In September 1926 Bruhn relocated with his family from Melbourne to Sydney, where he attained a brief ascendancy by targeting the underworld vice trade, using violence and intimidation against cocaine traffickers, prostitutes and thieves.

[3][4] There is evidence that Norman and his siblings were raised in an atmosphere punctuated by occasional bouts of violence, exacerbated by his father's excessive drinking and short temper.

[6] On 6 June 1908 Oscar Bruhn (senior) was officiating as a goal umpire at a football match between the Barwon and Chillwell Juniors teams at Kardinia Park in South Geelong.

At the Geelong West Police Court on 31 May 1918 Bruhn's legal representative stated that "the whole affair arose out of a family squabble" and that "the parties would adjust the matter themselves".

Bruhn did not appear, but his legal representative pleaded guilty on his behalf, explaining that the defendant had received a position in a wool-shed and so was unable to attend court.

The circumstances of the charge were detailed by Senior-constable Trainor, who stated that he and another constable were at the corner of Jacobs and Little Malop streets when "a party of youths… approached them and commenced boo-hooing and ran away".

Bruhn left England aboard the Konigin Luise in December 1919, arriving at Melbourne in February 1920 and was discharged from the army, with the unexpired portion of his sentence remitted.

[22] On the night of 14 February 1921 the factory belonging to Elizabeth Goller in Guildford-lane (between Latrobe and Little Lonsdale streets in Melbourne) was robbed of serge and other dress materials worth £200.

On February 17 it was decided to raid Bruhn's house in West Melbourne where two rolls of serge identified as being part of the stolen goods were found.

[26][27] On August 12 the Bench of Magistrates discharged McDougall, but convicted Bruhn, who was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, to be suspended on a bond to be of good behaviour for three years.

[29] On the night of 5 August 1921 Senior-Constable Kelly noticed Bruhn in a phaeton near O'Keefe's stables in O'Shanassy-street, North Melbourne, attempting to get a reluctant horse to go.

The Act allowed judges to impose an additional undefined period of confinement in a reformatory prison for those deemed to be an 'habitual criminal', "a class of offender who was considered either socially inadequate or highly motivated and contemptuous of the law".

[33][35] On 11 March 1923 Bruhn's younger brother Stanley was observed in Geelong-road, Footscray, standing in a wagon "severely whipping" two horses "which were in poor condition".

Bruhn was arrested on April 17 and remanded in gaol on a further charge of breaking into the warehouse of Wholesalers Ltd. in Little Collins-street and stealing a quantity of tobacco and cigars valued at £60.

At the conclusion of the trial Bruhn complained that he was still being detained in prison for having broken his bond, to which the judge replied "that he was at liberty to make representations to the proper authorities".

[41][43] In September 1926, after a charge of shooting and wounding was laid against Bruhn in Melbourne, he breached his bail conditions and relocated to Sydney, taking his wife and young sons with him.

[17] During the 1920s the urban character of Sydney underwent profound change, transforming from a compact city into an expansive metropolis with decaying inner suburbs surrounded by an affluent suburban sprawl.

The vice economy that developed in the inner-city slums and waterfront district was a reaction to successive conservative legislation in the decades following Federation, directed at imposing standards of personal behaviour.

Sly-grog establishments and SP bookmaking had a wide reach within the city, but prostitution and cocaine-trafficking was primarily restricted to inner suburbs such as Darlinghurst and Kings Cross.

[45] Bruhn assembled a gang which included John 'Snowy' Cutmore, George 'The Midnight Raper' Wallace, Lancelot 'Sailor the Slasher' Saidler, and the albino standover man, 'Razor' Jack Hayes.

Their victims were invariably those who wished to avoid the police, such as cocaine traffickers, thieves and prostitutes, who were attacked and threatened in laneways, brothels or in their own home.

When the trial was held at the Darlinghurst Sessions in August (less than two months after Bruhn had been killed), Kelly, pleading self-defence, was acquitted by the jury without hearing the case for the defence.

[57] By June 1927 the Sydney tabloid newspapers were reporting that men with "slashed and sliced faces" were becoming "increasingly frequent visitors" to the inner-city hospitals.

[58] In recent months detectives had interviewed six people "who had refused the gang’s demands", all of whom claimed no knowledge of their attackers, though the police were certain "they had fallen victims to Bruhn's associates".

[59] At about ten o'clock the four men entered Mack's, a house at 22 Hargrave-street (on the corner with Charlotte-lane) owned by Joe McNamara and his brother which they operated as a sly-grog shop.

[62] The bail magistrate, Mr. Hardwick, arrived at the hospital to interrogate the dying man, but Bruhn refused to give any information, claiming he did not know the name of his assailant.

[59] Four men who had been placed in the two identification line-ups, who police suspected were involved in the shooting, were the brothers Tom and 'Siddy' Kelly, and Frank Green and George Gaffney.

Robert Miller, Bruhn's companion on the night of the shooting, gave evidence but claimed to be "stupid drunk" and had no memory of the event, nor could he recall making a signed statement to police.

On October 29 the Kelly brothers and a third man, Norman Smith, were intercepted by police at Seymour as they were travelling back to Sydney by motor car.

[81][82] In October 1943, while enlisted in the Army as a private and stationed at Cowra, the older brother Keith Norman Faure was refused a meal at the Garden of Roses café because of the lateness of the hour, to which he responded by knocking a tray from the proprietor's hands and kicking him in the stomach, assaulting an officer and smashing three plate-glass windows and the glass door.