True Crime Conversations

True Crime Conversations explores the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. This month we’re focusing on Australia’s most notorious crimes...

It’s lunchtime, on a cool Sunday in April, and the Port Arthur historic site is buzzing with visitors. 

Located at the southern tip of the Tasman Peninsula, Port Arthur is located about 100 kilometres south-east of Hobart, the capital of Tasmania...

It’s a cold winter’s night at Sydney’s Luna Park, nestled in the northern shore of Sydney Harbour. It’s June 9, 1979, and swarms of people ride the roller coaster and play inside Coney Island. The Tagline for the amusement park is “just for fun” - and it’s arguably one of the biggest attractions in Sydney. 

But one of the most popular rides is The Ghost Train, which runs along 180 metres of electric track, most of it in total darkness...

A man calls a phone number in Manhattan. 

His name is Johnny. And he has a confession. 

The phone line connects him to Mr Apology. A man whose real name is Allan Bridge, an artist performing a long-form social experiment. 

There are posters up all around New York City, inviting “amateurs, professionals, criminals…” who have “wronged people...

Los Angeles is known as the city of dreams.

The most populous city in California, Los Angeles is surrounded by mountain ranges, forests, beautiful beaches belonging to the Pacific Ocean and desert. 

It is the home of countless celebrities - and even more who hope to become celebrities. It is the land of hope.

But Los Angeles is also one of the largest sites of human sex trafficking in the United States...

It’s August 23, 2016, in a sleepy Queensland town named Home Hill, south of Townsville. 

Shelley’s Backpackers is a modest hostel in the small regional town, where backpackers on working holiday visas stay while completing their mandatory farm work.

The days are long. And hot. They see snakes and operate heavy machinery without any training. Aren’t those brown snakes meant to be deadly, they think to themselves...

In July 2011 a man named Dennis Costas called in sick to work. He told his employer he was suffering from sciatica. For the rest of the afternoon, he drank heavily, characteristic of a man with a serious drinking problem.  

Speaking to Dr. Richard Taylor, he said he couldn’t remember much from that day. 

“My recollection is very distorted…” he said...

It was February 12, 2014, a hot summer evening, and eleven year old Luke Batty was at cricket practice on a sports oval in the Melbourne suburb of Tyabb.

With blue eyes and dark blonde hair, Luke had just started Year Six. He was happy and empathetic, a best friend to his single mother Rosie. 

Rosie was on one end of the cricket ground, and his father, Greg Anderson was at the other...

For Desmond Butler, it began with a headache. Then diarrhoea. Nausea that felt like a hangover.  

He was otherwise a healthy man, not yet 30. He shared two children with his wife Yvonne Gladys Butler, a striking woman, small and doll-like. Desmond also attracted the attention of neighbours, with dark, thick floppy hair, an athletic physique and perhaps a wandering eye...

It’s 4pm on the 9th of February, 1988. 

A 22-year-old woman named Helen McCourt, with long, dark brown hair picks up the phone.

She's about to leave work at the Royal Insurance office in Liverpool, having negotiated with her boss to leave an hour early. 

Helen is ringing her mother, Marie...

It’s June 15, 1998, a cool winter’s evening on Sydney’s northern beaches.  

The leafy, quiet and friendly suburb of Belrose is located about 19 kilometres northeast of Sydney’s CBD. For a man named Brett Boyd, it's no accident he lived there. 

The 27-year-old had moved away from the bustling nightlife of Kings Cross. His friends were involved heavily in the club scene - some dealing drugs like cocaine...