Darcy Whettenhall was a champion sheep breeder, running the Stanbury stud farm near Geelong. His perfectionism, drive and achievements were famous in the area. But he had a dark side, offering work to young vulnerable men then preying on them for sex. One fateful evening it all came crashing down in the most horrifying way. Click on the links to subscribe https://subscribe.theage.com.au or https://subscribe.smh.com.au See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's a knock at your front door. A couple of tradies say they've been working on the house next door and they've noticed tiles missing from your roof. Not to worry. For $20, they're happy to climb up and replace them. But upon closer inspection, the hole in the roof is a little worse than first thought, they say. It would cost $970 and there's rain on the horizon. Still later it was worse again: they claim to have found asbestos and it would cost thousands more. This is a scam of...

What he had was information on a notorious armed robbery crew, known as the gym gang, and he was prepared to talk, if the deal was right.  He was The Driver, a trusted insider who turned informer on a gang that police still consider one of Melbourne's slickest. His information would form the basis of a police operation, codenamed Tidelands, which became a cat-and-mouse game straight out of a spy novel.  Crime reporter John Silvester brings you the final instalment of a special two-part...

Their heists were meticulous, and executed with military-style precision. And as soon as one job was done, they would disappear, sometimes for years. For 40 years, police have been in a cat-and-mouse chase with one of Australia's slickest armed robbery crews - a tight group of Melbourne mates who pulled seven intricately planned jobs over 24 years, starting in the early 1980s. Now, in part one of two episodes of John Silvester's Naked City, their full story can be told. Become a...

Supreme Court judge Paul Coghlan has spent more than 50 years investigating, prosecuting and judging serious crooks on serious crimes. Coghlan, the grandson of a Chinese merchant, innkeeper and opium dealer, became Director of Public Prosecutions during Melbourne's gangland war, brokering plea deals that cracked the underworld's wall of silence.  From prosecuting a serial killer to pursuing a dodgy detective in one of Australia's first wire tap cases, Coghlan opens up to veteran crime...

How police caught Paul Charles Denyer, and the women who came chillingly close to the Frankston serial's orbit. In part two of John Silvester's season opening episode of Naked City, go behind-the-scenes of the investigation with the veteran crime reporter and hear from a suburban detective who, almost by chance, became the first officer Denyer chose to confess to. Another woman also talks about her encounter with Denyer a week before he murdered his final victim, as well as Donna's lucky...

In the winter of 1993, a serial killer terrorised Melbourne, stalking and murdering three young women in the bayside suburb of Frankston. John Silvester is back for another season of Naked City, starting with a two-part episode on the investigation into Paul Charles Denyer, and the detectives that netted one of Australia's most notorious killers. And a warning, some listeners may find this content distressing. Become a subscriber: Your support powers our newsrooms and is critical for the...

The much anticipated fifth season of Naked City arrives on June 22. Make sure to subscribe now and get all the episodes straight to your device.  John Silvester, Australia’s longest-serving crime reporter, will take you on a journey through his 40 years of dealing with the nation’s most dangerous criminals.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since late 2020, the case of missing Sydney woman Melissa Caddick has captivated the country. A seemingly successful businesswoman from Sydney's eastern suburbs went missing after authorities raided her Dover Heights home amid questions over an unlicensed financial planning business. Sydney Morning Herald investigative journalist Kate McClymont would reveal key details of a massive Ponzi scheme and a $23 million fraud that ripped off investors including her family and friends as Caddick lived...

Cliff Lockwood was just 19 when he left the peace of a tiny town to join the police force. “I know it sounds funny but I just wanted to do good. Nineteen was way too young. You don’t know anything.” On Sunday April 9, 1989 Lockwood and his partner, Senior Detective Dermot Avon arrested car thief and suspected violent criminal Gary Abdullah and took him to his Drummond Street two level flat to search for evidence and an accomplice. According to police Abdullah grabbed and imitation firearm...

For a time gangland figures lived a fast and often lucrative life, but very few made it out alive. After 11 unsolved murders, including Moran brothers Mark and Jason, and their father Lewis, police put together a taskforce to tackle the gangland war. They investigated Andrew 'Benji' Veniamin, Mick Gatto, Carl Williams and Tony Mockbell among others.  Purana ended up investigating over 300 people, listening in on more than 100,000 hours of phone conversations, using 39 tracking devices to...

The rookie teacher at the tiny country school was startled during morning recess when some of the kids ran into the single weatherboard classroom, yelling: "There's a man outside with a gun." Rob Hunter had been the sole teacher at the Gippsland town of Wooreen for just nine days - his first posting after three years at teachers' college. He was 20 years old. Maree Young was his student, she was just 11 years old. The man with the revolver and wearing a Collingwood beanie as a balaclava was...

By early 1985 hitman Chris Flannery was running out of friends. This was hardly surprising, as he’d killed most of them. Flannery had built a fearsome reputation for killing on command but when an attack dog begins to snarl at its master it is time for the big sleep. Flannery’s boss Sydney gangster George Freeman had lost patience with him and was a little frightened of the unpredictable gunman. Flannery had threatened police and had shot one – undercover detective Mick Drury. Even in...

Abraham Gilbert Saffron was a successful Sydney businessman who hated his nickname and spent a fortune trying to have it expunged from the record by threatening anyone who used it publicly. The name was Mr Sin and it was well deserved. He built a vice empire on a triangular business model – the three points were bribery, blackmail and arson. He organised sex, often with under-age boys and girls, secretly photographing patrons to use against them.  He paid bribes to police - $750 per club...

Robbo' Robertson was a natural undercover cop. A Vietnam veteran with the gift of the gab, he slipped seamlessly into the role of Brian Wilson, an underworld heavy from Sydney. In 1978 Robertson was given a new mission. He was to go deep undercover to infiltrate Australia’s best armed robbery crew, the men behind the 1976 multi-million Great Bookie Robbery. He was to pretend to be a corrupt armoured van driver who would tip the team about a lucrative payroll. But this time police would be...

It was a Friday night when Federal Police contacted their Victorian counterparts with an urgent message. A shooting had been ordered by an overseas bikie boss to be carried at a Melbourne fight night. The planning was so detailed police moved in to seize two stolen cars to be used by the hit team, cloned plates, and guns. Someone is walking around today unaware they are alive because cops unscrambled the encrypted message. What the arresting officers didn’t know is the original tip didn’t...

In 1984 policeman Ron Fenton was nearly given up for dead. Shot in the head and slumped unconscious next to his police car. That is until a cop in an unmarked car took it upon himself to charge do drag Ron to safety. They thought Ron wouldn’t make it to hospital, then that he would not regain consciousness and finally that he would never return to work. They didn’t know Ron. He battled back and eventually was back on the road. But it came at a cost – he would suffer PTSD and leave the Force...

The first episode of series four will drop Wednesday 7 July, with a new episode published every Wednesday. Make sure to subscribe now and get all the episodes straight to your device.  John Silvester, Australia’s longest-serving crime reporter, will take you on a journey through his 40 years of dealing with the nation’s most dangerous criminals.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Arthur James Nelson was a third rate crook who had convictions for burglary, theft, assault, false pretences and drugs. In July 1988 his path fatally crossed police officers, Lachlan McCulloch and Syd Hadley. We hear the police re-enactment tapes conducted the day after the shooting as McCulloch and Hadley describe blow by blow the one hour chase and reenact the split second moment they shot dead Nelson.  Become a subscriber: our supporters power our newsrooms and are critical for the...

He was the best defence lawyer representing murder defendants in around 200 cases. He went on to be a respected Supreme Court Judge presiding over the most difficult homicide trials, including the Walsh Street police killings, the Russell Street bombing that killed police constable Angela Taylor; the Bega double murder trial of Leslie Camilleri, one of two men who tortured and killed NSW schoolgirls Lauren Margaret Barry, and Nichole Emma Collins in Victoria in 1997; and the trial of serial...

He has represented Mick Gatto and Mark 'Chopper' Reid among other Melbourne gangland characters, but even as a school-kid, lawyer Bernie Balmer had an aversion to bullies.  As a year 11 student he had a difference of opinion with a Brother at Assumption College who responded by punching the young Balmer in the face. Bernie, who would go on to be a more than handy heavyweight boxer, dropped the bully. While he was only defending himself, he was forced to leave under threat of expulsion. It...

Graeme Alford was a smart, cunning, hard-working criminal lawyer with a loyal and regular client base all connected to the feared Painters and Dockers Union. It was a licence to print money. He was also a heavy punter and prodigious drinker - both vices that are not unknown in the legal fraternity. Eventually, facing huge gambling debts, he stole from his trust fund, was jailed and became a full time criminal. It was October 15, 1982, when a half-drunk Alford donned a balaclava, grabbed his...

Wayne Sherwell was a country cop on traffic duty on a quiet rural road when he pulled up a speeding motorist who claimed to be a vet. The man behind the wheel was calm and matter-of-fact and there was nothing initially to make the cop suspicious.   In fact he was the notorious 'Country Bandit' who made a specialty in robbing regional banks. The confrontation ended with the bandit dead and the policeman recognised as a hero. But for many years Sherwell had to live with the ghost of the man he...

Jane Thurgood-Dove was murdered in front of her three children in the driveway of their Muriel Street, Niddrie in November 1997 - as she stepped from the car and with her kids aged 11, six and three still strapped securely in their seats she was confronted by a pot bellied gunman who chased her around the family’s four-wheel-drive before shooting her in broad daylight. Jane was just 34 then and appeared to be an average mum in an average street married to an average guy. For years police...

Sometimes life and death can be decided by something as simple as the toss of a coin. On that day, so many years ago, a young policewoman named Angela Taylor was working in the watch house at Russell Street when she lost the toss over who would do the staff lunch run. She was only a metre away when a car bomb, containing around 60 sticks of gelignite, exploded at 47 seconds past 1pm. She was caught in the fireball, suffered horrendous injuries and died 24 days later.While Melbourne was...