In the early morning of 3 February 1894 three visiting Victorian burglars, members of the variously called Bookmakers’ Gang or Tobacco Gang (because of its bail-ups of bookmakers on their way home from the races, and its thefts of tobacco), tried to blow the safe at the Union Steamship Company near Circular Quay in Sydney. They had not realised it had an alarm, and when it sounded, they ran out into Bridge Street, where they met and laid out two police officers, Senior Constable McCourt and Constable Lyons, with iron bars. Not knowing the layout of the area, the three men then turned into Phillip Street, where they almost literally ran into the arms of officers from the nearby Water Street Police Station. They knocked down Constable Alford. As they headed for the Domain, they were halted by Constable Frederick Bowden, who they also knocked down, fracturing his skull. The police lost one of the men in the Domain. The two who were caught and charged with attempted murder were ‘Buck’ Montgomery, better known as Millidge, and the safebreaker ‘Curly’ Williams, aka Carroll, who had met in prison.
