BREAKING NEWS Australian 'criminal royalty' Bertie Kidd dies at 91 after extraordinary 60-year crime career
Lifelong criminal Bertie Kidd died in a Melbourne hospice this week.
For 60 years, Kidd was among the most notorious identities within the local underworld, infamous to several generations of cops and crooks.
His own lawyer once suggested Kidd was 'the most complete criminal' in the nation's history. Others have referred to him as 'Australian criminal royalty.'
Kidd was 85 when he was released from prison in 2018, amid warnings from those who knew his background and capabilities he was just as dangerous as ever.
Kidd was a master safe-breaker, forger of currency and fixer of races. He made millions more staging gold bullion thefts, armed robberies and home invasions.
He has also been a prime suspect in two underworld murders and was investigated over the near-fatal shooting of another gangster, all of which he denies doing.
While largely unknown outside criminal, correctional and policing circles, English-born Kidd hits the news every decade or so.
The last time was in 2015 when Immigration Minister Peter Dutton was determined he be deported the second he stepped foot outside jail.
Kidd arrived in this country in 1947 as a 14-year-old as a Ten Pound Pom and has since then considered himself Australian. His family has said any move to send him back to the country of his birth would be 'inhumane'.
He started in Melbourne, took his trade up to Sydney, and spent 27 years in prison during three major stints - much of it in maximum security. Kidd got away clean with the vast majority of his crimes, which he likes to call 'projects'.
For three years the federal government fought to have the frail felon deported, a battle he won due to his 1950s National Service.
He was born in London in 1933 and christened Bertram Douglas Kidd but changed his first name to Robert in the 1960s. He has remained known as Bert or Bertie.
'Even though I've been caught for some, I might have got away with others,' Kidd told Daily Mail Australia in 2019.
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