Melbourne's gangland war in the early 2000s captured the country's imagination. People like Carl and Roberta Williams became household names. Eventually, Eddie McGuire – the then Channel Nine CEO – demanded his team commissioned a television series. It became Underbelly, based on a book written by Andrew Rule and John Silvester.
The show created controversy from the get-go. A Supreme Court judge banned it from sale in Victoria as it was so close to the truth it could impact on jury trials, while at the same time, the series was criticised for glamourising gangsters. And as for the gangsters themselves, well, they were being taken out by actors researching their roles, some of whom became so well-known as their criminal characters they would be mistaken for them in the street.
And then there was the time Roberta Williams turned up on set, demanding to know who was playing her in the series.
In today's special episode of Naked City with John Silvester, actor Rodger Corser revisits the hit series with Stuart Bateson, the real-life detective that his character was based on.

For all of Sly's columns and stories, visit www.theage.com.au.

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The gangland war has become like folklore in the tale of crime in Australia. From 1995, dozens of murders occurred in Melbourne in a wrestle over drugs and egos involving notorious underworld figures such as Carl Williams, Tony Mokbel, and the Morans.
At the centre of it all was Stuart Bateson, a detective with the Purana taskforce.
Today, John Silvester - who wrote the definitive account of the gangland war - talks to Bateson about what investigating this violent web of crooks was really like, and hear part of a recording of a real gangland hit.
Bateson talks to Sly ahead of the release of a new three-part documentary from Channel Nine called Naked City: Hitmen, which screens from March 4.

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John Taylor is one of the longest-serving and smallest (in stature) Special Operations Group members, and its longest-serving bomb disposal expert.
Taylor was part of a crack team of officers who had to respond when "troubled genius" and self-taught bomb expert Glenn Saunders sparked a police stand-off, and then, a massive explosion in country Victoria.
In this episode of Naked City with John Silvester, Taylor talks about the life and perilous times of the elite police squad. And what he does for fun outside of work, including climbing six of the seven major summits.
You can read the story here: https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/never-try-to-shoot-a-man-through-a-fridge-sog-veteran-s-perilous-life-and-times-20250625-p5ma7k.html

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Tim Peck was an experienced homicide detective who worked on some of the country’s most notorious murder investigations, including the Maria Korp ‘body in the boot’ case. But the things that made him a crack detective, would also be the things that slowly brought him undone. In this special episode of Naked City, Peck shares his rise and fall, and rise again, with John Silvester.

This episode includes a confronting discussion about suicide. If this content raises any issues for you, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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John Wayne Gacy, the Zodiac Killer, the Green River Killer (aka Gary Leon Ridgway) – name a serial killer, criminal profiler and psychotherapist John Kelly has profiled them all. Now he’s turned his attention Down Under, to notorious child snatcher Mr Cruel, and his insights are compelling.
You can read Sly's story here: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/a-new-profile-of-mr-cruel-who-may-have-been-a-burglar-before-he-was-a-killer-20240704-p5jr1e.html

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When a third girl was kidnapped in just a few years, police suspected one offender: Mr Cruel.
Before Karmein Chan, 13, in 1991, there was 10-year-old Sharon Wills in 1988 and 13-year-old Nicola Lynas in 1990.

In this special two-part episode on the notorious child snatcher who terrorised Melbourne streets, John Silvester speaks to the first police officer who was on the scene at the Chan abduction.

The former sergeant, Rod Phillips, still wonders whether detectives were too quick to believe Karmein was taken by Mr Cruel and that they should have been looking in another direction, far closer to home.

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During the span of one week in July 2020, designer goods, cash and jewellery were stolen from eight homes in Melbourne’s affluent Toorak.
It took a year for police to identify the pattern and the extent of the burglaries – some reaching as far as Queensland and totalling millions of dollars. The chief burglar’s planning was impeccable, until one slip-up.
In this episode of Naked City, crime reporter John Silvester interviews the detective who nabbed a meticulous international cat burglar.

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In 1982, single mother Marion Wishart, looking to make ends meet, invited a lodger to stay in her home in the suburb of Northcote in Melbourne. She could not have predicted what would happen next.
What followed was one of the city’s most notorious child murders, that of her daughter, six-year-old Bonnie Clarke.
In the first episode of a new season of Naked City, crime reporter John Silvester tells the story of a mother wrongly accused of her daughter’s murder, and a detective who, many years later, was determined to right a most wretched wrong.

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Join John Silvester, Australia’s longest-serving crime reporter, as he talks to the cops and the crims in the seventh season of crime podcast Naked City. The new season will premiere on Wednesday, January 14, and new episodes will drop each Wednesday. 

For the latest news and views from John Silvester (aka Sly of the Underworld), subscribe to The Age https://subscribe.theage.com.au or the Sydney Morning Herald  https://subscribe.smh.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join John Silvester, Australia’s longest-serving crime reporter, as he talks to the cops and the crims in the seventh season of crime podcast Naked City. The new season will premiere on Wednesday, January 14, and new episodes will drop each Wednesday. 

For the latest news and views from John Silvester (aka Sly of the Underworld), subscribe to The Age https://subscribe.theage.com.au or the Sydney Morning Herald  https://subscribe.smh.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.