Eugenia Falleni

Eugenia Falleni, alias Harry Crawford, special photograph number 234, Central Police Station Sydney, 1920.

Special Photograph no. 234. When 'Harry Leon Crawford', hotel cleaner of Stanmore was arrested and
charged with wife murder he was revealed to be in fact Eugenia Falleni (sometimes spelt as Eugeni), a
woman and mother, who had been passing as a man since 1899.

In 1913, as 'Harry Crawford', Falleni had married the widow Annie Birkett. Four years later, shortly after
she announced to a relative that she had found out 'something amazing about Harry', Birkett disappeared.
Crawford told neighbours that she had run off with a plumber.

In 1919 Birkett's young son, who had remained in Crawford's custody, told an aunt of attempts made on
his life by his drunken stepfather. The aunt contacted police. A charred body which had been found in
Lane Cove in 1917 was belatedly identified as Birkett's.

'Crawford's' astonished second wife, when finally convinced of Falleni's true gender remarked, "I always
wondered why he was so painfully shy ..." The photograph shown here shows Falleni in male clothing,
probably on the day of her arrest. The negative was found in a paper sleeve inscribed 'Falleni Man/Woman'.
It is also possible that Falleni was made to dress in a man's suit for the photograph.

Eugenia Falleni

Eugenia Falleni

Eugenia Falleni

Eugenia Falleni

Eugenia Falleni

At the time of his arrest, while living with Elizabeth in a house in Stanmore, he asked to be placed
in the women's cells and requested that his wife be not apprised that he was not a man. Among
male clothing in a locked leather suitcase, police located an ‘article', later exhibited in court, made
of wood and rubber bound with cloth in the shape of a phallus or dildo.

Eugenia Falleni’s dildo, wood and leather, Courtesy of the Crime Museum, Sidney, Australia.

Harry Birkett, Annie's son.

The victim

JP2011/1-2 A photographic postcard (silver gelatin print) depicting a portrait of a woman, Annie Birkett,
dressed in a high-collared white blouse. Annie Birkett was murdered by her second 'husband', a woman
named Eugenia Falleni, in 1917. Falleni then allegedly attempted to murder Birkett's young son Harry.
The case was a media sensation as it delved into the world of male impersonations and murder.