsettled by Green's bravado and backed off. Green left.
When Tomlinson and Dalton exited the bar at closing time, Green, who
had been lurking outside with Jim Devine in the early-evening shadows,
walked briskly to within a metre of Kate's men and yelled, 'Cop this, you
bastards!' He fired his long-barrelled revolver three times at Tomlinson
and Dalton. Dalton, shot through the heart, screamed and crashed to
the ground, where he sprawled dead. 'You cop this too!' snarled the
Little Gunman and shot Tomlinson, who took a bullet in his left arm.
Tomlinson looked up at Green from the gutter and gasped. 'Have
another go.' Green obliged, and shot Tomlinson in the chest. Tomlinson,
his right lung punctured, spluttered blood and lay still.
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Frank 'the Little Gunman' Green
Green was a small man, but he had an
explosive temper and was lethal with
gun and razor. Though he was a psychopath, drunkard and cocaine addict,
women were attracted to Green and he
was rarely without a lover, including
Nellie Cameron. Green was used by
Tilly Devine to protect her brothels. He'd
also extort money from sly-groggers,
prostitutes and drug traffickers.
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