True Crime

Here is the big story of the framing of six Croatian immigrants by the Australian police and justice establishment in 1979. All these eminent Australians – from corrupt cops to distinguished judges – were suckered by an agent provocateur employed by the Yugloslav government. The aim was to discredit the… Keep Reading

Amazing story of Mark Standen, third most powerful officer in the NSW Crime Commission until his arrest for corruption in 2008 and subsequent conviction. Always a flakey character, with a major gambling addiction, chaotic private life, and an expensive relationship with a work colleague half his age – how did… Keep Reading

Peter C Smith is author of The Clarke Gang, the comprehensive history of a strangely little known gang of bushrangers who operated in the 1860s around the lonely Braidwood area in New South Wales, and murdered as many as seven people. Coming from a family of bush criminals, Thomas and John… Keep Reading

When Terry Falconer’s body turned up in the Hastings River in eight parcels in 2001, detective Gary Jubelin was assigned the investigation. It took  decade and led him to Anthony Perish, one of Australia’s most feared – and unknown – major criminals. Along the way, Jubelin uncovered a major amphetamine-manufacturing… Keep Reading

Drug Traffic, Al McCoy’s magisterial history of Australian organised crime from the beginning, concluded in 1980. Smack Express (2009) by Small and Gilling took the story through to the end of the century. Blood Money (2010) to some extent overlaps the period covered by the previous book, although at times… Keep Reading

Bottom is Australia’s pre-eminent crime expert outside of law enforcement agencies, and through a series of ground-breaking articles and books in the 1970s and 1980s was largely responsible for alerting Australians to the existence of organised crime and for many government inquiries and royal commissions into the subject. He gained… Keep Reading

Definitive account of the Milperra Massacre, the shoot-out between the Comancheros and Bandidos bikie gangs in western Sydney on Fathers Day in 1984, when seven people died. An important book on outlaw motorcycle gangs and a classic of Australian true crime writing. Keep Reading

Paul Wilkinson was Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer at Redfern Police Station when he began an affair with trainee nurse Kylie Labourchardiere. Both were married. They exchanged over 20,000 text messages in four months and Kylie became pregnant and threatened to tell Wilkinson’s wife unless he left her. Wilkinson killed Kylie… Keep Reading

Whitton claimed never to have discovered a new fact, but to have made his considerable impact through the practice of what he called “pattern journalism”, the meticulous gathering of accessible detail and its arrangement in order, to reveal meaning. This 1986 book is full of good things, not least a long… Keep Reading