Sydney Hollebone embarked on a troopship for England shortly after William's birth; he was briefly mobilised to France but was hospitalised for an inguinal hernia and returned to Australia in October 1918.

On 13 July 1927 William's younger brother, seven-year-old Augustus Hollebone, and two other neighbourhood boys were drowned in a water-filled disused brick pit in May Street, St Peters.

At that point Alfred Lalor and Leslie Hobson emerged from a nearby hotel and "saw a young man lying in the gutter, with three or four men about him, who appeared to be kicking him".

At the conclusion of the evidence the City Coroner found that Hobson had "died from injuries feloniously and maliciously inflicted" by Hollebone, Charters and Smith.

[9] The trial began on 26 November 1935 in the Central Criminal Court, with Hollebone, Charters and Smith each pleading not guilty to murder charges.

[12] On November 29 Justice Halse Rogers sentenced Hollebone, Charters and Smith each to ten years' penal servitude for the manslaughter of Leslie Hobson.

However, Halse Rogers was unmoved; in passing sentence he remarked that "the cowardliness and brutality of the final assault could scarcely be exaggerated", adding, "while it was a very serious thing to send three youths to gaol for such a term, it would be more serious... if such crimes as that were dealt with lightly".

After Chow Hayes' release he was engaged by Joe Taylor, one of three men running Thommos's two-up school, on wages of £100 a fortnight.

[7] Regulations for the rationing of clothing and certain food items (tea, sugar, butter and meat) had been introduced in May 1942 to manage shortages and control civilian consumption.

Detective Stuart James testified in court that during January and early February Hollebone, working as an unlicensed barrowman, had "habitually consorted with reputed criminals - thieves, car strippers and break-and-enter men".

At about 11 p.m. on 29 August 1946 Joey Hollebone entered Alfie Dawes' house in Waterloo, a two-roomed wooden cottage in Mary Street, where a drinking party was being held.

[26] As he entered the house, Hollebone fired six shots from a .32-calibre Smith and Wesson pistol, threw down the gun and immediately departed, leaving two of the occupants dead (including Dawes) and four wounded (one of whom later died).

[27] Detectives very promptly named the suspect as William Hollebone, and began searching for him that same night, raiding twenty suburban addresses without success.

[32] On the final day of the inquest the City Coroner committed Hollebone for trial on charges of having murdered three people at Waterloo on August 29.

[33] In the period between the coronial inquiry and the murder trial, information was conveyed to Chow Hayes (and subsequently passed on to Hollebone's barrister), that proved to be decisive in conducting the case for the defence.

At this point Amsberg revealed the details of what had actually happened to the sheets, exposing Mrs. Dawes' false testimony and adding "to the confusion between the witnesses about identifying Hollebone".

[38] In August 1948 Hollebone and Hayes, along with two others (Herbert 'The Wrecker' Warner and William 'The Kid' O'Connell), were charged with having assaulted and robbed Philip and Adelaide Great at their home in Raper Street, Surry Hills.

[39] After consuming beer and refusing to leave, Great and his wife were menaced with an air pistol (carried by Warner) and had neckties tied around their throats.

Earlier in the day Hollebone had been found with the necklaces wound around his waist and in his socks when he was stopped and searched at a wharf where the Westralia was berthed.

[46] During the late 1940s and early 1950s Chow Hayes and Joey Hollebone "were the two best known and most feared gunmen in Sydney", with the newspapers reporting their activities "with a constant fascination".

[7] About a week later, in the early hours of April 30, two detectives of the Consorting Squad were driving along Riley Street, Surry Hills, when they recognised three pedestrians as Joey and Hazel Hollebone and Bessie Woods.

The three were put in the police car and driven to where the detectives could access the vacant allotment on the opposite side of the fence, where they found a fully-loaded .38-calibre Beretta automatic pistol.

Bearing signs of injuries in the form of two black eyes and a swollen nose, Hollebone told detectives "he had been bashed by 10 men a week before".

[55] On the evening of May 28, about a fortnight after his release from prison, Joey and Hazel Hollebone joined Chow Hayes and his wife 'Topsy' for a night out at the Ziegfeld Cabaret in King Street, Sydney.

[60][54] The police apprehended Hollebone on July 10, found hiding under a double bed in an upstairs room at Henry 'Bronze' Monzetti's 'Hasty Tasty' fish shop in Cleveland Street, Darlington.

[66] On October 9 Hollebone and Reginald Smith, a well-known criminal and one of the witnesses to the Lee murder inquiry, had a drink at a hotel in Riley Street.

[74] On 4 November 1952 police arrived at a house in Shepherd Street, Darlington, and found Hollebone and a bookmaker named Charles Webber, each in possession of loaded .32-calibre revolvers.

[81] On 16 December 1953, on the day he was to appear in court to appeal the unlicensed firearm sentence, Hollebone walked into the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Camperdown with a bullet wound in his chest, claiming he had accidentally shot himself while cleaning a rifle.

His solicitor secured a postponement for a week pending the production of a medical certificate, claiming Hollebone's wife "was in hospital dying of tuberculosis".

During the appeal hearing Detective Baker told Judge Curlewis that Hollebone "not known to follow any lawful occupation", adding that "he was addicted to drink and was an associate of the most active and worst types of criminals in the State".