Australia’s Most Vicious Gunman
James Robert Walker was the Chopper of his day – a violent thug who preyed on other criminals, caused a Pentridge Prison outrage and confessed to everything in a wildly popular memoir. MORE
Murder On The Dance Floor
In 1925 Perth was scandalised when beautiful flapper Audrey Jacob shot dead handsome young Cyril Gidley in front of hundreds of witnesses while at a charity dance at Government House. MORE
Unfriendly Fire: The Murder of Cathy Wayne
Just hours before Apollo 11 landed on the moon on 20 July 1969, young Australian pop star Cathy Wayne was shot dead on stage while performing as part of the troupe Sweethearts On Parade for American Marines in Vietnam. Yet Cathy hadn’t been killed by the enemy who shot Cathy and why? MORE
In Conversation — I Did Work Experience on Apollo 11
At the age of 17, Robert Brand did work experience at the Overseas Telecommunications Commission’s station in Paddington, where he played a small part in ensuring the television images of Neil Armstrong taking his first steps on the moon were successfully seen around the world. His involvement in Apollo 11 changed his life – and led to a 50-year career in the space sector. MORE
Australia’s First Queens of the Air
In 1890 Valerie and Gladys Van Tassel — under the management of “Professor” Park Van Tassel — caused a sensation with their dazzling parachute jumps from trapezes suspended beneath crude hot air balloons thousands of feet in the air. MORE
The Masked Terror
In June 1928 sisters Esther Vaughan and Sarah Falvey were shot and killed in the lolly shop that had made them favourites in the Sydney suburb of Dulwich Hill. Who killed the sisters and why? MORE
Spencer — From Movie Mogul to Murderer
In the early 20th century, Spencer Cosens was Australia’s greatest showman — but he’d end his life a fugitive murderer. MORE
The First to Fight
In 1939, Australian Jim Brough, serving with England’s RAF, became one of the first to fight the Nazis — and feel the full fury of the Lufwaffe. MORE
Erbie — King of the Ring-Ins
Fifty years before Fine Cotton, Australia was electrified by a series of audacious racing ring-ins starring a champion horse named Erbie. The man who exposed the conspiracy? MORE
Sole Survivor + Where The Truth Lies
In 1946 a crew of four was sailing the ketch Nova down the New South Wales coast when they and their boat vanished in bad weather. One man would wash up months later and more than 1000 miles away. MORE
The Model & The Murder Case
From 1950 Sydney model Shirley Beiger regularly wore the lastest frocks and swimwear at fashion shows and posed for newspapers and magazine articles and advertisements, her fresh face and attractive figure used to promote cars and furnishings. But in 1954, aged just 22, Shirley shot her lover dead outside a Sydney nightclub. But why did she kill this man — and what punishment would she face? MORE
From Model To Movie Star
In the early 1950s, Sydney teenager Jeanette Elphick was a modelling sensation, so beautiful that she was nicknamed “The Face”. At 17, she made her local movie debut with Chips Rafferty in an Australian cowboy flick called The Phantom Stockman. From there, a lucky break saw her go to Hollywood and sign with a big studio. MORE
In The Execution Of Their Duty
In 1931 John Kennedy, his mind unravelling partly as a result of being sent white feathers for supposed cowardice during the Great War, took to the streets of Bondi Junction with a rifle. A number of young Sydney police responded, and two would pay the ultimate price. MORE
The Fugitive
Kevin John Simmonds was a teen rebel without a cause, who’d do time in two juvenile prisons before serving a three-year stretch as an adult in Goulburn Gaol. Released in February 1959, he embarked on a crime wave that saw him steal the equivalent of $1.1m worth of goods in just four months. For these offences, Simmonds got a 15-year sentence, and, in court, vowed to escape. He did just that, breaking out of Long Bay Gaol on the 9th of October 1959, triggering the biggest manhunt in NSW history — and the first Australian media circus of the television age. MORE
The Battle For Rothbury + The Bombing Of Rothbury — 1938
In 1929 the Rothbury coal mine lock-out in the Hunter Region of NSW saw police shoot at thousands of protesting unionists — with tragic results. The story resulted in one of the most striking newspaper front pages in Australian history — and it was a fake. Ten years on, Rothbury was again the scene of industrial unrest, this time leading to a mysterious bomb blast — and another even more brazen case of media manipulation. MORE
