Roy and I had the pleasure of meeting at the Geelong Gaol Museum a couple of years ago now, when I purchased some of his Dawn of Crime books to stock in the shop at the Gaol. It ended up being a meeting of minds and the emergence of a great friendship! Nobody quite gets…
Read MoreChristmas is supposed to be the season of giving and family and presents. But it is not everyone’s favourite time of year. A quick look through the newspapers of the day revealed no less than 16 murders and 2 attempted murders here in Victoria, Australia. And I am sure there are many more interstate and overseas. This episode…
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In this episode we head back to earlier and perhaps simpler times to 1854 and Little Bourke street in Melbourne. Luke and Mary Lucas had immigrated to Australia in 1849 with hopes of a better life. In 1852 the Lucas family moved to the Little Bourke Street area of Melbourne. But by November 1854, both…
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James Ross was a man with a temper and a jealous streak that would ultimately lead to his death at the end of a noose in the Geelong Gaol. What his wife Mary suffered in their two short years of marriage was horrendous. Ross’ jealousy led to the deaths of his neighbours wife and his…
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In October 1865, Elijah Dixon alias Charles Alfred Dives took an axe and murdered his wife, Elizabeth and their two small daughters, Julia aged 3 and Elizabeth aged 1. This all took place in the small bedroom of their hut at Cherry Tree Flat near Sebastopol, just outside Ballarat. The couple’s two sons, James and…
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On the afternoon of August 21st, 1918, Norman Violet entered the front door of 28 Cumberland Place where his on again off again paramour Roma Smith lived. She was still laying in bed when he told her to get up. When there was no response, he pulled back the quilt to discover Roma had been…
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In 1853, Trooper John Goldman shot his superior Corporal William Harvey in his tent at Buningyong following an altercation with a local shopkeeper, Edward Adams, over the ownership of some boxes. Harvey died 24 hours later and Goldman disappeared for 9 months before being arrested. At his trial before Judge Redmond Barry, Goldman was convicted…
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