Vera Purdy

Vera Purdy (20 January 1909 – 21 December 1940) (other names included Vera Robinson) was an Australian prostitute and underworld figure. She was associated with reputed and convicted thieves, committed offences from Victoria to Queensland, and was a drug addict. Her obituary described her as 'volatile Vera Purdy, demi-mondaine, pickpocket, dope fiend, veritable she-cat, one of the most picturesque feminine figures to make her way through Australia's underworld'. Described as a 'tall, trim, peroxide blonde' died relatively young at 31.

Purdy, the liked her, yet feared her – and yet her reputation, like her life, did not survive as long as Tilly Devine (1900–1970) or Kate Leigh (1881–1964). A stylish dresser with expensive clothes, vermillion-sticked lips and pencilled eyebrows, with coiffured fair hair,

Her mother died on 26 July 1924 at 78 Salisbury Street, Christchurch when Purdy had just turned 15.

In July 1925, she appeared before the court as a witness to provide evidence of liquor served to underage persons at Munn's Occidental Hotel, Christchurch. 'Sweet sixteen, saucily attired' she 'minced forward' to the witness box, Instead Purdy was charged with being an idle and disorderly person, and committed to the Wellington Borstal Institute for a period not to exceed three years.

After serving fifteen months of a three-year vagrancy sentence, Purdy reportedly moved from Christchurch, New Zealand, to Australia. She admitted later in life 'she took the wrong and liked it', and that she 'only knew one way to make a living'; a 1925 New Zealand newspaper reported that her 'cool audacity' had 'won her an elevated place in the bad districts about King's Cross'. Purdy's sister Doris (now married to a Frank Farley) was present at the time. The magistrate quickly dismissed the prosecution as a case of a brawl. Recovered in August repainted, with parts removed, the mechanic and alleged thief was found not guilty having alleged he had been authorised by Purdy to take the car to a garage.

By May 1930, twice within the four months after obtaining her driving licence she faced the court on charges of dangerous driving; the latter occasion of speeding away after crashing into the centre of a tram on Abercrombe Street, Sydney. She was also convicted for the earlier incident at Kogarah on 15 April 1930. Despite admitting being present and a struggle with knives, the defendant Peter Costello was found not guilty by the jury in April, but found guilty of malicious wounding on 12 May 1932.

In May 1932, Purdy was to front the Sydney Court of Quarter Sessions on charges of assault with intent to rob, although she was found not guilty the next day. played out in a New South Wales appeals court about section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1902 (NSW), where whoever habitually consorts with known prostitutes commits an offence. It heard that Purdy was a known prostitute, had been in the company of other known prostitutes including Nellie Cameron, and shared a residence with one of those women.

In September 1933 now in Melbourne, aged about 29, she was associating with Leslie Thomas Faure (d. 1937) and his wife Irene. Irene's first husband Norman Bruhn (1894–1927) was a notorious and violent member of the criminal underworlds in both Melbourne and Sydney, and part of Australia's first 'razor gang'. Bruhn had been a pimp and one of the lovers of Nellie Cameron. After Bruhn's death and marrying Irene, Faure took care of Bruhn's two sons, where the Bruhn criminality continued through the generations albeit under the Faure surname.

A reputation for almost complete immunity from Melbourne juries, her modus operandi was to lure then rob male victims. Philip Norman Roach, who also later defended her second husband, Horace Robinson.

Her time in Queensland led to the Brisbane police knowing her as 'the blonde bombshell'.

On 23 September 1936 in William Street, Sydney saw her with charges of theft and assault. The same charge two years prior had been successfully appealed; and this time she offered again a denial 'she had met any person for nefarious purposes'. The appeal was upheld and the conviction quashed.

The temperamental Purdy enjoyed driving her luxurious sedan motor car up and down Melbourne's Little Lonsdale Street, locating her male clients, and operating from a flat in La Trobe Street. By November 1937 she, as a Mrs Vera Barry, and known to the state's police vice squad, was back in the Melbourne Police Court, this time to appeal against the police commissioner being a 'moral censor' to deny her renewing her driver licence. It was not disputed she had several convictions including consorting and soliciting, the last being earlier in the year. It was raised the Commissioner had a discretionary power to refuse a licence when taking into account facts other than those disclosed in evidence; but was subject to a court of petty sessions: The court granted the application for a licence.

In 1938 Purdy ended up in a Melbourne hospital with tuberculosis, before making her way to New Zealand.

By September 1940, Purdy was in Townsville, Queensland, living with a 'notorious criminal from the South', when she was pleaded guilty to fare evasion with a fine of £1 and to make restitution, and 'very insulting' language for a fine of £2.

From Townsville and Mackay she went to Toowoomba, only a few months before her demise.

First marriage

Charles Francis Purdy (1905–1962), a former New Zealand professional welter boxer married Vera on 7 January 1930, he 24, she 21, Living on King's Cross Road, Darlinghurst, coming home drunk early in the morning, she also used to assault him. By late July 1933, whilst still in love with her, he attended the Sydney Central Summons Court and sought the protection of the law after fearing his wife's threats: 'after remarking, "I'll put a bullet into you, Purdy!" had garnished her threat with a series of more or less inappropriate expletives'. For this she was bound over for twelve months to be of good behaviour.

After spending at least five occasions in a hospital from Vera's affrays, the couple drifted apart. In reality, Robinson engaged in a habitual criminal life of breaking, entering, and robbing. and last heard from her in 1940. Toowoomba, Queensland, a 'one-horse town' as quipped by Purdy, she died at the Toowoomba General Hospital on Saturday, 21 December 1940, attributed to an overdose of cocaine. The proprietress of the residence 'Sunnyside' had previous involvements with the police, including for sly grogging. After her death, a known criminal called at the police station for Purdy's belongings, stating he was her lawful husband, but disappeared when Robinson was located in New South Wales. Robinson advised he never knew Purdy was a drug addict, knew her occupation, or that she had been living in 'a house of ill-fame in Toowoomba'. There were no known children from any of her relationships.