Author(s): Simon Griffin (Original Author)

True Crime

The Notorious Kidd follows on from volume one, The Audacious Kidd, which recounted Kidd's tough upbringing in war-torn London, his move to Australia as a teenager and his apprenticeship in crime, leading from petty theft to safe cracking, race fixing and counterfeiting. Volume two begins with Kidd locked up in Pentridge Prison for a minor indiscretion before being released to continue his unorthodox career. Constantly dreaming up more complex and challenging schemes, Kidd embarks on increasingly hazardous ventures, reaching a peak with a series of mid-air heists, and mixing with some of Australia's most dangerous and notorious mobsters. After his best friend is murdered while Kidd is in a Queensland jail and he's warned not to return to Sydney, he hops on the first plane back, determined to find out who's to blame. Though Bertie Kidd remains relatively unknown to the general public, he is widely respected in the criminal underworld, and infamous in law-enforcement and corrections circles. A highly organised individual, he was one of the country's most prominent criminals for more than seven decades, and few of his peers anywhere would have attempted the daring frauds and thefts he regularly undertook often risking life and limb in quest of another lucrative haul.The Notorious Kidd is an astounding account of mischief and misdemeanours, violence and corruption, and a fascinating chronicle of Australia's underworld through the 1970s to the early 1990s.