samuel hatty what a dick

You may recall in late 2021 I relayed the story of Samuel Hatty getting put in jail for a month for ripping up a flag. Well I don't know much about Samuel Hatty but I know he got in the news periodically and usually for doing worse things than that. In September 1924 Hatty was charged with robbing John Anderson, an elderly engineer from Yallourn, of £10 and having used 'personal violence'. Hatty was living in Roden st, West Melbourne at this time (Melbourne Herald 12 September 1924 p. 7) So apparently John Anderson turned up at the Waterside Hotel with a lot of money and shouted the bar twice but then refused to do so the third time. Hatty, who was otherwise just a drinker in the bar, struck Anderson on the side of the face and he fell to the floor. Hatty then put his hand in Anderson’s trouser pocket, then stood on his stomach. He stole two £5 notes. Barman Ivan Mitchell didn't tell the court that he saw Hatty steal the money but he did say that Anderson was half drunk and Hatty was very drunk. Hatty told the court (I guess this was his excuse - ?!) that he was a married man with two children* and he had spent most of his wages at the hotel that day. ‘The police gave Hatty a good character’. He was fined £5 and £1 costs.   

(‘Country visitor in town’ Melbourne Age 16 September 1924 p. 13)

*This was a mistake on the part of the reporter or Hatty was lying or something else because his (and his wife Honora's) grave at Fawkner cemetery only claims one child - a daughter, Dorothy. 

The picture above, by Graeme Butler, is of the Waterside Hotel (obvs) in 1985, from here