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Lennie McPherson controlled most of Sydney's organised crime activity for several decades, with his associate George Freeman. Lenny was born in the inner-Sydney suburb of Balmain in 1921, the tenth child of metalworker William McPherson and his wife Nellie. He had some schooling at Birchgrove Primary School and his first brush with the law came at the age of 11 when he was convicted of stealing. Eighteen months later he was convicted on two charges of stealing and sent to a detention centre where he was bashed and raped. He went on to a life of serious crime and was universally feared by his adversaries and often referred to as Sydney's ‘Mr Big’ of organised crime, protected by police who relied on his information to control the Sydney underworld. McPherson had been estranged from his mother for many years, but on her 70th birthday, he unexpectedly turned up at her flat, carrying a live rabbit. He demanded to know why he had not been invited to her birthday party, and when she admitted that it was because of his criminal activities, the furious McPherson tore the rabbit's head off, threw the still-twitching body at her feet and stormed off. He died of a heart attack in Cessnock Gaol in 1996, aged 75. George Freeman was king of Sydney’s SP bookies, and was involved with McPherson in massive money laundering operations on Sydney race tracks and the corruption of Sydney chief magistrate Murray Farquar. During the 1970s George Freeman, was shot with a .22 pistol. but survived, and less than six weeks later the man suspected of the shooting was himself shot dead in the driveway of his Coogee home. Freeman, who was holidaying in Noosa at the time, refused to answer questions on the matter.