Despite this notable criminal record, her reputation oscillated between being labelled 'the worst woman in Sydney' to a perception of her as a benevolent sly-grog seller and for many, community hero and matriarch. She was the eighth child in a large impoverished Catholic family. The young Kate was head-strong, rebellious and often ran away from home.
At the age of 12 she was charged with being a neglected child and was sent to Parramatta Industrial School for Girls. Conditions and routines here were fiercely draconian and very few girls were offered any schooling. They were trained in domestic service duties such as laundry, kitchen, general maintenance and cleaning, and few girls were equipped to reintegrate into society.
Kate was released after four years and made her way to Sydney where she found work in factories and shops around Glebe and Surry Hills. In she was arrested for vagrancy and received 14 days' hard labour in prison. Kate anglicised the Chinese name Lee to Leigh. In October the same year she was charged and fined for using abusive words. In her husband was charged with the assault and robbery of their Glebe landlord.
In his defence Kate made up a false story and found herself facing the serious charge of perjury. Jack was found guilty and sentenced to a stretch in gaol but his wife was acquitted.
The marriage did not survive the enforced separation, although the couple did not officially divorce until Kate would go on to have a string of criminal lovers and marry again twice. In she married Edward Joseph Barry, a sly grog dealer and small time crook. The marriage did not last long. Her third marriage in was to her old friend and convicted armed robber Ernest Alexander 'Shiner' Ryan.
