In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Melbourne, Australia, was terrorized by street hoodlums known as the Crutchy Push. “Push” was Australian slang for gang. The “Crutchy” part came from the fact that almost all of the gang’s members were one-legged men who used crutches. The sole exceptions were two promising members who had both legs, but were missing an arm. They stuffed the empty sleeve with a rock or piece of cast iron, to swing around like a flail. Below are some fascinating facts about the Crutchy Push.
The One-Legged Crutchies
The Crutchy Push were led by a Valentine Keating, who had lost his right leg. The criterion for admission to the gang boiled down to a missing limb, a thirst for drink, and a belligerent attitude. Surprisingly, they were just about unbeatable. They practiced and perfected a fighting technique in which they jabbed victims in the midriff with a crutch tip, causing them to double over, then used the metal shod arm rest like a club to bash them in the head.
The Crutchy Push’s crutch fu enabled them to rule the streets of Melbourne from 1895 to 1905. They earned their way with strong armed robberies and extortions, demanding drink, food, and money, from pubs, shops, and members of the public. They viciously defended their turf against rival gangs, and encroached on the turf of others with impunity. The Crutchies Push took on all comers – including the cops. In 1898, the one legged gangsters were involved in a sprawling brawl. As seen below, when the police arrived to quell the disturbance, the Crutchies turned on them as well.
The One-Legged Gangster Who Outran the Police “Like a Flying Kangaroo”
Crutchy Push leader Valentine Keating knocked down a constable. When his colleagues tried to arrest himf, they were astonished at just how fast a one-legged man could move. As one of them testified in court about his failure to catch Keating: “he was off like a flying kangaroo – although he goes on crutches”. The Crutchy Push and other gangs grew so out of control, that the authorities set up a special police task force to deal with them. Known as the “Terrible Ten”, it recruited Australia’s biggest and most violent cops, equipped them with heavy rubber hoses, and sent them to whale the stuffing out of the street toughs.
The Terrible Ten won the streets back by beating most gangs into submission. The exception were the Crutchies, who remained unsubdued until Valentine Keating, their leader, his girlfriend, and his chief lieutenant, were imprisoned for a murderous assault on a constable. Their victim was beaten so bad, he was still picking pieces of skull from his fractured head at the time of the trial. Upon his release from prison, Keating opened an unlicensed bar. With his crutch ever by his side, he never needed to call the police to settle a disturbance in his establishment.
_________________
Some Sources & Further Reading
Evening Star, May 14th, 1912 – The Crutchy Push, Melbourne’s Cripple Gang of Hooligans
Herald Sun, January 19th, 2019 – The Gang of Amputee Thugs Who Terrorized Melbourne
History Halls – Wild West Outlaw Black Bart, ‘The Gentleman Bandit’
