SYDNEY’S MAN-WOMAN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2279, 21 May 1921, Page 4

SYDNEY’S MAN-WOMAN.

MASQUERADER DISCOVERED. "I DID IT FOR FUN.” Sydney, May 3. Sydney appears to have more than her fair share of strange and erratic people. Newspaper readers are always being' confronted with some queer or sordid disclosure. The latest is the discovery of a man who masqueraded as a woman. Me have many cases of women passing themselves off as men: but. it is much more difficult for a man to pose as a woman. If appears that the detectives had been watching this man—George Augustus Rocako, 58 years of age —for a long time. They found tlmi lie had worked as a jobbing motor mechanic during the day. and was employed casually by various firms. He .was then in male attire, and there was nothing extraordinary aIjout his behaviour. But frequently in the evenings he completely disguised himself in female attire. It would have taken an expert -to doted the disguise. Rocako spent much time and money, apparently, on the make-up. He Avas then dressed, with meticulous care as to details, as a middle-aged woman. The black hat was a fashionable bit of millinery, the stockings were silk, there Averc earrings and plenty of powder, there was a wig, and the gloved hands were encased in a muff. Thus disguised, Rocako frequently went out walking at nights with various women. The detectives’ suspicions Avere aroused because on these excursions Rocake — av)io was knoAvn as Winifred Wilson —always sought dark and unfrequented places. They watched for a long time, and finally they arrested “Winifred" and charged him with offensive bohaviour. They raided the room lie had occupied in Rusheutters Bay for a year, and took away a cartload of female clothing, paints and powders. Rocake told the magistrate that there was “no ulterior motive Avlintcver behind his prank.” “Are you sane?” asked the magistrate. “Yes, quite sane,” answered the mnn-Avomnn, who stood in the dock in female attire. “I did it once a fortnight —sometimes once a Aveck. It was rnoro a matter of making fun.” The man-Avomau Avas fined £2. A curious, highly amused, and by no means silent crowd followed “her” as “she” left the Court.