In Black and White

Scorned mistress Connie Waugh is said to have hanged herself at an historic inner city pub, where her ghost remains to this day. But how much of the story is true? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Legend has it the famed opera singer was seen giving his final bows on stage minutes after he died, giving rise to Melbourne’s most famous ghost story. Get stories on this and more tales of haunted Melbourne at https://www.heraldsun.com.au/ibaw See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

He killed his family in England, then did the same to his new wife in Australia. Many people believe Frederick Deeming could have been Jack the Ripper - and may still haunt Melbourne to this day. Like the show? Get background articles, photos and more at https://www.heraldsun.com.au/ibaw See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sidney Myer arrived in Melbourne as a 21-year-old with no money and little English. Soon he was selling towels and sheets door to door, the first step in his rise to greatness. Read more stories stories of Australia's forgotten characters at heraldsun.com.au/ibaw See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Normally on this podcast we talk about history's forgotten characters. And although Ned Kelly is far from that, what's lesser known is what happened in the hours before he met the hangman. The Herald Sun's sister publication The Weekly Times was there to document the execution, 140 years ago today. Now their country living editor Hannah Driscoll has uncovered their archives to piece together the n...

On his Melbourne tour, Prince Alfred was bored by pomp and ceremony, preferring gambling, partying and brothels. Yet he was so wildly popular many wanted him to become King of Australia. Get more of this story, plus backgrounders and other tales of Australian history at: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/ibaw See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

His story has been largely lost to history, but the youngest jockey ever to win the Melbourne Cup was a “little freckled lad” from a township near Geelong who was only 11 years old.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before Marine Stupid made headlines for escaping Melbourne Zoo and hurling roof tiles at her pursuers, she made her name by serving with distinction on three British naval ships in WWII.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Horrie the Wog Dog saved countless Aussie lives in World War II, acting as an early-warning system when enemy aircraft approached. So when Australian authorities ordered the dog’s surrender in 1945, Private Jim Moody knew he had only one option.  Read more at https://www.heraldsun.com.au/ibaw   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It is 50 years since one of Australia's biggest bridges crashed down during construction. Herald Sun reporter Alex White speaks to survivors and family who lost their lives in one of Australia's worst industrial disasters.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

He was notoriously cantankerous, virtually unrideable and often violent, but Bill the Bastard became Australia’s greatest war horse after carrying five troopers to safety in the middle of a fierce gun battle during WWI. Get more on this story and other tales of Australia's hidden characters at https://www.heraldsun.com.au/ibaw   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When HMAS Perth was sunk by Japanese torpedoes in 1942, fewer than half of the 681 men – and one cat – made it to shore. Her extraordinary survival with the help of a group of Aussie POWs is detailed in a new book. Read more fascinating stories of Australia's hidden characters at: heraldsun.com.au/ibaw   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From our TV screens to the hit parade, singer Yvonne Barrett was a popular personality in Melbourne’s entertainment scene in the 1960s, but she died tragically and violently. Get more great history stories at heraldsun.com.au/ibaw   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While other spy rings worldwide are far better known, a trio of respected businessmen dubbed the “Melbourne cell” mounted one of the most successful Soviet espionage operations in history.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Frances Bernie was a Catholic schoolgirl raised in Sydney by a couple from Oxford, England. So how did she end up a Soviet spy inside the office of foreign minister HV “Doc” Evatt leaking Australia’s and Britain’s secrets to the Russians? Author John Fahey joins the show with more. Go to https://www.heraldsun.com.au/ibaw for more great Australian history stories More information on John Fahey's bo...

While she was born and raised in Sydney, “Sally” was so devoted to Stalinist Russia that she became a Soviet spy and infiltrated a US government agency. Like the show? consider becoming a Herald Sun subscriber for Jen Kelly's columns and much more. Go to heraldsun.com.au/ibaw and click on any article to begin   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1918, Melbourne was celebrating the end of WWI, unaware an insidious new war on home turf had just begun. That’s when a new drug – cocaine – first came under the nose of Melbourne police, introduced by a prostitute from Sydney. And the mastermind of the cocaine trade was Charles le Marchant, a longtime opium addict who had honed his criminal skills as a teen gang member in Chinatown. Read more...

In the early 1900s, Chinatown's Heffernan Lane was one of the worst streets in Melbourne thanks to brothels, opium dens, gambling rooms and a tendency to attract murderous thieves. And its most notorious resident was Chinese-born gangster Harry Quong, whose upstanding parents migrated to Melbourne to give their son "a good English education". Instead, he repaid his parents’ sacrifice by becoming a...

In 1919 as a gang war called the Fitzroy Vendetta raged, Squizzy Taylor and a cast of misfits were tearing apart the inner Melbourne suburb. And living amid the sly grog shops, opium dens, brothels and slums was one man, World War I veteran Arthur Skerritt, whose life of crime culminated in a shocking murder. Read more at heraldsun.com.au/ibaw   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Collis family caused mayhem for decades with their sly grog shops and gang violence until authorities were forced to declare their homes condemned to run them out of town. Read more at heraldsun.com.au/ibaw   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Her name is barely known today, but the formidable Ann Shiell was a powerful crime boss, slum landlord, brothel madam and controller of gangs of thieves in Melbourne in the late 1800s. For more on this story, go to heraldsun.com.au/ibaw   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australian-born beauty Enid Lindeman disguised escaped Allied servicemen as maids to trick police when they raided the riviera mansion she used as a safe house for the French Resistance. Read more Australian tales at www.heraldsun.com.au/ibaw   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As well as driving a cheetah with a diamond collar around London in her Bentley, scandal-plagued socialite Enid Lindeman outlived four husbands, earned the nickname “Lady Killmore”, and walked around with a pet hyrax on her shoulder.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After building an empire of brothels in the notorious Little Lon red light district, Madame Brussels was dubbed the “worst and wickedest woman in Melbourne”.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Convict James Porter and his crewmates were viewed as mutineer scum when they escaped Australia in a leaky stolen boat, but hailed as heroes in their new home 10,000km away.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.