In the early hours of August 27 1925, Cyril Gidley was shot dead by his ex-fiance Audrey Jacob in front of hundreds of guests at a charity event in Perth’s Government House.

It seemed like an open and shut case of wilful murder…until Audrey was assigned charismatic and well connected prosecutor Arthur Haynes to her defence.

Today, in the season return of Planet Perth Jeff Bullen sits down with local historian Dr Leigh Straw and State Records Office senior archivist Damien Hassan to unpack the sensational case of The Ballroom Murder.

Planet Perth is an RTRFM podcast series about the weird, wacky and unexplained history of our eccentric city.

Join Jeff Bullen each week for a deep dive into the events, personalities and bygone icons that have shaped one of the most isolated cities in the world.

Image sourced from the collections of the State Library of Western Australia and reproduced with the permission of the Library Board of Australia.