He appeared repeatedly and sometimes prominently in Melbourne news media because of suspicions, formal accusations and some convictions related to a 1919 gang war, to his absconding from bail and hiding from the police in 1921–22, and to his involvement in a robbery where a bank manager was murdered in 1923.

He also derived income from sly-grog selling, two-up schools, illegal bookmaking, extortion, prostitution and, in his later years, is believed by some to have moved into cocaine dealing.

[4] As of 2024, Squizzy Taylor was depicted in the TV Series Vendetta 19 created by best selling author Roy Maloy which was filmed in Victoria, Australia.

His first criminal conviction was recorded in March 1906 at the age of 17 when he was sentenced to 21 days imprisonment for the theft of a "fly front grey Melton cloth overcoat".

[14] Under the alias "Michael McGee", he was convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment for pickpocketing the watch and chain of an unsuspecting punter at the Ballarat races in January 1908.

[17] Dolly was more than just a girlfriend and wife—she is believed to have played an active role in some of Taylor's crimes, such as his schemes to decoy and extort money from married men.

[18] Arthur Trotter, a commercial traveller from MacRobertson's confectioners, was robbed of £200 and murdered in front of his wife and five-year-old son at his home in Fitzroy, Victoria, in January 1913.

[22] In 1916 Taylor and John Williamson were tried and acquitted of the murder of William Patrick Haines, a 21-year-old chauffeur employed by the Globe Motor & Taxi Company.

[23] On the evening of 28 February 1916, a man calling himself Lestrange had telephoned the taxi company to order a car for the following day to take him to Eltham, Victoria.

Haines, who was dispatched to drive the customer, was found late on 29 February 1916, shot dead on the floor of his car at the junction of Bulleen and Templestowe Roads, Heidelberg.

The final catalyst for the vendetta came some months after the robbery when Taylor's common law wife, Dolly, was drugged at an underworld party in Fitzroy, maltreated and robbed of £200 of jewellery that she was wearing.

One of the first men targeted was Whiting, who was shot six times in the head when gunmen invaded his home in Webb Street, Fitzroy, late one night in February 1919.

The police had seen him jumping into a moving car immediately after shots were fired into a "sly grog" shop in Fleet Street, Fitzroy, injuring a woman and two men.

Whiting was in prison serving a nine-month sentence for occupying a house frequented by reputed thieves,[36] while Slater and Thorpe had left for interstate.

In September 1919 before leaving Melbourne, Thorpe was seen throwing a home-made bomb at the house of a police detective involved in the investigation of the vendetta shootings and the Kilpatricks robbery.

Thorpe was subsequently arrested in Sydney and, after his return to Melbourne, sentenced to five years' imprisonment for the bombing and declared a habitual criminal to be detained at the Governor's pleasure.

[44] Kelly returned to her parents' home with the infant Leslie and petitioned her husband for divorce on 31 July 1923 on the grounds of desertion and adultery, citing Taylor's extramarital affair with Ida Muriel "Babe" Pender.

[53] The police came close to catching Taylor in March 1922, when he and two other men were spotted fleeing from a women's clothing shop in Elsternwick carrying bundles of stolen goods.

[59] He told the incredulous police detectives that he spent most of his time in a flat in East Melbourne and that he had often come out of hiding in disguise, sometimes dressed as a woman but more often as a schoolboy, which was convincing due to his small stature.

[62] In his defence, he told a dramatic story about how an enemy of his called Lou 'the Count' Sterling (aka Louis Henri Stirling) had challenged him to fight.

[67] From police photographs, witnesses identified the man who shot Berriman as Richard Buckley and his accomplice as Angus Murray, an escapee from Geelong Gaol.

[68] The police raided a house in Barkly Street, St Kilda, a few mornings after the robbery and arrested Murray, Taylor and his girlfriend, Ida Pender.

[72] After almost two months of remands in custody, Taylor was granted bail[73] and soon began to intimidate key witnesses[74] and devising a plan to rescue Murray from prison.

Deputations were sent to the Attorney General[79] and Premier,[80] a petition with 70,000 signatories was sent to the Governor[81] and public meetings were held to protest against Murray's pending execution.

[94] Taylor was wounded in a gunfight with a rival gangster, John "Snowy" Cutmore, at a house in Barkly Street, Carlton, and died at St Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy, on 27 October 1927.

[citation needed] Cutmore joined standover man Norman Bruhn, also originally from Melbourne, in a notorious razor gang who stole the illicit gains of their underworld peers, knowing their crimes would never be reported to the police.

On the morning of the funeral, the police were needed to control a large crowd of onlookers who gathered at Taylor's house, swarming around the waiting hearse in morbid curiosity.

The Rise and Fall of Squizzy Taylor, directed by Nigel Buesst,[121] was privately funded and screened at the Carlton Cinema in Melbourne and Union Theatre in Sydney.

[124] In 1976 Frank Howson and Barry Ferrier wrote an opera based on Taylor's life, titled Squizzy, which was broadcast by ABC Radio and 3CR and received much media attention.

[126] Taylor's life was also the subject of the musical play Squizzy, featuring songs by Faye Bendrups and a script by acclaimed Australian playwright Barry Dickins.