Kath Pettingill
Born (1935-03-27) 27 March 1935 (age 88)
Other namesGranny Evil
OccupationFormer brothel owner
Children10, including Dennis Allen and Victor Peirce[1]
Conviction(s)Drug trafficking

Kathleen "Kath" Pettingill (born 27 March 1935) is the matriarch of the Melbourne criminal family, the Pettingill family.

Family

Pettingill's 10 children are:

(with Dennis Ryan)


(with William George "Billy" Peirce (died 1968))


(with Jimmy Pettingill (died 1972))

Personal life

Pettingill first worked in a bar, and having herself been a prostitute,[6] she went on to run brothels.[1] She lived with her children in the Richmond area of Melbourne, and a number of her sons were sent to the Turana Boys' Home.

Pettingill has a glass eye in place of the one she lost after being shot in 1978 by Kim Nelson and Keryn Thompson. The bullet passed through a closed door at the Collingwood Housing Commission of Victoria flats as she and her son, Dennis Allen, attempted to repay a $300 debt on behalf of her daughter, Vicky Brooks.[7][page needed]

In popular culture

A biography of her life, The Matriarch: The Kathy Pettingill Story, was written by Adrian Tame and published in 1996. As of 2007, Pettingill was living in Venus Bay, Gippsland, Victoria.[8]

In the 2011 miniseries Killing Time, Pettingill is a major character, played by Kris McQuade.

Fictionalized versions of Pettingill, as the character Janine "Smurf" Cody, have appeared in both the 2010 Australian film Animal Kingdom portrayed by Jacki Weaver, and the 2016 TNT television show of the same name portrayed by Ellen Barkin. Weaver was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance.

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Coming clean". The Age. 1 October 2005. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  2. ^ Munroe, Ian; Butcher, Steve (3 May 2002). "Brace for more gangland shootings, police warn". The Age. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  3. ^ a b c The Matriarch ISBN 978-0732908546
  4. ^ "Crime world loses one of its finest". The Sydney Morning Herald. 3 May 2002. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  5. ^ a b "Melbourne crime figure's son guilty". Ninemsn. 20 May 2010. Archived from the original on 24 February 2011. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  6. ^ Tame, Adrian (1996). The Matriarch: The Kathy Pettingill Story. Pan Macmillan. pp. 58, 60. ISBN 978-0-7329-0854-6. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  7. ^ Shand, Adam (2007). Big Shots. Viking Books. ISBN 978-0-670-04071-1.
  8. ^ Tame, Adrian (10 June 2007). "Bingo dogs' number's up". Herald Sun. Retrieved 2 July 2010.

External links


Pettingill family
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