Boys In Blue...

Frank ‘The Shadow’ Fahy

The planning and invention of Police Commissioner Bill Mackay were innovative to say the least. Having installed Lillian Armfield as the first female police officer in Australia, he went on to build a flying squad and installed radios in their police vehicles. Another of his innovations was the recruitment of Frank Fahy - “The Shadow” - Australia’s first undercover cop.

Mackay’s toughest job in enforcing order in Razorhurst was gaining inside information on the ne’er-do-wells. Most policemen working the razor-gangs’ territories were uniformed men, readily indentifiable, or were plain-clothes men with hard-earned reputations – like ‘Bumper’ Farrell, or ‘Kangaroo’ Jack Campbell – whose fame always preceded them wherever they went. Mackay needed a ghost; someone who was unknown and good at staying that way; who could come and go without being noticed. He found Frank Fahy.

Mackay met Fahy in 1919 and was favourably impressed with him: the previous week, Fahy and another probationary officer had rescued a man from dangerous surf at Bronte Beach; subsequent to this, Fahy had trailed a man unseen through Centennial Park, watched him hold up a kiosk and then had arrested him at gunpoint after a long chase. Fahy was 11 stone when he joined up; the minimum requirement for a police officer in those days was 11 and a half and Fahy had been ordered to correct this before his probation period was ended: Mackay waived the requirement.

To ensure his success, Fahy had to become completely detached from the police community. No other officers apart from Mackay and a few senior policemen knew about him; his funding was kept totally off the books and, after eight years when the NSW Premier discovered that an underground network of policemen existed, their controllers banded together to defy his further investigation into their identities and efforts which, by then had made serious in-roads into organised crime in Razorhurst.

Fahy made his entrée into the underworld wearing ragged clothes and with a bail notice for burglary tucked in his coat pocket, to give him some criminal credentials. From there, he dug himself deeper into the good books of the criminals, occasionally getting cuffed, kicked or locked up by his unwitting colleagues. He often had to fly by the seat of his pants, trusting to luck or agility to get him out of hot water. He had to be ingenious: once working as a ‘cockatoo’, or look out, for a gang on the floor beneath their hideout, he built a 14-foot long periscope from drainage pipes and shaving mirrors to spy on their activities from below.

Perhaps his most innovative piece of apparatus was a souped-up motorcycle, made to look as though it was falling apart, with a trailer attachment which advertised him as a sharpener of knives and scissors: looking like an itinerant worker, he could station himself practically anywhere to keep tabs on the criminals. As well, the trailer was big enough so that he could hide within it, using a camera through a spy-hole to catch the comings and goings of the hoodlums.

Once, on the trail of a murderer who had “gone Bush”, Fahy disguised himself as a swagman and joined the ranks of Australia’s rootless unemployed workers, trailing from town to town. In short order he caught up with and identified his quarry and was able to orchestrate his arrest through third parties. Little-known outside of the criminal community which he blended-in with Frank Fahy, “The Shadow”, was a brilliant innovator in Australia’s early fight against organised crime.

Frank ‘Bumper’ Farrell (1916-1985)

Francis Michael Farrell, footballer and policeman, was born at Surry Hills, the second child of Sydney-born Reginald Farrell, a jeweller, and his Scottish wife Margaret Theresa Wynne. He was educated in the Catholic school system, first at the Patrician Brothers’ school in Redfern, and later at the Marist Brothers’ high school in Kogarah; his nickname, ‘Bumper’, originated there, where he surreptitiously smoked cigarette butts, known as ‘bumpers’. He began his football career by playing junior rugby league for Marrickville, was graded into the premier leagues in 1936, and made his debut for the Newtown Rugby League Football Club’s first-grade team in 1938.

On leaving school, Farrell started as an apprentice boilermaker, working at Garden Island Naval Dockyard, but felt he could better himself by joining the police force. His first post, in 1938, was that of a probationary constable in Darlinghurst – the heart of Razorhurst - where ‘sly grog’, illegal gambling and prostitution were rife. Soon becoming the scourge of crime leaders such as Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, Farrell joined the vice squad in 1943.

A tough, inspirational front-row forward, Farrell had been appointed captain of Newtown’s first-grade side in 1942. He led Newtown to the semi-finals consecutively from 1943 until 1948; the team won the grand final in 1943 and was runner-up in 1944. Between 1946 and 1951 Farrell served as Newtown’s captain and coach. On his retirement from football in 1951, he had played 250 matches for the club, 205 of them in first grade.

Controversy befell Farrell’s playing career on 28 July 1945. A St George front-row forward, Bill McRitchie, who sustained an ear injury which required extensive skin graft surgery, accused Farrell of biting. Farrell faced an official inquiry before the New South Wales Rugby Football League and also a disciplinary hearing at the Police Department (something that wouldn’t happen today!). He pleaded not guilty, explaining that he wore false teeth and that he had left them in the dressing room in order to play the match. As a consequence, both tribunals exonerated him. Nevertheless, the incident coloured his career, overshadowing even the four Test matches he played for Australia in 1946 and 1948, and his twelve appearances for New South Wales between 1939 and 1950.

Farrell’s toughness was equally apparent in his profession and he developed a reputation as an uncompromising plain-clothes policeman. With the rank of detective sergeant, he was appointed chief of the vice squad in the Darlinghurst division in May 1965. After that squad was disbanded, he moved to suburban uniform duty at Collaroy in October 1966. He then worked at the Eastern Suburbs, Manly and Central police stations. His return to Darlinghurst in January 1973 as inspector third class (second class from August), resulted in more visible policing and fewer violent crimes: in 1976 he was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service. His ‘foot to arse’ style of policing meant that few criminals were willing to tangle with him and, significantly, whenever he encountered Tilly Devine she always found her manners and eschewed her harridan ways. He retired in September, an inspector first class in command of 230 officers.

Involved with the Newtown Rugby League Football Club in an administrative capacity since his playing days, Farrell helped to establish the Newtown Leagues Club Ltd. His imposing, bulky frame, cauliflower ears and oversized hands were the delight of Sydney newspaper caricaturists. Survived by his two daughters and two sons, he died of a heart attack in  April 1985 at Warriewood and was buried in Mona Vale cemetery.