Naked City

For years, one of Australia’s best known crime reporters, John Silvester, kept a secret.
He knew there had been a significant development in a notorious and long unsolved cold case: The Easey Street murders.
But he didn’t write anything about it, until a few days ago, when he broke the story that there had been an arrest.
It was big news, most of all for the family of Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett, school friends from the country who flatted together in Collingwood before their lives were violently and cruelly taken.
Today, John Silvester takes us behind the scenes of the police investigation, the arrest and why he kept quiet on the case for so long.

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Esteemed crime reporter and host of the Naked City podcast John ‘Sly’ Silvester joins The Missing Campers Trial to talk about his interview with Russell Hill’s daughter, and the shooting deaths of Gregory Lynn’s former neighbours.

To read Sly's interview, and his coverage of this case. Download The Age app from your app store.

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For more than 45 years, John Silvester has been reporting on Australia’s criminal underworld.

Some notable figures, like Mick Gatto, a key player in the gangland wars that were immortalised in the popular TV series, Underbelly, are now implicated in an investigation that has rocked the highest offices in the country. That of alleged corruption in the CFMEU, one of the most powerful unions in the country.

Why have so many of our politicians allegedly turned a blind eye to underworld figures running a cartel-like operation in the union?

Today, John Silvester gives us an inside look into the psychology of the underworld figures who have managed to charm and intimidate the rich and the powerful.

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Sly joined The Age Crime and Justice Reporter Erin Pearson, and Nine News Reporter Penelope Liersch on their podcast The Missing Campers Trial, to discuss the murder conviction of Gregory Lynn. 

Search for The Missing Campers Trial in your podcast app to get the latest on the Gregory Lynn matter.

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From The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, Trial by Water is a new investigative podcast series about Robert Farquharson, who has been locked up for decades for an unthinkable crime: murdering his three sons in a dam on Father’s Day, 2005.

Now scientists and lawyers are asking the question: did we get it wrong? And is this man in prison for a crime he didn’t commit?

Episode 1 will arrive on Saturday, June 1.

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Tyler Cassidy was a troubled kid. Police officers Colin Dods and Richie Blundell were working an afternoon shift in the Northcote divisional van. Their lives would collide on a balmy summer evening in late 2008 at a Northcote skate park.

A distraught Cassidy, 15, was in no mood to negotiate with the officers. He refused to drop two knives and kept approaching Dods. He was shot six times, and died at the scene.

The police involved lived for years with allegations that it was their fault. Vindicated in the Coroners Court of Victoria, they tell John Silvester their story.

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Very few people have heard of Detective Sergeant Dion Achtypis - but there may well be no more important investigator in Australia.

You won’t see him holding a press conference at a murder scene or commanding a squad of detectives. And he doesn’t use a sledgehammer during raids - he gains access in a much more subtle way. He is part of a three-person team working in the present while exploring the future.

Cyber cop Dion Achtypis sits down with John Silvester to discuss Bitcoin, international crime syndicates and the Underbelly series.

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Belinda Bozykowski was never a police officer. But her partner, Laurie Fox, was.

On the last day of 2012, Fox took his own life, leaving her with two young sons, a broken heart and a million questions.

Belinda is as brave as any Valour Award winner. After her partner's death, she completed her midwifery course, cared for their boys, and dedicated a great part of her life to the mental health of first responders.

It is perhaps the only way she could make sense of something so indescribable.

Between laughter and tears, Belinda shares her story with John Silvester.

If you or anyone you know needs support, call Lifeline 13 11 14, Mensline 1300 789 978 or visit www.beyondblue.org.au

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Prodigious armed robber and expert escaper John Killick escaped custody in three states, once in a helicopter hijacked by his girlfriend. 

Most of the police and prison officers who chased or caged him over more than 50 years are long gone, while John has written five books.

But the brutality of Pentridge has stayed with him.

Killick takes host John Silvester inside the giant bluestone walls that hid callous brutality, resulting in angry men being released back into the community. 

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If you or anyone you know needs support, call Lifeline 13 11 14, Mensline 1300 789 978, or the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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It was early on Monday, June 18, 2007, just as city workers were arriving at their jobs that Hells Angel Christopher Wayne Hudson finally imploded. 

First he beat and kicked a woman in a strip club before dragging her along King Street. 

Then he saw his girlfriend, Kaera Douglas, who had just arrived on Hudson's orders to drive him home. He greeted her saying: "Today is the day you're going to die."

This is a story of unspeakable family violence, the courage of strangers, and it also shines a light on us: and what we see is not that pretty at all. 

Click on the links to subscribe https://subscribe.theage.com.au or https://subscribe.smh.com.au

If you or anyone you know needs support, call Lifeline 13 11 14, Mensline 1300 789 978, or the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.