After two groundbreaking series that blew the lid off the nation’s underworld, Australian Crime Stories returns to Nine on Sunday, February 24, at 9.30pm.
Investigative journalist, researcher and writer Adam Shand drops viewers into the scene of the crime, revealing the secret desires, mysterious appetites and hidden hatreds that shaped some of the most notorious stories in Australian criminal history.
Shand, a Walkley Award winner, author of six non-fiction crime bestsellers and producer of the popular podcast Adam Shand at Large, goes behind the headlines to uncover new evidence, harnessing 35 years of experience as he delves into eight infamous crimes.
These cases include the outlandish robbery of Kerry Packer’s gold, the fraudster John Friedrich , the dirty cop Mark Standen , and the ongoing mystery of Lucille Butterworth’s disappearance.
“These are important stories. Some are yet to be resolved and others should never be forgotten,” said Shand, whose investigative career includes work for Sunday , A Current Affair and Today .
“In at least one case it’s almost certain that the wrong man is in jail for murder. We have chosen stories that were never thoroughly investigated and cases where the crucial questions were never asked.”
Australian Crime Stories is produced by The Full Box for the Nine Network.
In the premiere of its new series, Australian Crime Stories tells the heartbreaking saga of a family’s fight for justice and how the police failed a murdered woman and those who loved her.
Australian Crime Stories returns on Thursday, February 21, at 8.30pm on Nine and 9Now with an investigation into the case of Lucille Butterworth , a 20-year-old Miss Tasmania aspirant who disappeared from a bus stop in 1969.
Police thought Lucille had run away to the mainland, and it would be weeks before they officially started a murder investigation. Seven years later, Geoffrey Charles Hunt was arrested and questioned over the rape and murder of a 24-year-old woman from Hobart, a crime he would ultimately serve 22 years in prison for. During his questioning, Hunt confessed to killing Lucille Butterworth, but senior police did not take his confession seriously.
In 2016, the Tasmanian Coroner named Hunt as the likely killer, but despite damning evidence the police did not lay charges. Hunt is now walking free as a result.
In Australian Crime Stories , investigative journalist, researcher and co-writer Adam Shand drops viewers into the scene of the crime, revealing the secret desires, mysterious appetites and hidden hatreds that shaped the most notorious figures in Australian criminal history.
Australian Crime Stories is produced by The Full Box for the Nine Network.
In episode two of its new series, Australian Crime Stories has the amazing story of a cold case, never before told on TV, of how a notorious safecracker got away clean with $5.4 million in gold bars from Kerry Packer .
On Thursday, February 28 at 8.30pm on Nine and 9Now, Australian Crime Stories uncovers the true story of the audacious thief who broke into Kerry Packer’s office and cracked his personal safe. This is much more than a tale about a fortune in stolen gold – it’s a story about loyalty, betrayal and revenge.
In Australian Crime Stories , investigative journalist, researcher and co-writer Adam Shand drops viewers into the scene of the crime, revealing the secret desires, mysterious appetites and hidden hatreds that shaped the most notorious cases in Australian criminal history.
UK-based production company Parade Media has acquired global distribution rights to all three seasons of the show and will take it to MIPTV in Cannes in April.
In episode four, Australian Crime Stories tells the true story of the international drug plot that brought down one of Australia’s top law enforcers.
On Sunday, March 24, at 9.30pm on Nine, Australian Crime Stories uncovers how Mark Standen was turned to the dark side.
Standen was considered one of Australia’s top cops, a man at the heart of the nation’s war on drugs, who had access to the very best police intelligence on organised crime in Australia and internationally. His seduction by an international crime syndicate is an extraordinary story that has compelled Australia’s law enforcement agencies to reassess their operations and who can be trusted.
For the first time, investigative journalist and co-writer Adam Shand reveals just how far Standen’s corruption may have spread, and whether there are more like him still operating in our police forces.
In episode five, Australian Crime Stories tells the life story of one of the central figures in the notorious Painters and Dockers war that claimed more than 40 victims in Melbourne in the 1960s and 70s.
On Sunday, March 31, at 9.30pm on Nine, Australian Crime Stories divulges what motivated the union heavyweight and ruthless gunman Billy Longley .
Longley was nicknamed “The Texan” after a TV western about a man called Longley with a similar love for Colt .45 pistols. Longley became a painter and docker and one of the best shots in the Melbourne underworld – a skill that saved his life and ended several others during the Melbourne waterfront war, which was motivated by the fight for control of the Painters and Dockers Union.
With exclusive access to what is believed to be Longley’s final interview, host Adam Shand uncovers the fascinating story of a man who knew where many bodies were buried, put a few there himself, and was the catalyst for a royal commission.
Australian Crime Stories is produced by The Full Box for the Nine Network
In episode six, Australian Crime Stories explores the life and death of Melbourne prostitute Shane Chartres-Abbott and the ongoing debate surrounding his murder 13 years ago.
On Sunday, April 7, at 9.30pm on Nine, Australian Crime Stories raises significant new doubts about the murder confession from a career criminal, and the direction of the police investigation.
When Chartres-Abbott was accused of raping and mutilating a client, few doubted his guilt. To complete the lurid picture, the victim said Chartres-Abbott boasted that he was a 200-year-old vampire who needed blood to survive. Chartres-Abbott claimed he was framed and threatened to reveal a high-level sex ring involving judges, politicians and casino high-rollers as part of his defence. He was murdered on the way to give evidence in court.
A career criminal confessed to the murder, sparking one of the most expensive investigations in Victoria’s history. It included allegations that police officers were involved in the hit .
Investigative journalist, researcher and co-writer Adam Shand interrogates the accounts of the police, criminals and friends to present this story that goes to the heart of the ongoing controversy over the state of justice in Victoria.
Australian Crime Stories is produced by The Full Box for the Nine Network.
In episode seven, Australian Crime Stories on Nine this Sunday night explores the story of the notorious child predator dubbed “Mr Cruel”.
He was Australia’s bogeyman who terrified children and parents throughout the 1980s and 90s. Police believe this masked assailant may be responsible for around a dozen attacks on children, including the murder of Karmein Chan.
Thirteen-year-old schoolgirl Karmein Chan was taken by a man in a balaclava from her Templestowe home in Melbourne in 1991 after he forced her two sisters into a wardrobe. Her body was found a year later at Edgars Creek in Thomastown. She had been shot three times, with police believing “Mr Cruel” to be the prime suspect.
In 2016, on the 25th anniversary of Karmein’s abduction, police offered a $1 million reward for information about her unsolved murder.
On Sunday, April 14, at 9.00pm on Nine, Australian Crime Stories’ investigative journalist, researcher and co-writer, Adam Shand , follows the trail of the Mr Cruel cases with assistance from the police, journalists, forensic experts and others who were on the frontline of Victoria’s largest investigation of its time.
Shand discovers a cold and calculating criminal who managed to stay one step ahead of the police and may still be at large today.
Murphy’s Law , the final episode in this season of Australian Crime Stories , profiles Australia’s most ruthless cop, Brian “The Skull” Murphy, at 9.40pm this Sunday night on Nine.
Murphy has been called Australia’s Dirty Harry, but just how dirty was he?
In a 33-year career with the Victoria Police, Murphy was charged with (and acquitted of) manslaughter, accused of an underworld murder, and was the subject of several corruption inquiries that failed to implicate him.
He is a walking contradiction. He mixed with some of Australia’s most notorious criminals, and several villains who crossed him had a habit of dying violently. Along the way he also received the highest honour from the Victoria Police, the Valour Badge.
It has been said that Murphy was mad, bad and probably the last and toughest of the old-school coppers who would brazenly ignore the rules to gain a conviction.
On Sunday, May 12, at 9.40pm on Nine, Australian Crime Stories’ investigative journalist, researcher and co-writer, Adam Shand , asks Murphy, face to face, whether he ever crossed the line – and did he have a green light from his bosses to enforce Murphy’s Law?
Australian Crime Stories is produced by The Full Box for the Nine Network.
An execution caught on camera and a trail of CCTV evidence is exposed for the first time in the extraordinary chain of events that saw two former high-profile cops convicted of murder when Australian Crime Stories returns to Nine.
The new season of Australian Crime Stories premieres on Wednesday, September 16, at 8.30pm on Nine and 9Now.
In this international award-winning, true-crime series, investigative journalist, broadcaster and author Adam Shand takes viewers behind the headlines to the very source – police, journalists, victims and villains – as he digs deep into some of the most infamous criminal cases in our history.
Over ten weeks, Australian Crime Stories will chase down fresh leads and reveal new evidence as Shand, a Walkley Award winner, calls on his 36 years of experience to shine the spotlight on notorious and remarkable crimes that gripped the nation.
Hear the compelling story of the cop without a conscience, the notorious former NSW detective Roger Rogerson , and his accomplice Glen McNamara , who were convicted of a brutal homicide captured on CCTV but maintain their innocence.
Meet the extortionist “Mr Brown” who threatened to blow up a passenger plane if Qantas didn’t pay him $500,000.
Go behind the sensational headlines of Lawyer X as Nicola Gobbo’s connection to two of Victoria’s most infamous murder cases is revealed.
Discover new evidence in the unsolved murder of designer Florence Broadhurst that changes 40 years of investigations.
And witness the revelation of the evil motivations behind the car bombing outside Victoria Police HQ in 1986 that killed Constable Angela Taylor and injured 22 others.
Australian Crime Stories is produced by The Full Box for the Nine Network.
It was a brazen heist, a plot ripped straight from a Hollywood movie. An extortionist calling himself Mr Brown threatened to blow up a plane full of passengers, unless Qantas paid him a ransom of $500,000… We follow the money trail left by Mr Brown that led to his capture and his connection to two unsolved murders.
Wednesday 30 September at 8.40pm
Ep 3. THE X FACTOR
The ‘Lawyer X’ saga sparked a Royal Commission. Nicola Gobbo was the barrister who played on both sides of the law, two-timing the cops and the drug lords for fifteen years. We go behind the headlines to tell a tale of sex, power, corruption and gangland crime, and we reveal Gobbo’s connection to two of Victoria’s most high-profile murder cases.
Wednesday 7 October at 8.40pm
Ep 4. KILLING FLORENCE
In 1977, a famous designer, Florence Broadhurst was bludgeoned to death in her own factory. She had many enemies but was she the victim of a notorious serial killer? Australian Crime Stories rebuilds the case, piece by piece and discovers new evidence that changes everything.
He was South Australia’s top forensic pathologist for 27 years, but Dr Colin Manock didn’t always get it right. From questionable methodology to performing a public autopsy, ACS reveals the high-level cover-ups, that a state government would like buried, along with the bodies.
