CROOKS LIKE US

In the 1920s Sydney police began quietly assembling a gallery of the city'smost light-fingered, fleet-footed, silver-tongued rogues - con artists,magsmen, housebreakers, thugs, gunmen, shoplifters, drug dealers,pickpockets and hooligans. These extraordinary images resurfaced in the1980s, long after the original paperwork had been lost and the crooks, thecops and all who remembered them had passed on. Based on years of researchinto police files, court records, newspapers and other sources, Crooks likeus offers a glimpse into the difficult lives of these fugitive souls - whatthey did, who they hurt, who hurt them, where they came from and,sometimes, where they ended up. Illustrated with rich, emotionally chargedpolice ‘Special Photographs' from the Justice & Police Museum,Sydney, Crooks like us opens a secret door onto Sydney's hidden histories.