Category archive

Famous Murders

Jamie Gao

Jamie Gao was a young criminal murdered by ex-detectives Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara in May 2014. The experienced detectives made a series of blunders, which included allowing many of their actions to be caught on CCTV cameras. The resulting footage, edited together and screened on TV, provides one of the most comprehensive… Keep Reading

Dorothy Davis and Kerry Whelan

Bruce Burrell killed for money. In 1995 grandmother Dorothy Davis left home in Lurline Bay to visit Burrell’s home. She was never seen again. Burrell owed Ms Davis $100,000, and she wanted it back. He was convicted of her murder in 2008. In 1997 he kidnapped former employer Kerry Whelan… Keep Reading

Tegan Lane

In 2010 Keli Lane was sentenced to 18 years for one of the strangest murders in Sydney history, that of her newborn daughter Tegan in 1996. Lane was born in 1975, to a police father and athlete mother. In the mid-1990s she was a champion water polo player, living with rugby… Keep Reading

Sallie-Anne Huckstepp

On 6 February 1986, Sallie-Anne Huckstepp was murdered in a pond at Centennial Park. Following the shooting of her boyfriend Warren Lanfranchi by detective Roger Rogerson in 1981, she had become a public figure with her allegations of police corruption. She started to associate with various detectives, sometimes as informer and… Keep Reading

Anita Cobby

The rape and murder of Anita Cobby is arguably the best-known murder in Sydney, on account of the particularly horrific circumstances of the crime. Cobby was a 26-year-old nurse working at Sydney Hospital who was kidnapped by five men in a stolen car on 2 February 1986, while walking home… Keep Reading

The Crimes of Lennie Lawson

One of the strangest of Sydney's murderers was successful comic artist Lennie Lawson, creator of The Lone Avenger and the Hooded Rider. Lawson also ran a photographic studio, and in 1954 was hired to photograph five models at Terrey Hills. Keep Reading

Graeme Thorne

The building of the Sydney Opera House was partly funded by a lottery, launched in 1960 with the massive prize of 100,000 pounds. The first winner was travelling salesman Bazil Thorne, and the event was surrounded by enormous publicity. The Thornes’ eight-year-old son Graeme was kidnapped while going to school five weeks… Keep Reading

Terry Falconer

IN 2001 the body of Terry Falconer was found in the Hastings River on the north coast of NSW. It had been cut up and packed into a number of parcels, of which eight were found. After a major investigation lasting  a decade, two brothers named Anthony and Andrew Perish were… Keep Reading

The Shark Arm Murders

The Shark Arm Murders are perhaps the most famous of all Sydney crimes.  The whole thing started near Coogee Beach on Anzac Day 1935, in the premises now known as the Palace Hotel. Back then it was a large saltwater indoor swimming pool. As related by Alex Castles in his fascinating book… Keep Reading

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