'The biography of Dolly Gray brings to the surface one of the most incredible stories of one of Australia's most overlooked organised criminals, casting a fresh new perspective the career and life of Squizzy Taylor, the Fitzroy Vendetta and the role of women in crime in the first 20 years of the 20th Century.
'As a woman Dolly was complex, and responded to the adversity she faced in a way that few others would choose to respond with. She owned quickly became an extremely successful business woman, trading in every vice available, while supporting her husband, Squizzy Taylor. The character of Dolly Gray is drawn out through all the available historical data, news reports and other known information, along with extensive interviews with surviving descendants. As a woman she lived a life of her own choosing, while making herself an integral figure in Melbourne's organised crime scene. Through her love affair with her husband, Squizzy, she developed him and grew his criminal ambitions from that of a petty thief and pickpocket into a world classed jewel thief and stand-over man.
'On 16 February 1919, following a bungled high profile jewellery store robbery, Dolly became the envoy of peace, sent to the narrows of Fitzroy to broker a peace deal on behalf of her husband Squizzy and welterweight boxing champion turned stand over man, Ted Whiting. The meeting would subject Dolly to unimaginable horrors, and would become the spark that ignited the year long bloodbath that came to be known as the Fitzroy Vendetta. Accompanying the known information about the Vendetta, surviving family of Squizzy Taylor, Henry Stokes and Ted Whiting were all consulted, with family contributing interviews and a number of previously unseen photographs of Dolly and Ted Whiting.
'Written by author Roy Maloy, whose 2020 biography "Squizzy" presented the first chronological biography of the most iconic Australian gangster of the 20th century, "Dolly Gray - Madam of Melbourne" follows on with this enthralling addition to the backdrop of this incredible woman from her childhood of poverty in Emerald Hill, to her existence in hiding to the ned of her days following her outrage in 1919.' (Publication summary)
