True Crime

True Crime Conversations

True Crime Conversations explores the world’s most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. Hosted by Gemma Bath.

Latest Episodes:

What Really Happened At Port Arthur: A Survivor's Story Mar 24, 2021

Show notes

True Crime Conversations explores the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. This month we’re focusing on Australia’s most notorious crimes...

It’s lunchtime, on a cool Sunday in April, and the Port Arthur historic site is buzzing with visitors.

Located at the southern tip of the Tasman Peninsula, Port Arthur is located about 100 kilometres south-east of Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. The quaint village was once a penal settlement and a main drawcard for tourists visiting Australia’s southernmost state.

At around 1:10pm, a man named Martin Bryant pays his entry fee for the Port Arthur site and parks near the Broad Arrow Cafe. He sits in his car for a few minutes. He is seen walking towards the cafe, with a sports bag and a video camera. He orders lunch, which he eats on the outside deck. To onlookers, he looks slightly nervous, but otherwise like a normal man - likely a tourist visiting Port Arthur.

That morning, Bryant had awoken at 6am, which was unusually early for him. He left his home at 9:47am and drove to Forcett, arriving around 11am. Then, he continued on to Port Arthur, where he stopped at an accommodation site in Seascape. He hated the owners, David and Noelene Martin, who had bought the property before Bryant’s father had been able to. His father, Maurice Bryant, had been devastated and years later had ended his own life. Bryant blamed the Martin’s for his father’s death.

When he arrived at Seaside, he fired several shots, killing Noelene Martin, and then stabbed David Martin.

He then continued to Port Arthur, with a lightweight, semi-automatic rifle.

What followed, was the worst massacre in Australian history committed by a single person. 35 were killed, and 23 wounded.

CREDITS

Guest: Anita Bingham

Host: Jessie Stephens

Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri

Producer: Gia Moylan

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CONTACT US

Tell us what you think of the show via email at truecrime@mamamia.com.au

Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

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The Story Behind Snowtown Mar 17, 2021

Show notes

True Crime Conversations explores the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. This month we’re focusing on Australia’s most notorious crimes...

It’s the 20th of May, 1999, an autumn day in South Australia.

For 12 months, there has been an inquiry into the disappearance of a woman named Elizabeth Haydon, a 37-year-old mother of eight. But it isn’t just her. Two other people from a similar area have been reported missing. And there has been no trace of them.

But today police will storm a disused bank vault in Snowtown, a disadvantaged bush town about 150 kilometres north of Adelaide.

When they enter, they see six large plastic barrels. Inside are the remains of eight bodies that have been stored in acid. One is believed to be Elizabeth Haydon.

The smell from inside the vault is said to be so bad the police need breathing gear. Some will be traumatised from what they see that day.

Following the discovery, police visit the former home of John Bunting. In his backyard, they find two more bodies buried.

That brings the tally to 10 bodies - making the crimes that have taken place the worst serial killings in Australian history.

They will come to be known as the “bodies in barrels murders” or the “Snowtown” murders, making the sadistic crimes perpetrated by a number of men forever synonymous with a small South Australian town.

But the subsequent investigation would determine that while the bodies were found in Snowtown, that’s not where most of the murders had taken place. They’d been executed in suburban homes. And for years, no one had noticed.

CREDITS

Guest: Debi Marshall the author of 'Killing For Pleasure' and 'Banquet: The Untold Story of Adelaide's Family Murders'

Host: Jessie Stephens

Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri

Producer: Gia Moylan

CONTACT US

Tell us what you think of the show via email at truecrime@mamamia.com.au

Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group

If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Peter Falconio And The Real Life Wolf Creek Mar 10, 2021

Show notes

True Crime Conversations explores the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. This month we’re focusing in on Australia’s most notorious crimes...

It’s a Saturday night in the middle of July, 2001, when Peter Falconio and Joanne Lees travel down the Stuart Highway in their orange Kombi van.

Peter is 28, and in the driver’s seat. His girlfriend, 27-year-old Joanne, is in the passenger seat. They’ve been in Australia for a little over five months, first arriving in Sydney on a working holiday Visa. They’d come from Brighton in England, prepared for the trip of a lifetime.

On June the 25th, the young tourists departed Sydney to embark on a road trip across Australia, starting in Canberra, then on to Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin and Brisbane.

The couple had been in Alice Springs, and are bound that night for the Devils Marbles, south of Tennant Creek. The road is long, and the drive notoriously remote. You rarely see another car, and the road extends as far as the eye can see, kilometres ahead. It’s eerie. If you stand on the side of the road, it’s so quiet and still you’re able to hear your own heartbeat.

They had stopped at the roadhouse in Barrow Creek, but once they set off again, they start to notice something unusual. A car. They keep expecting the car to overtake them, but it doesn’t. Along the expanse of road, a Toyota 4WD with a large green canopy in the back, approaches them. The driver gestures for them to pull over. Something must be wrong.

There is a twinge of fear. They’re alone. More than 15,000 kilometres from home. News had emerged recently in Australia and internationally of backpacker murders, with tourists like them disappearing in the Australian outback.

They pull the car over. A man approaches them.

And a few hours later, Northern Territory police get a panicked phone call.

CREDITS

Guest: Colleen Gwynne

Host: Jessie Stephens

Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri

Producer: Gia Moylan

CONTACT US

Tell us what you think of the show via email at truecrime@mamamia.com.au

Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group

If any of the contents in this episode have cause distress know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anita Cobby: The Full Story Mar 03, 2021

Show notes

True Crime Conversations explores the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. This month we’re focusing in on Australia’s most notorious crimes...

It’s the morning of February 6, 1986.

Australia as a nation, but more specifically New South Wales, is in a state of shock.

Two days prior, the body of 26 year old nurse Anita Cobby had been found in a paddock in Prospect, 32 kilometres west of Sydney’s CBD. The news had broken that Anita had been murdered.

But on the 6th of February, a morning radio host named John Laws obtained a leaked copy of the young woman’s autopsy report. All morning, he said, he considered whether or not to broadcast the details. He ultimately decided to.

Laws shared explicit details about Anita Cobby’s injuries and the nature of her death, as Sydney siders drove to work or as they dropped their children at school. For a generation, those details would be imprinted on their psyche - a woman murdered in a manner beyond what any of us could ever imagine.

The events of February 2, the night Anita was murdered by strangers, has come to be understood as the most savage murder this state has ever known.

When her killers were sentenced Justice Alan Maxwell described their crime as, "One of the most horrifying physical and sexual assaults. This was a calculated killing done in cold blood.”

It remains a crime Australia won’t ever forget.

CREDITS

Guest: Julia Sheppard the author of Someone Else's Daughter

Host: Jessie Stephens

Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri

Producer: Gia Moylan

The Quicky: The Secret Life Of Melissa Caddick

CONTACT US

Tell us what you think of the show via email at truecrime@mamamia.com.au

Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group

If any of the contents in this episode have cause distress know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Coming Soon: Australia's Most Notorious Crimes Mar 03, 2021

Show notes

True Crime Conversations explores the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. This March we’re focusing on Australia’s most notorious crimes...from Anita Cobby to Snowtown.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Night Stalker Feb 24, 2021

Show notes

It’s May 30, 1985, in Burbank, California. Spring is turning to summer, and the wide streets in the San Fernando Valley are lined with their signature palm trees. A 42 year old woman named Carol Kyle is at home with her 11 year old son. She doesn’t know yet that there is a man in her neighbourhood, driving a stolen car.

At some stage during the night, in the shadow of darkness, this man enters her home. At gunpoint, he binds Carol’s son with handcuffs and ransacks their house, demanding she tell him where her most valuable items are hidden.

Once he has collected a number of valuable goods, he rapes Carol, ordering her not to look at him while shouting threats at her. She complies.

When he is finished with Carol, he retrieves the little boy and binds him to her mother with handcuffs.

Then, he flees the scene.

Both Carol and her son survive this attack.

They are lucky.

So far that year, the Night Stalker as he will come to be known, has killed six innocent civilians. The year before, he killed two others. The youngest being a nine year old girl.

He is in the midst of one of the most destructive murder crime sprees in American history. But he isn’t like your text book serial killer. He is a serial rapist, kidnapper, pedophile and burglar, murdering some victims while letting others go.

For those who survive, they will never forget his face. It is the face of a monster.

CREDITS

Guest: Detective Gil Carillo

Host: Jessie Stephens

Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri

Producer: Gia Moylan

CONTACT US

Tell us what you think of the show via email at truecrime@mamamia.com.au

Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group

If any of the contents in this episode have cause distress know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Edward Street Baby Farm Feb 17, 2021

Show notes

It’s February 5, 1907, and a short, dark haired man in his late thirties named Corporal O’Halloran is on the doorstep of a house on Edward Street in the city of Perth. He has been called there by the owner, a woman named Alice Mitchell.

Alice Mitchell is known to care for babies. Specifically, babies belonging to single parents, who have no choice but to return to work and earn a living. She has cared for dozens over the last six or so years. But she’s called Corporal O’Halloran there because she’s caring for a baby whose mother has disappeared. She is no longer sending her money.

“I’ve been keeping her baby for months,” she tells the man. “And I’ve received nothing from her. I keep them for a living,” she continues, referring to the babies. “I don’t keep them for the love of the thing. Her child wants nourishment and I’m unable to give it to her unless she pays me.”

Corporal O’Halloran asks to see the child.

He watches Alice walk down her lino-covered hallway and collect a baby from one of the bedrooms. The infant is wrapped in a thin blanket, wearing a soiled cloth nappy. He notices the baby is pale, with her eyes inflamed. She is seriously underweight, emaciated, and limp, and the policeman notices a sickly smell coming from her. He grows concerned.

Alice says the baby is suffering from teething. And marasmus, a form of malnutrition.

O’Halloran is aware of the rumours. They’ve been following Alice for some time. But there’s never been a formal complaint, perhaps because of the shame so many single mothers feel.

What happened that day will start an investigation, as authorities look more closely at the home of Alice.

Where are so many of the babies she was meant to be caring for?

CREDITS

Guest: Stella Budrikis - Author of 'The Edward St Baby Farm'

Host: Jessie Stephens

Audio Producer: Leah Porges

Producer: Gia Moylan

CONTACT US

Tell us what you think of the show via email at truecrime@mamamia.com.au

Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group

If any of the contents in this episode have cause distress know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Execution of Melbourne's Vampire Gigolo Feb 10, 2021

Show notes

It’s August 16, 2002, when a man named Shane Chartres-Abbott meets a client at South Yarra’s Hotel Saville.

The 27-year-old is a male prostitute, who specialises in sadomasochistic sex. With him, he carries a black bag full of sex toys, including a whip, ropes, condoms and handcuffs.

The woman he is meeting, 30-year-old Penny, is not a stranger. She too works in the sex industry. They’ve met for his services before, but have started to get to know each other, with Penny being one of Shane’s only clients to know his real name. She knows what she wants from him, and so the pair check in to room 307, closing the door behind them.

By 11:20am the following morning, hotel management discovers no one has checked out of room 307. One man goes upstairs to check if anyone was still there.

What took place in that room in the late hours of August 16, and the early hours of August 17, would set off a series of events that would culminate in murder, and the most expensive police investigation in Victoria’s history.

Did Shane turn into someone else inside room 307?

And how can we explain what happened next?

CREDITS

Guest: Adam Shand

Host: Jessie Stephens

Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri

Producer: Gia Moylan

CONTACT US

Tell us what you think of the show via email at truecrime@mamamia.com.au

Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group

If any of the contents in this episode have cause distress know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sydney’s Infamous 'Granny Killer' Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

It’s the first day of Autumn, 1989, in an affluent Sydney suburb.

Mosman is on the lower north shore and known for being comfortable and safe, a short distance from Taronga Zoo and Balmoral Beach.

An 82 year old woman named Gwendoline Mitchell Hill is walking down military Rd towards her apartment in the late afternoon.

She doesn’t know a man has spotted her, concocting a plan of what to do next.

She won’t make it inside.

And she will be the first known victim of a vicious predator who will ravage the streets of Mosman, Lane Cove and Belrose for the next 12 months.

CREDITS

Guest: Former Detective Inspector Mike Hagan

Host: Jessie Stephens

Audio Producer: Leah Porges

Producer: Gia Moylan

CONTACT US

Tell us what you think of the show via email at truecrime@mamamia.com.au

Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group

If any of the contents in this episode have cause distress know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Abduction of Wendy Pfeiffer Jan 27, 2021

Show notes

The small town of Mylor, buried in the Adelaide Hills, has a population of just over one thousand people. Properties sit on sprawling bushland, between the mountainous terrain, and today people visit to camp or see the native animals.

It was October 1966 when eight year old Wendy Jane Pfeiffer, petite with short hair and rosy cheeks, decided to walk the family dog on a quiet Sunday afternoon. She took Bonnie, a brown and white farm dog, down a dirt track, which has barely changed in 55 years.

Wendy wouldn’t come back that afternoon. Or the next. A search began in the friendly, rural village, where bad things never happened. Pictures were circulated. Still, there was no sign of Wendy.

Where had she gone? Who had taken her?

And by some miracle, was it possible she was still alive?

CREDITS

Guest: Kylie Boltin

Host: Jessie Stephens

Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri

Producer: Gia Moylan

CONTACT US

Tell us what you think of the show via email at truecrime@mamamia.com.au

Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group

If any of the contents in this episode have cause distress know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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