OH MY GOD, THIS IS AMAZING. (I spent the better part of one year reading about the razor gangs of Sydney, and stole a whole lot of Sydney true crime for one of my LoK fics.)
(I’m especially impressed that OP has turned up the given name of “N****r” Barker, which wasn’t in any known records last I checked.)
The artist mentions Underbelly: Razor, the trashy TV mini-series based on the lives of Kate and Tilly – it’s absolutely TERRIGREAT, and I recommend it to anyone who adored Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries but thought it needed more topless sex worker brawls.
(An actual thing that happened in actual history, btw.)
A fictionalised melding of Kate and Tilly appears in Ruth Park’s Harp in the South, and, more recently, in Justine Larbalestier’s Razorhurst, a YA ghost story set in the same area. (Larbalestier gets bonus points for making the fictionalised Barker a major character, whose nickname isn’t a slur.)
“One kingpin sucker-punched the other by jumping from a tram” may be the most Australian crime story I’ve ever heard.
Inspiration Haven 