John Daniel "Snowy" Cutmore (29 August 1895 – 27 October 1927), was an Australian criminal, well known in the criminal underworld of both Melbourne and Sydney during the inter-war years until his violent death in 1927. Cutmore was raised in inner-city Melbourne and was a prominent member of the Fitzroy Push, a lawless gang involved in prostitution, sly-grog and violence. Throughout his criminal career Cutmore displayed a willingness to relocate to another state to evade police attention, often travelling between Melbourne and Sydney (and occasionally Adelaide). For a short period from late 1926 he was a member of Norman Bruhn's criminal gang in Sydney, attributed as Australia's first 'razor gang' at the beginning of a period of gang violence in Sydney in the late-1920s known as the 'razor gang wars'. Cutmore was shot and killed in his mother's home in Carlton in October 1927, in an underworld gunfight that also resulted in the death of his rival, 'Squizzy' Taylor.
'Snowy' Cutmore's life and times were portrayed in the television series on the Nine television network in Australia, Underbelly: Razor and Underbelly: Squizzy. He also appears in the 1982 biopic Squizzy Taylor, where he was played by Steve Bisley.
Early life
John Daniel Cutmore was born on 29 August 1895 at South Melbourne, Victoria, the eldest of two children of John Samuel Cutmore and Bridget Delia (née McLaughlin). Cutmore had a younger brother, James, born in 1899 at Collingwood.
Cutmore's father worked as a cook and in 1914 the family was living in Princess Street, Fitzroy (though the father was possibly living in Western Australia by then). Cutmore senior enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force in November 1914 at the Blackboy Hill military training camp in Western Australia and served overseas for virtually the entire duration of the war (returning to Australia only briefly in 1916). His next of kin as recorded on his enlistment papers was his wife, Delia Cutmore. Cutmore senior worked as a cook in the army and served at Gallipoli and the Middle East. He returned to Australia in August 1916 and disembarked at Fremantle. After a brief period Cutmore then returned overseas, arriving in England in December 1916 and serving in France until the end of the war. He spent periods in hospital in France and London (his record notated, "premature senility"). He eventually returned to Australia, disembarking at Melbourne in March 1919. John S. Cutmore returned to Western Australia at some point; he died in Perth in 1938.
Criminal activities
On 1 September 1914 John Cutmore (then aged 19 years) stole a number of items from a driver named Francis Davidson in the yard of the Tankerville Arms Hotel in Nicholson-street, Fitzroy. The items stolen were a gold chain, "a memorandum book, 5 tram tickets, a pair of spectacles" and five shillings worth of copper coins. Cutmore was arrested for the offence and granted bail to appear at the Fitzroy Court, but he subsequently absconded from bail and a warrant was issued for his arrest. In late September 1914 a warrant was issued for the arrest of two men, one of whom was "identical with one Snowy Cutmore", charged with "inciting a prisoner, William Harvey, to resist arrest" by Constable Malseed at Carlton on 14 September 1914.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, 31 October 1914, Cutmore and Thomas Hillary, a sergeant in the Australian Expeditionary Force, assaulted two drunken sailors named Albert Florence and Frederick Akin in Bourke-street, Melbourne. Cutmore was seen to kick the sailors on the face and head and jump on one of them, in an attack described as "of a very savage character". Hillary struck the men with his fists. Cutmore and Hillary were chased by night porters (who had witnessed the assault) and several constables. Cutmore was found lying in a right-of-way, pretending to be drunk (but his heavy breathing indicated he had been running). Hillary hid in a partially-constructed building in Little Bourke-street, but was found after a search. Both young men were charged with having assaulted the sailors. Cutmore gave his name as 'John Harris'. The sailors were treated at the Melbourne Hospital, Florence for cuts and abrasions and Akin for three broken ribs, a badly-damaged eye and severe abrasions. On November 5 'Harris' (Cutmore) and Hillary were tried in the City Court on the assault charges, which they denied on oath. Cutmore, who had used the most violence, was fined £10 (in default, two months' imprisonment) and Hillary £5 (in default, one month's imprisonment).