Frank Fahy - Undercover pioneer

THE SHADOW
AN UNDERCOVER
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PIONEER
An unorthodox and
thrill-packed career
STORY NORRIS SMITH,
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS UNIT
J
oyce Cardinaels, 90, lives on the
state’s Central Coast. She loves
to have a chat – especially about
her dad, Frank Fahy. He was a cop
in Sydney from 1920 to 1952 – and
one of the state’s first undercover
officers.
To the media of that era, Frank was
known as “The Shadow”. In a 1954
book that detailed Fahy’s success
in catching crooks, the author and
crime reporter Vince Kelly wrote:
“There have been hundreds of
great detectives in fiction, but in the
factual records of criminal detection
there has never been a police officer
with a more unorthodox, thrill-packed
career than Frank Fahy.”
Frank’s daughter agrees.
“He was an investigator so skilled
at disguise and ‘blending in to the
background’ that the members of
the underworld didn’t have a hope,”
Joyce said with pride.
“My father would go to great
lengths to conceal his true identity
and his undercover methods were
deemed so effective they later
became textbook examples of
‘shadowing’ techniques across
the world.”
Frank Fahy was born in 1896
and raised at beachside Bronte in
Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
“My father was one of nine
children and my grandparents ran
what I suppose you would
describe as a general store.
ABOVE Joyce Cardinaels, Frank Fahy’s daughter
RIGHT Frank Fahy – a shadow that still
looms large in the annals of NSW policing.
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1919 • 1920 • 1935 •
“In 1919, dad was working as a
plumber’s assistant when he decided
to join the police. After graduating in
1920 he was stationed at Paddington.
“Dad soon came to the attention of
Sergeant William McKay.”
William McKay was appointed
NSW Police Commissioner in 1935,
but in the 1920s he was busy trying
to suppress the Darlinghurst ‘razor
gangs’ and contend with Sydney’s
major crime bosses – Norman Bruhn,
Phil ‘The Jew’ Jeffs, and madams
Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine.
“Mr McKay was looking for an
officer who was courageous and
quick-witted,” Joyce said. “More
importantly, he wanted someone
who didn’t look like a policeman so
Mr McKay selected my father for the
undercover work.”
Sgt McKay’s choice proved to
be the right one and Frank
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Fahy’s methods of concealment
and deception proved extremely
successful.
“Burglars, counterfeiters, drugsmugglers, safe-crackers, prison
escapees, murderers – my father
caught them all,” Joyce said.
One of Fahy’s methods involved
the creation of an alter-ego, Jimmy
Perkins, a city vagrant who seemed
harmless.
“The criminals had no idea the
unwashed and unshaven man in
shabby clothes who was in their
midst or loitering in the street was
actually a cop on a case – constantly
watching their every move, listening
for whispers about planned crimes,
gathering evidence, and waiting for
the moment when an arrest could
be made.
“Sometimes his appearance even
fooled fellow officers,” his daughter
said with a laugh.
“Unaware that my dad was a
policeman, an over-zealous cop
would move him along – or at times
even arrest him!”
In 2001 Joyce presented the State
Library of NSW with a scrapbook
her father had compiled during his
policing career. Filled with newspaper
cuttings, mug shots and other
photographs, it provides an insight
into Sydney’s criminal underworld
during that era.
“My father never spoke about his
actual work and the undercover role,
but I do know how much he
loved the Police Force and the part
he played in helping to keep
Sydney safe.
“It wasn’t until many years
later that I fully recognised and
• 1952 • 1978 • 2001
appreciated the danger he was
subjected to and how he was a
trailblazer for undercover police.
“Dad’s work wasn’t just dangerous
– a lot of the time it was also very
uncomfortable,” Joyce said.
“He had a worn-out old motorbike
which he would use to follow
suspects.
“The bike also had an enclosed
sidecar and my father drilled several
holes in the bodywork. When he
conducted surveillance outside
a suspect’s home or business he
would huddle unseen in the sidecar
watching through the holes.
“Dad spent many days and nights
in those cramped conditions to
record the comings and goings of
underworld figures. But the pain and
discomfort were all worth it when he
had enough evidence for arrests
to be made!”
Frank Fahy also had an unusual
fashion-sense.
“My father had a special ‘doublesided’ suit made. One side was blue
– the other side was grey.
“Sounds crazy doesn’t it – but there
was method in dad’s madness.”
“If a target got suspicious and
thought the man in the blue suit
was watching or following him, my
father would quickly turn the coat or
trousers inside out.
“The crooks then went about their
business, thinking the blue-suited
man had gone away,” Joyce said
with a grin.
Because of his job and its
requirement to drop out of sight
at short notice, Frank Fahy often
disappeared from home for weeks at
a time. No-one knew where he was
– or if he was even alive. This took its
toll on relationships with loved ones
– but Joyce easily remembers many
happy times spent with her dad.
“It would never happen nowadays,
but I can remember plenty of
occasions when my father took me
to work with him.
“At the time I didn’t know I was
‘working’ with him – it was only when
I got older I realised the small part
I played in some of his undercover
schemes.”
The 90-year-old fondly recalls an
outing when she was about sixyears-old.
“Dad got me an ice cream and we
went to a park in Bronte. We were in
the park’s playground which faced a
street with a lot of houses.”
“My father spent hours pushing
me on the swing and watching while
I played. Well…I thought he was
watching me…turns out he was
actually watching a house over
the road.
“A couple of safe-crackers were in
the house and when they walked out
with their ill-gotten gains, my father
gave a signal and police who’d been
hiding in nearby bushes
emerged and made the
arrests.
“Dad continued to push
me on the swing and never
broke ‘character’ – he was
merely a father playing in
a suburban park with his
young daughter.”
‘The Shadow’ retired
from the NSW Police Force
in 1952 at the rank of
sergeant. He passed away
in 1978 at the age of 82.
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