Black Sheep

A cottage burns down, three mutilated bodies are found inside and there are fears the whole city of Auckland could be at risk. In this episode of Black Sheep William Ray investigates the story of the first European to be judicially executed in New Zealand history.

In 1981 Dunedin teenager Chris Lewis tried to shoot Queen Elizabeth. Then, at least according to some, authorities tried to cover it up. In this collaboration with Stuff.co.nz journalist Hamish McNeilly RNZ's Black Sheep podcast looks into Chris Lewis's bizarre life story.

It's 1871 and the city of Auckland is being terrorised by a string of major fires. Fears are raised that a gang of anarchist fanatics could be responsible but the real culprit turns out to be a well known businessman with an axe to grind against Auckland high society.

Charlotte Badger was one of the first European women to live in New Zealand. She was also a pirate... or at least that's the traditional story. In this special episode of Black Sheep, recorded live at Charlotte's Kitchen restaurant in Paihia, William Ray and his historian guests Jennifer Ashton and Kate Martin investigate Charlotte's pirate mystery.

In the 1860s Richard Burgess and his outlaw gang roved the West Coast, robbing and murdering dozens of people. Black Sheep investigates his life story and what drove him to a life of crime.

In 1877 Chief Justice James Prendergast ruled the Treaty of Waitangi was "a simple nullity", in part because it was signed by "simple barbarians" and "savages". Those words have seen him condemned as an arch-villain of NZ history, but was he simply a man of his time? William Ray speaks to Grant Morris, author of Prendergast: Legal Villain?

"The most vile criminal ever to be tried in New Zealand" Thomas Hall's crimes scandalised New Zealand when it was revealed he had attempted to murder his wife in order to steal her family fortune.

Meet the New Zealand author of a book beloved by Neo-Nazi's, Satanists and White Supremacists. Bizarrely Arthur Desmond started off as a hard-core labour activist and supporter of Maori rights, but he then went "so far to the left that [he] dropped off the edge."

Annie Aves was a famous abortionist from the 1930s. She was tried four times but each time the jury failed to reach a verdict.

Nazi "assassins", mischievous con-artists and power hungry spies... Black Sheep investigates how a pair of hoaxers convinced the government that New Zealand had been infiltrated by Nazi agents.