True Crime Conversations

John Wayne Gacy is one of the worst serial killers in American history, murdering at least 33 teenage boys and men in the late 1970s. He was executed by lethal injection in 1994, but many are confident he killed even more victims than the ones he admitted to, and took plenty more secrets to the grave. THE END BITS Subscribe to Mamamia Want to try our new exercise app? Click here to start a seven-d...

Ruby Franke and her husband Kevin started posting their family online in 2015 under the pseudonym 8 Passengers . Things like birthday parties, grocery hauls, tips on getting toddlers to sleep through the night, and Sunday baking. It was an all-access pass inside their lives, and people loved it. But over the years, the criticism grew about the way Ruby and Kevin were choosing to discipline their k...

Holly Deane-Johns grew up in a wealthy area of Perth. When her family’s real estate business went bust, her mother started a successful escort agency to keep their lavish lifestyle intact. But her parent’s relationship was abusive, and when they finally split Holly’s mum met someone new that changed everything.  Simon was a heroin addict. Pretty soon her mother was too, and the family’s comfortabl...

In April, 1998, Arlene Fraser disappeared from her home in Elgin, north-east Scotland. On a seemingly normal Tuesday morning, the 33-year-old waved her two children off to school and was never seen again. Arlene’s disappearance sparked the biggest missing person search in Scotland’s history. To this day her body has never been found. THE END BITS Subscribe to Mamamia Want to try our new exercise a...

Bill Edgar is the world's only Coffin Confessor. He attends people’s funerals, sits quietly amongst the mourners, and then at a time pre-determined by the deceased, he stands up and confesses. Sometimes, it’s a shocking secret. Sometimes, it's their last wish.  What started as a favour for a friend, has turned into Bill's life calling. And as he’ll tell you, it’s not an easy job, but it’s worth it...

Insects never lie. And in Paola Magni’s job, she's the person who helps translate what these tiny little witnesses have to say to give justice to victims of crime.  Known as Australia’s ‘bug whisperer’, Paola is the global face of the specialist forensic science that uses insects and other small creatures to help solve murders, suspicious deaths and cold cases. She joins us today to take us behind...

Laura McConnell grew up in a fundamentalist sect with no name. Along with no official title, the group also claims to have no registration around the world, no formal hierarchy, and no official places of worship. According to Laura, it's this secrecy and denial that has allowed abuse to flourish within the community. She joins us today to expose what she witnessed and experienced inside the group...

Johan Duflou has seen a lot of dead bodies.  In his four decades as a forensic pathologist, he estimates he’s done about 200 autopsies a year. Sometimes the people on his table have been the victim of a crime. Sometimes they’ve simply died unexpectedly and he’s been tasked to find out why. As he’ll tell you, the job is not like what you see in movies or on TV. THE END BITS Subscribe to Mamamia Wan...

Mamamia’s True Crime Conversations is back for 2024, exploring the world’s most notorious crimes, by speaking to the people who know the most about them.  And over the next month we're taking you behind the scenes of crime, interviewing a forensic pathologist, a cult survivor, a forensic scientist who uses insects and other small creatures to help solve crimes, and the world’s first and only Coffi...

In 2023, Malka Leifer was sentenced to 15 years in prison for 18 counts of sexual abuse against Dassi Erlich and her little sister. Leifer was the sisters' former high school principal, and when whispers of their allegations came to light in 2008, she fled from her home in Melbourne to Israel before any formal complaint could be made.  It took 70 extradition hearings and 13 years to bring her back...

In 2016, Gypsy Rose Blanchard pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.  She admitted to planning and orchestrating the stabbing death of her mother Dee Dee at the hands of her boyfriend Nick Godejohn, who was convicted of first-degree murder. Nick remains behind bars, but in December 2023, Gypsy was released after serving eight years of her sentence.  This case...

Stevie Munro is a Senior Correctional Officer with Moree Court Escort services, in charge of things like processing offenders who’ve just been arrested, and escorting them to and from court. She deals with prisoners from all over Australia, and has seen it all. Kicking, screaming, lashing out, attempted suicide… She is dealing with people during their most emotional times in prison. But as she wil...

This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast . In the lead-up to the Beijing Winter Olympics, the world began to wonder how and if Peng Shuai would be used in the games, and whether the IOC was going to have anything to say to the Chinese Government about their silencing of the tennis star. So how did the Chinese propaganda juggernaut shift its attention...

This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast . For three long weeks in November 2021, the tennis community, news organisations and human rights advocates the world over had one question; Where Is Peng Shuai? In the aftermath of a Weibo post detailing allegations of sexual assault against one of China’s top political figures, concerns for Peng Shuai's fre...

This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast . It was after 10 pm, on November 2nd, 2021 when 35-year-old Peng Shuai - China’s beloved global tennis star - sat down and began typing. Truncated sentences of an open letter, detailing an affair and sexual assault involving one of China’s highest-ranking political figures, would go on to rock the internation...

This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast . Belle Gibson spent years lying about her health. From those early skater chatroom claims that she had died on the operating table during heart surgery, to a terminal brain cancer diagnosis, and finally, revelations that cancer had spread through her entire body. She had built a business out of peddling her s...

This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast . Belle Gibson was travelling to Queensland for a funeral when she was first contacted by Melbourne newspaper, The Age. Reporters were seeking clarification. They wanted to know exactly how much of the money that Belle was making was going to charity. By 2015, The Whole Pantry had become a hugely successful ap...

This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast .   Belle Gibson spent years lying about her health. From those early skater chatroom claims that she had died on the operating table during heart surgery, to a terminal brain cancer diagnosis, and finally, revelations that cancer had spread through her entire body. She had built a business out of peddling her...

On a summer evening in January 1983, 10-year-old Louise Bell went missing from her bedroom in Adelaide's Hackham West.  It was a case that horrified Australia, as every parent's worst nightmare became reality for the Bell family. How could a young girl tucked up in her bed in a safe, suburban neighbourhood just go missing in the middle of the night?  It would take 30 years, and advances in DNA tec...

The Murdaughs were one of South Carolina's most prominent legal families for nearly a century. They were so influential in the area, that locals nicknamed the county they practised in ‘Murdaugh country.’  But in 2019 a fatal boating accident put the family under a microscope, and what was uncovered about the Murdaughs over the next four years is almost too shocking to believe. This story is compli...

On a Sunday night in August 1987, 18-year-old Julian Knight unleashed terror on the streets of Melbourne.  It was just after 9:30pm when the recently discharged army cadet opened fire on innocent civilians, murdering seven people and seriously injuring 19 more. After the incident, a group of psychologists were tasked with analysing Knight to try to understand the motivations of such a callous, unp...

In May 1965 a horrific discovery was made at a Darwin post office.  A package carrying the remains of a newborn baby boy had been sent there from the Russell Street post office in Melbourne. The sender and the intended recipient were unable to be identified at the time.   Now, almost 60 years later, there are new leads in the case. Finally, after all this time, detectives might be on the precipice...

The murder of Lynette Dawson was a crime that unravelled in real-time via a podcast called The Teacher’s Pet in 2018. It was a groundbreaking investigation. One that forced police to re-investigate things they’d filed away as unimportant decades prior.  Shanelle Dawson, Lynette's daughter, had already pieced together the truth before investigative journalist Hedley Thomas came knocking. But his po...

Malcolm Naden was once Australia's most wanted man.  The prime suspect for the murder of his neighbour, as well as in the disappearance and suspected murder of his cousin, Naden was on the run from 2005 until 2012.  Today’s guest, Dimity Clancey, followed this story as it unfolded and was the journalist who first acquired and published Naden’s confession in 2016.  THE END BITS Subscribe to Mamamia...

On New Year’s Eve, 1927, Ethel Griggs and her baby daughter Alwyn returned home to Victoria after six months away in Tasmania.  After eating supper with her husband Ethel quickly became ill, and just over 48 hours later she was pronounced dead. At first, it was thought to be heart trouble or even sea sickness that caused her death, but when police exhumed her body just two weeks after Ethel was la...