Australian True Crime

It’s 17 years since Cindy Gambino’s ex-husband Robert Farquharson murdered their three sons, ten-year-old Jai, seven-year old Tyler and three-year old Bailey by deliberately driving his car into a dam on the side of the Princes highway, near Winchelsea, West of Geelong on father’s day in 2005.

Cindy Gambino died last week as the result of a medical emergency at her home in country Victoria. She was just 50 years old.

Journalist and author Megan Norris developed a close relationship with Cindy in the years after the boys’ deaths as they worked on a book together. The book is called On Father’s Day, and Megan was one of our first guests on Australian True Crime back in 2017. She joined us to talk about the extraordinary experience of writing that book.

You can pre order Megan Norris's upcoming book 'Messiah's Bride' here.

CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on Instagram 

Co-Host: Emily Webb. You can find her on Instagram here and listen to her podcast Killer Content here. 

Guest:  Megan Norris

Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard

Executive Producer: Jacqueline Tonks

Archival audio used in this episode is from Channel 10 News

If you have been affected by anything discussed in this episode you can contact:

Lifeline on 13 11 14

13 YARN on 13 92 76 (24/7 crisis support phone line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people)

Thanks for listening, we’ll be back next week.

GET IN TOUCH:

Follow the show on Instagram @australiantruecrimepodcast and Facebook 

https://www.facebook.com/AustralianTrueCrimePod/

Email the show at [email protected]

Australian True Crime is a podcast by Smart Fella Media. Your story matters and how you tell it matters even more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Best-selling biographer and history author Peter FitzSimons has turned his attention to detailing the history of the Sydney Opera House - drama, scandals and even crimes. For this episode of Australian True Crime, Emily speaks to Peter about a crime linked with the Opera House and how it shocked the nation - the kidnapping and killing of Bondi schoolboy Graeme Thorne in 1960.

Peter’s book The Opera House is published by Hachette Australia.

CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on Instagram 

Co-Host: Emily Webb. You can find her on Instagram here and listen to her podcast Killer Content here. 

Guest:  Peter FitzSimons

Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard

Executive Producer: Jacqueline Tonks

Archival audio used in this episode  is from https://www.nfsa.gov.au/

If you have been affected by anything discussed in this episode you can contact:

Lifeline  on 13 11 14

13 YARN on 13 92 76 (24/7 crisis support phone line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people)

Thanks for listening, we’ll be back next week.

GET IN TOUCH:

Follow the show on Instagram @australiantruecrimepodcast and Facebook 

https://www.facebook.com/AustralianTrueCrimePod/

Email the show at [email protected]

Australian True Crime is a podcast by Smart Fella Media. Your story matters and how you tell it matters even more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lindy Cameron, journalist, award-winning author and publisher joins Meshel and Emily to talk about about Danny Deacon, who murdered his former partner Carlie Sinclair in Darwin.

Lindy’s co-written a book with her sister Fin J Ross called Toxic: Cold-blooded Australian murders full of Aussie cases of men, including Deacon (in a chapter called “An Absolute Bastard”) and women who kill. 

Lindy's Book is Toxic: Cold-blooded Australian murders full of Aussie cases of men and women who kill

NEXT WEEK 

Australia’s favourite history author Peter Fitzsimons tells us about the Sydney Opera House’s sinister side and the crime that shocked the nation.

CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on Instagram 

Co-Host: Emily Webb. You can find her on Instagram here and listen to her podcast Killer Content here. 

Guest: Guest name Lindy Cameron  

Lindy is the publisher of Clan Destine Press 

Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard

Executive Producer: Jacqueline Tonks

If you have been affected by anything discussed in this episode you can contact:

Lifeline on 13 11 14

13 YARN on 13 92 76 (24/7 crisis support phone line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people)

Thanks for listening, we’ll be back next week.

GET IN TOUCH:

Follow the show on Instagram @australiantruecrimepodcast and Facebook 

https://www.facebook.com/AustralianTrueCrimePod/

Email the show at [email protected]

Australian True Crime is a podcast by Smart Fella Media. Your story matters and how you tell it matters even more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Faith Slatcher is the Governor of Goulburn Correctional Complex in New South Wales but you’ll probably be more familiar with the part of this prison known as the Goulburn Supermax which manages high risk inmates including Australia’s “Pablo Escobar” Mostafa Baluch and Bassam Hamzy, boss of the violent crime gang Brothers 4 life. There’s also the never to be released inmates there like Malcolm George Baker who murdered seven people on NSW’s central coast in a spree killing in 1992 and Lindsay Robert Rose, killer of five people over a decade from 1984 to 1994.

So, does a corrections officer, particularly one so high up in the ranks as Faith, have to be as tough as the people she’s responsible for?

If listening to this episode has got you thinking about a career in corrections you can go to the Corrective Services NSW website or the corrections department in your state.

You might want to go back and listen to some of our previous episodes about life in prisons. 

The Killing Fields: Inside Australia’s most evil prison

Prison Officer in Danger 

Birds Eye View 

Pentridge Confidential 

Mr Ordinary Goes to Jail 

Inside Australia’s Hardest Women’s Jails 

Self-mutilator Gary David 

If you have been affected by anything discussed in this episode you can contact:

Lifeline  on 13 11 14

13 YARN on 13 92 76 (24/7 crisis support phone line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people)

Thanks for listening, we’ll be back next week.

CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on Instagram here  

Co-Host: Emily Webb. You can find her on Instagram here 

Guests: Faith Slatcher, Governor, Goulburn Correctional Complex

Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard

Executive Producer: Jacqueline Tonks

GET IN TOUCH:

Follow the show on Instagram & Facebook @australiantruecrimepodcast

Email the show at [email protected]

Australian True Crime is a podcast by Smart Fella Media. Your story matters and how you tell it matters even more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode we meet Angela Feeney, a Corrections officer in NSW who's been in the job for 27 years. Angela has worked a lot with women inmates – it’s something she tells us she swore she’d never do.

Angela sheds light on life inside prison including the circumstances she’s seen on the job that break her heart and she also gives her honest opinion on how Meshel and Emily would go if they went to jail.

If listening to this episode has got you thinking about a career in corrections you can go to the Corrective Services NSW website or the corrections department in your state.

We spoke to Angela’s colleague Faith Slatcher, the Governor of Goulburn Correctional Complex in New South Wales which includes Goulburn Supermax - the highest security prison in Australia. LISTEN HERE

You might want to go back and listen to some of our previous episodes about life in prisons. 

The Killing Fields: Inside Australia’s most evil prison

Prison Officer in Danger 

Birds Eye View 

Pentridge Confidential 

Mr Ordinary Goes to Jail 

Inside Australia’s Hardest Women’s Jails 

Self-mutilator Gary David 

If you have been affected by anything discussed in this episode you can contact:

Lifeline on 13 11 14

13 YARN on 13 92 76 (24/7 crisis support phone line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people)

Thanks for listening, we’ll be back next week.

CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on Instagram here  

Co-Host: Emily Webb. You can find her on Instagram here 

Guests: Angela Feeney, Senior Corrections Officer, Corrective Services NSW

Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard

Executive Producer: Jacqueline Tonks

GET IN TOUCH:

Follow the show on Instagram & Facebook @australiantruecrimepodcast

Email the show at [email protected]

Australian True Crime is a podcast by Smart Fella Media. Your story matters and how you tell it matters even more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

RE-ISSUE: EPISODE #165.

The murder of 14-month-old Jaidyn Leskie is officially unsolved. Journalist and author Michael Gleeson explains the prosecution’s theory as to how he died and the many distractions that prevented his killer seeing justice.

Warning: please be advised this episode contains graphic content.

Show notes for Episode 165:

Your hosts are Meshel Laurie and Emily Webb

With thanks to Michael Gleeson from The Age and Sydney Morning Herald

Listen to Childers

Like us on Facebook ​

Follow us on Instagram or Twitter

Support us on Patreon

Visit our Bookshop

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1997, fourteen month old Jaidyn Leskie was left by his young mum Bilynda Williams, with her boyfriend Greg Domaszewicz while she went for a rare night out. She never saw her child again. That same year, two families awoke to discover their teenage daughters were missing after a routine camp out with their friends. They were by then, miles away, having been abducted by two troubled young men with no boundaries, and nothing to lose. The responsibility of finding justice for the families of all three, fell ultimately to Rowland Legg and his team of detectives.

You can find Australian Story's two part piece on Prue Bird here and here

You can read Caroline Overington's piece on the Bega School Girls here

If you have a true crime story, we’d love to hear it. You can send us a message on Facebook or Instagram or email us at [email protected]

If you are in immediate danger in Australia, call 000.

There is help if you are experiencing family violence or

coercive control. You can call 1800 RESPECT 24/7

on 1800 737 732, or visit their

website here.

You can also call Lifeline

24/7 on 13 11 14.

CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on Instagram here. 

Co-Host: Emily Webb. You can find her on Instagram here and listen to her podcast Killer Content here.

Guest: Rowland Legg

Producer/Editor: Meshel Laurie & Matthew Tankard

Executive Producer: Jacqueline Tonks

Australian True Crime is a podcast by Smart Fella Media. Your

story matters and how you tell it matters even more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does romance have to do with true crime? Anyone who's fallen prey to coercive control, stalking, cat-fishing or domestic violence will know that the fantasies we're taught about romance can be very damaging when it comes to resisting overbearing partners and recognising red flags.

British philosopher and author Alain de Botton wrote the seminal book on the topic in 2016. It's called 'The Course of Love' and Meshel interviewed him way back then about the surprisingly inorganic and unrealistic origins of romance.

Surprise! It's yet another convention we've invented ourselves that's impossible to live up to and leads to lots of heartache.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ashleigh Rae is confident, smart, witty and really charming company. All of that is a testament to her powerful survival spirit because she was taken advantage of at a very vulnerable time in her life. For those of us who have young girls in our care, what Ashleigh Rae has to say is invaluable.

If you have a true crime story, we’d love to hear it. You can send us a message on Facebook or Instagram or email us at [email protected]

See us at the Yarraville Club on April 8 with Narelle Fraser. Book tickets here.

If you are in immediate danger in Australia, call 000.

There is help if you are experiencing family violence or

coercive control. You can call 1800 RESPECT 24/7

on 1800 737 732, or visit their

website here.

You can also call Lifeline

24/7 on 13 11 14.

CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on Instagram here. 

Co-Host: Emily Webb. You can find her on Instagram here and listen to her podcast Killer Content here.

Guest: Kay

Producer/Editor: Meshel Laurie

Executive Producer: Jacqueline Tonks

Australian True Crime is a podcast by Smart Fella Media. Your

story matters and how you tell it matters even more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kay stepped out of her shower and into a nightmare that changed the way she lived her life forever. A brilliant storyteller, she also lets us in on the extraordinary unprofessionalism of the men who were assigned to assist her.

If you have a true crime story, we’d love to hear it. You can send us a message on Facebook or Instagram or email us at [email protected]

See us at the Yarraville Club on April 8 with Narelle Fraser. Book tickets here.

If you are in immediate danger in Australia, call 000.

There is help if you are experiencing family violence or

coercive control. You can call 1800 RESPECT 24/7

on 1800 737 732, or visit their

website here.

You can also call Lifeline

24/7 on 13 11 14.

CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on Instagram here. 

Co-Host: Emily Webb. You can find her on Instagram here and listen to her podcast Killer Content here.

Guest: Kay

Producer/Editor: Meshel Laurie

Executive Producer: Jacqueline Tonks

Australian True Crime is a podcast by Smart Fella Media. Your

story matters and how you tell it matters even more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.