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Australia's first serial killer
Frank Butler, alias Frank Harwood, alias Frank Ash, Darlinghurst Gaol Photographic Description Book 4 May 1897, Pic: State Archives & Records New South Wales (2138_a006_a00603_6061000098r) This week on 2SER Breakfast, Tess talked to Dr Rachel Franks about the 'al-fresco murderer' Frank…
Shirley Beiger: ‘All that glittered was not gold’
Shirley Beiger on the cover of PIX 28 April 1951 The State Library of NSW have made an enormous amount of historical material available online in recent years. One such resource is the tabloid magazine, PIX , which was published between 1938…
The Sprite of the Creek
Illustrated Sydney News November 29 1879, p4 via Trove It's Halloween, so in keeping with the season, today we're sharing a very Sydney ghost story. Join Dictionary of Sydney special guest Dr Rachel Franks and host Jess Klajman around the 2SER…
The murder of Joseph Luker
Smith's Weekly, 28 February 1920, p17 via Trove This morning on 2SER Breakfast, Dr Rachel Franks talked to Tess Connery about Australia's oldest cold case, the murder of Constable Joseph Luker, who was the first police officer killed in the line…
The Bogle-Chandler mystery
The Canberra Times, 10 May 1963, p3 via Trove This week on 2SER Breakfast, the Dictionary's special guest historian Minna Muhlen-Schulte talked to breakfast host Tess Connery about a suburban mystery that has intrigued Sydneysiders since 1963. Listen to Minna and Tess…
Leigh Straw, Lillian Armfield
Leigh Straw, Lillian Armfield: How Australia’s First Female Detective Took on Tilly Devine and the Razor Gangs and Changed the Face of the Force Hachette Australia, 306 pp., ISBN: 9780733638107, p/bk, AUS$32.99 Leigh Straw, the author of The Worst Woman in Sydney: The…
Australia’s First Bank Robbery
'Our first and gayest bank robbery', The Sun, 29 March 1948, p7 via Trove Did you know Australia’s first bank robbery occurred in Sydney in 1828 and most of the £14,000 was never recovered? This week we'll look at the crime that…
Mugshots 1920s style
A few weeks ago I talked about the Registry of Flashmen which was compiled by William Miles, a police commissioner who used the latest surveillance techniques of the 1840s to understand the local criminal class. Fast forward 80 years to…
Underworld: Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties - exhibition review
Underworld: Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties, which has just opened at the Museum of Sydney, is an exploration of crime in a decade that heralded the brave new world that emerged from the devastation of World War I. Curated by the…
Terry Smyth, Denny Day: The Life and Times of Australia’s Greatest Lawman
Terry Smyth, Denny Day: The Life and Times of Australia’s Greatest Lawman Ebury Press, 2016, 352 pp., ISBN: 9780857986825, p/bk, AUS$34.99 Award-winning writer Terry Smyth has taken on the extraordinary, and regularly overlooked, story of Edward Denny Day in Denny Day: The…