Melbourne Marvels

Episode 7 of our collaboration with Whoismrcruel.com on the story of the Karmein Chan abduction. NB:- this podcast deals with topics of a serious nature. Sexual assault and murder are discussed. This episode includes the following:- Victoria Police send 1.4 million posters to every household in the state seeking information on the abductions of Sharon Wills, Nicola Lynas and Karmein Chan. A man in...

Episode 6 of our collaboration with Whoismrcruel.com on the story of the Karmein Chan abduction. NB:- this podcast deals with topics of a serious nature. Sexual assault and murder are discussed. This episode includes the following:- Premier Joan Kirner appeals to the offender to release Karmein. Police conduct Victoria Polices's largest ever doorknocking campaign in Templestowe to seek informa...

In this exclusive Melbourne Marvels special, host Eamonn tracks down and speaks directly with the elusive witness who encountered Mr Cruel on the very night he released his young victim, Sharon Wills. For decades, this brief but chilling interaction has lingered on the edges of the case, and it has been unclear as to whether it was a genuine encounter with the offender. Now, for the first time, li...

NB:- this podcast deals with topics of a serious nature. Sexual assault and murder are discussed. We continue discussing the story of the Karmein Chan abduction. In this episode we focus on the media telling of the story from the 19 and 23 April. Some of the main themes covered in this episode are:- - A profile in the Herald Sun on the offender by criminologist Paul Wilson. Years later, Wilson him...

NB:- this podcast deals with topics of a serious nature. Sexual assault and murder are discussed. We continue discussing the story of the Karmein Chan abduction. In this episode we focusing on the media telling of the story from the 17 and 18 April. Some of the main themes covered in this episode are:- - The expected offer of a reward to help capture the offender - A Sandringham woman fights off a...

In a special edition of the Melbourne Marvels and Who is Mr Cruel podcast collaboration, we take time out from telling the Karmein Chan story to discuss a recent meeting and interview Eamonn from Melbourne Marvels had with the witness David. David had a staggering encounter with a suspicious man on the night of 13 April 1991, about 90 minutes after Karmein Chan was abducted from her Templestowe ho...

We continue discussing the story of the Karmein Chan abduction. In this episode we focusing on the media telling of the story from the 16 and 17 April. Some of the main themes covered in this episode are:- - The relationship between the Chan family and high-ranking members of the Victoria Police Force. - The offer and rejection of a government reward. - The heart-rending appeal by Phyllis Chan for...

Warning, this episode contains details about the sexual assault of children and the murder of a child. Please use discretion before listening. In the second episode on the abduction of Karmein Chan we reveal some new information in this case. New information is revealed for the first time about the abduction by a detective who worked on the Spectrum taskforce. We continue our coverage of the conte...

This is the first in a series of podcasts about the enduring mystery that is the unsolved abduction and murder of Karmein Chan in 1991. In this series, Eamonn from Melbourne Marvels and Jay from Whoismrcruel.com will discuss the fallout from this event by analysing contemporary media reports on it in the hope that it may give us a different perspective on the Mr Cruel mythos. In episode 1 of this...

In the early hours of 27 December 1988 an intruder broke into the home of the Wills family in Ringwood. After tying up the parents he took a 10 year old girl from the home and took her to an unknown lair where she was held for 18 hours. This episode is an an analysis of this crime.

At different times since 1985, the police or the media have also linked this same perpetrator to another 12 sexual assaults at least. At present, it is unknown if any of these attacks have been definitively ruled out by investigators as being the work of Mr Cruel.

An in-depth discussion of the first of the canonical attacks in the Mr Cruel series - the Lower Plenty Attack. This episode analyses the majority of what has been written or said about this case in the media and highlights many of the contradictions of these representations.

Mr Cruel is the moniker for a serial child abductor, and most probably murderer, who terrorised Melbourne in the late 80s and early 90s and has never been caught for his crimes. In this first post, I start with an overview of the case and try to clear up some confusion about which crimes were actually attributed to Mr Cruel. Music by Yellowtree.

On 21st of October, 1978, 20 year old Frederick Valentich is flying a Cessna 182L light aeroplane from Moorabbin Airport to King Island. Not long after commencing the over water section of the flight, between Cape Otway and King Island, Valentich reports to the air traffic controller seeing a craft with 4 bright lights passing over his plane. The unusual craft returns and Valentich reports it beha...

In the late 1700s an iron meteor the size of a truck broke up and fell over Bunurong country, about 40km south east of the modern city of Melbourne. The event would have been spectacular visually and accompanied by sonic booms and a shock wave. It resulted in a number of large iron meteorites falling in what is now the Cranbourne area.

When Norman Clark and his fiance decided to go swimming at Middle Brighton Pier in February 1930, he had little inkling that he would have a terrifying encounter with a Great White Shark. This is just one of a collection of 7 stories about fatal shark attacks that have occurred in Port Phillip Bay.

After living with the Wathaurong aboriginal people for 32 years, Buckley is surprised one day to see a group of white men encamped on a beach.

William Buckley and the Wathaurong people live in the wild of South Western Victoria. Buckley witnesses a lot of internecine violence during this period of many years.

William Buckley conitinues his solitary wanderings in Wathaurong country before making contact with the aboriginal people and being warmly accepted into their midst.

The tale of an escaped convict who lived in the bush for 32 years with the Wathuroung aboriginal people before the settlement of Melbourne.