'Harry Crawford', Annie Birkett's husband. They were issues that barely raise an eyebrow today, as Sydney prepares for another Mardi Gras celebrating sexual diversity. During the latter years of the First World War, however, there was no lexicon in place to fully describe the intricacies of the case. Falleni's celebrity will be increased by the first reading of a play, The Trouble with Harry, this week in Brisbane. A documentary is also being made. Her extraordinary secret began to unravel soon after October 3, 1917, when The Sydney Morning Herald ran a small story headlined ''Charred Remains of a Woman''. The woman could not be identified and the inquest recorded an open verdict.

Three years later, a young man reported to police that his mother, Annie Birkett, was missing. Mrs Birkett, a widow, had met Crawford at her workplace, a medical practice in Wahroonga, where he was also employed as a ''useful'' and kitchenman. She left the doctor's employ and moved to Darling Street in Balmain where she opened a sweet shop. Crawford moved in nearby. Mrs Birkett's son, Harry, a tailor from Sans Souci, was later to tell a court hearing: ''He frequently visited the shop and made it appear to the residents that he was helping mother with the business. The neighbours began to talk about him and mother was practically compelled to marry him through this talk.'' Photographs of Mrs Birkett recently obtained by the Justice & Police Museum reveal her to be a refined and attractive woman, described later by one witness as ''very ladylike, a very quiet reserved woman never seen under the influence of liquor''.

But when she disappeared, Crawford told Harry Birkett that she had ''cleared out with a plumber'', that she was a heavy drinker and that he had seen her a couple of times since then in Sydney. Eventually, Mr Birkett reported his mother's disappearance, and Crawford was questioned by police. Jewellery had indicated the charred body in Chatswood was likely to be that of Mrs Birkett. Crawford claimed to be from Scotland but when asked by police to ''strip off a little'' to show any marks or tattoos on his body to prove it, he objected. Told he might go to jail, Crawford said: ''I want to go to the women's ward.'' When told that was unlikely he finally admitted his real name was Eugenia Falleni and that he was a woman - a fact confirmed by a police doctor. The Justice & Police Museum curator Rebecca Edmunds has been researching the story for years and has now established that Falleni was born in Italy but grew up in New Zealand. As a teenager she hated her life and would run away seeking work dressed as a boy. At 19 she married a man 12 years her senior but newspaper reports from the time suggest he was already married and she ran away seeking work, again in the disguise of a boy.

She arrived in Australia in 1898 and gave birth to a daughter she named Josephine. At the trial Josephine testified that she grew up knowing her mother lived her life as a man. Inevitably it was the details of the court case relating to Falleni's transgender behaviour that captured the public's imagination. When detectives searched Crawford's address in Stanmore, where he appeared to be living with a new wife, Crawford offered to open a bag - but told the detective not to let his wife see the contents. The court was told of their exchange. Crawford said: ''You will find it, something there that I have been using.'' Detective: ''What is it, something artificial?'' The accused replied: ''Yes, don't let her see it.''

Detective: ''Do you mean to say that she doesn't know anything about this?'' Crawford said his first wife had not known about it either, ''Not until the latter part of our marriage.'' From the courtroom account given by Mr Birkett, who was looked after to some extent by Crawford after his mother disappeared, it seems strange he didn't blow the whistle earlier. On one occasion Crawford took the youth to The Gap, encouraging him to climb through the wire and throw stones into the water. Another time Crawford announced, ''We are going out,'' and grabbed a shovel as they left.

During the murder trial Crawford/Falleni spoke only briefly, protesting innocence. The prosecution case was to suggest that her duplicity in passing herself off as a man was proof of her immoral nature. Chief Justice Sir William Cullen in his summing up said: ''It would almost seem incredible that two people could live together for three years without Mrs Birkett discovering that an imposition had been practised …" Many questions remain unanswered. Was Mrs Birkett really duped into marriage or was it a cover-up for a lesbian relationship? And what were the circumstances and motive behind her murder? ''Every time I read the case I have a different opinion,'' Ms Edmunds said. ''There is evidence to support almost any interpretation. She was regarded as a kind of freak, people probably did think she was deviant.''

Loading When the jury found Falleni guilty after two hours' deliberation, she was sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison. She was released in 1931 after 11 years on condition that she lived as a woman. She was killed in a pedestrian accident on Oxford Street, Paddington - where the Mardi Gras parade passes by.