Australian ‘criminal royalty’ Bertie Kidd dies at 91 after 60-year career of crime

One of the most prolific and dangerous criminals Australia ever produced has died aged 91.

Lifelong criminal Bertie Kidd died in a Melbourne hospice on Tuesday night, Daily Mail Australia can reveal.

For 60 years, Kidd was among the most notorious identities within the local underworld. 

His own lawyer once suggested Kidd was ‘the most complete criminal’ in the nation’s history. Others described Kidd as Australian criminal ‘royalty.’

Kidd was 84 when he was last released from prison in 2018, amid warnings from those who knew his background and capabilities he was just as dangerous as ever.

He had been living with his brother in Tasmania before spending his final years in Melbourne.

He had a ‘bit of Parkinsons towards the end,’ his biographer Simon Griffin told Daily Mail Australia.

He was so notorious that The Whitlams wrote and recorded a song about him in 2022, titled The Ballad of Bertie Kidd.

Lifelong criminal Bertie Kidd died in a Melbourne hospice this week aged 91. He’s pictured at his book launch in 2019

Kidd, pictured in his younger years with his dog Dino, was once described by his lawyer as among the most complete criminals in Australia’s history

Kidd had been working with Griffin for a trilogy of books about his colourful life. 

The first memoir The Audacious Kidd was published in 2019, covering his childhood in war-torn England, immigration and criminal exploits up to the early 1970s.

It was soon followed by a second memoir. Griffin is still working on the third and final book.

Kidd was a master safe-breaker, forger of currency and fixer of races. He made millions more staging gold bullion thefts, armed robberies and home invasions.

He has also been a prime suspect in two underworld murders and was investigated over the near-fatal shooting of another gangster, all of which he denies doing.

While largely unknown outside criminal, correctional and policing circles, English-born Kidd hit the news every decade or so.

The last time was in 2015 when then-Immigration Minister Peter Dutton determined Kidd be deported the second he stepped foot outside jail.

Kidd spent three years fighting the decision and won, arguing that he had children in Australia and had done National Service. 

Bertie Kidd lived in Tasmania with his brother following his release from prison in 2018

‘He was a career criminal and didn’t have any regrets, except maybe he should have killed more people,’ Griffin said.

Kidd was born in London in 1933 and christened Bertram Douglas Kidd but changed his first name to Robert in the 1960s. He has remained known as Bert or Bertie. 

He arrived here in 1947 as a 14-year-old as a Ten Pound Pom and has since then considered himself Australian. His family has said any move to send him back to the country of his birth would be ‘inhumane’.

He started in Melbourne, took his trade up to Sydney, and spent 27 years in prison during three major stints – much of it in maximum security. Kidd got away clean with the vast majority of his crimes, which he likes to call ‘projects’.

‘Even though I’ve been caught for some, I might have got away with others,’ Kidd told Daily Mail Australia in 2019.