'King’ Arthur Delaney

Of the 162,000 convicts shipped to Australia between 1788–1868, most were thieves – the majority transported on seven-year stretches for stealing items worth less than a shilling ($50). Crimes in excess of that went to the hangman. Arthur William Delaney inherited this ignoble tradition and made it an art without violence, becoming the most brazen ‘hoister’ of his day. Arthur was the epitome of the gentleman thief, fearless, calculating and, at his best, invisible. Growing up poor in Maitland, north of Sydney, Arthur dreamed of being a jockey. His very fi rst arrest was for stealing a horse and riding it to the Harbour City. He was sent to a boy’s home and disowned by his family. On release Arthur lived by his wits on Sydney’s streets, stealing and occasionally getting caught, but always learning. By the 60s, Arthur was Sydney’s best thief. His darting eyes and light fi ngers were legend and his poise and dash as a shoplifter had cut a swathe through the town’s department stores. He was ‘Duke Delaney’, a title he lived up to with high living – fast cars, faster women and Champagne being his primary vices. In 1962, Arthur’s sticky fi ngers outgrew Sydney and he moved to London where the fi ne jewellers of Mayfair became his hunting ground. Arthur studied the set-ups and routines, fi ne-tuning plans while recruiting old Sydney pals. Then he attacked via the ingenious method of being noticed while a whirl of smothers and decoys gave Arthur’s lightning-fast hands the precious seconds needed to lift the loot and vanish.

That first year was a series of glorious sprees. Arthur and his gang knocked over jewellers and boutiques in Rome, Paris, Brussels, Madrid and beyond. They fenced the gear, split the take in even shares in typical Aussie style, then partied hearty while plotting their next brilliant heist. Arthur, said a colleague, was “like a young Robert Redford: blondish, very smart, always immaculately dressed, very good looking, always in charge.” By now Fleet Street knew Arthur’s crew of convict imports as the Kangaroo Gang. As the headlines screamed Arthur’s exploits, Scotland Yard closed in. The Gang was now nicking so much gear Arthur was shipping it home via the Balmain Ports and storing it in an Aladdin’s Cave warehouse in Haymarket. But Arthur was no longer an Invisible Man: he was ‘The King’, an International Man of Mystery on the radar of law enforcers all over the world. He sneaked back to Sydney. But the late 60s were a violent time in Sin City, as Arthur found when he was shot in the back. He spent 1970 learning to walk, but was soon back plundering Sydney shops with his old mates. Arthur’s fi nal fl ing in Europe started badly – gaol in Madrid, Denmark, Paris, Bruges and London. Had the King lost his sparkle? But in 1990 the old fox struck it big, pinching $3 million in jewels from royal jewellers Asprey’s. It was the King’s biggest heist yet, and his last. Robbed of life by a heart attack in Bangkok, he was shipped home and laid to rest in Waverley Cemetery beside the blue jewel of the Pacifi c.

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