Police Tape

Jimmy Barnes has been the heart and soul of Australian rock'n'roll for more than four decades, and proved to be a master storyteller when he swapped songwriting to become an author of the bestselling memoirs Working Class Boy and Working Class Man. As he releases his third book Killing Time: Short stories from the long road home, Barnesy trades heartwarming yarns and tall tales with family and friends about life on the road in this podcast, his mind-blowing encounters with famous figures and tragic world events and the experiences which changed his life. New episodes of this podcast are released twice a week, with exclusive articles, videos, galleries and interactive content unlocked when you subscribe to storytimewithjimmybarnes.com.au    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A killer is on the loose in an Australian country town. Excited for the June long weekend, bubbly 23-year-old Rachelle Childs leaves work, calls her sister, and is dead within hours. Her burning, partially naked body is found nine hours later in bushland on a lonely coastal road. Her killer has never been caught. Now innocent people, once too afraid to speak, are breaking their silence. If you’re looking for your next true crime podcast obsession, search out Dear Rachelle. An unstoppable cold case team is reinvestigating and uncovering damning new evidence. Could this finally be the break the family needs? Dear Rachelle is hosted and investigated by journalist Ashlea Hansen, who teams up with retired detective and renowned cold case specialist Damian Loone. The first episode of Dear Rachelle is now available on all podcast platforms. If you’re looking for your next true crime podcast binge and you want to be first to hear what’s next, visit dearrachelle.com.au - your News Corp Australia subscription grants you access to podcast episodes three weeks before everyone else, as well as exclusive access to videos, interactive evidence, behind-the-scenes content, and more. Dear Rachelle is a podcast from True Crime Australia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Former detective Mark 'Scarface' Smith reveals extraordinary insights from the investigation into the death of Michael Hutchence and the shocking outburst from his enraged lover Paula Yates about their wild sex life that she believed proved it wasn't suicide. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gang-busting former cop Ken “Slasher” McKay on "dumb bastard" bikies, the tactics that could take down Melbourne's Apex "street thugs", the inside workings of the nation's most hardened ethnic crime gangs and why we need more targeted policing like the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was the jailhouse deal that proved Australian crime gangs had access to 11 deadly rocket launchers, but having negotiated with a killer to get his hands on one, then detective Ken McKay had to collect it. It's just one dramatic story in a career that also saw him shot at - after all, "it's a contact sport". But it's something other than the violence that truly repulses this former top cop.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After a 31-year career investigating everything from trigger-happy armed robbers to major drug importers, former Detective Superintendent Nick Bingham has plenty of stories to tell. From a crime gang's contract to kill members of his task force to the moment a police listening device was mistaken for a bomb, he's taken events both dangerous and bizarre in his stride, but there one thing about the ongoing drugs debate that still makes him angry. WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ron Mason earned a reputation as one of our toughest cops during nearly 40 years' service, stepping up in the face of everything from waves of attacks by rioting bikers to a gunman in a stolen tank on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. But it was a family tragedy that drove his desire to join the police force, which he did at just 16, and despite his fearless attitude, some of the traumatic events he was involved in inevitably took their toll. Warning: Graphic content   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was the shocking crime that forced even the crims to take stock. For weeks after the murder of police officer Glenn McEnallay crime in one area of Sydney simply stopped. Knowing McEnallay, former cop Ron Mason has strong views on how his killers should pay, but takes a surprising stance on some other well-known crims, including notorious Bra Boys founder Tony Hines and child killer Keli Lane.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was seeing his policeman father's handling of a suburban mass shooting that convinced Peter Moroney to join the force, then, in the wake of 9/11, terrorism became the focus of his career. In those early years of the counter-terrorism command, it was hard to believe there were Australian citizens living among us who wished us harm, he says. But we've been within days of a major attack, and, as the threat from domestic Islamic-based terrorism has increased, the more likelihood there is that one of those threats will get through.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Former Detective Superintendent Nick Bingham reflects on the shocking murders he has seen in his career, breaking down as he remembers the school photo of victim Ebony Simpson and how much she resembled his own daughter, who was about the same age. Bingham talks openly about suffering PTSD towards the end of his career, in which he also investigated the separate murders of teenagers Sandra Peresan and Userph Rima and had a brush with the criminal underworld when Anthony Eustace was killed. But first he tells of the major undercover operation against a hidden drug lab that saw a remote area of the Blue Mountains set ablaze. WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark "Scarface" Smith recalls a career of extremes, from colourful characters to senseless loss. There's the story of Chris Woods, who pretended to be a world-beating jockey and took punters for millions with his race-fixing scam, but came unstuck when he tried his con on a fellow crim. And there's one of the saddest cases he dealt with - the killing of trucker Bob Knight, a man simply doing his job who was hit by a stray bullet as "Saturday night gangsters" engaged in a reckless shootout.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro takes us into the minds of some of Australia's worst crims, from the jailhouse genius able to convince everyone he had gone blind to the "bad, not mad" Ivan Milat. Over 41 years, his experiences have included working with both Hoddle Street killer Julian Knight as well as survivors of the massacre; assessing egotistical fraudster Alan Bond; and working with the "highly intelligent" but "extraordinarily violent" Alphonse Gangitano. He discusses whether killers are born evil, the criminals who are hardest to treat, the escalation of offenders such as Mr Cruel and what drives people to kill together. Plus, he reveals the most haunting memories of his career and names Australia's most evil.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She was a rookie cop thrown into a daring and dangerous undercover sting. As she posed as a would-be drug mule, 'Zoe' convinced herself she would never have to become part of the overseas drug trafficking world she was trying to bring to justice - but then she did. In the first of a two-part, special Police Tape podcast, Zoe tells for the first time how she infiltrated the gang. She reveals her terror at flying to Hong Kong with two crims in tow, constant fear her cover was about to be blown, fending off demands for sex and a shocking turn of events when the gang got their hands on the drugs. WARNING: Strong language  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the second of a two-part special with rookie undercover cop "Zoe Jones", she recalls her terror trafficking 2kg of heroin through Hong Kong airport for the drug gang she had infiltrated, and the even scarier moment back in Australia when she believed the crooks had discovered she was a police officer.  WARNING: Strong language  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“No matter how big the gang that we might be facing, we’re a bigger gang.” NSW detective superintendent Deborah Wallace is referred to as the gangbuster, having taken on T5 in Cabramatta, Middle Eastern crime gangs and the bikies, but it was a shocking crime at the start of her career that became a defining moment. Just 24, she walked in the footsteps of murder victim Anita Cobby for a police re-enactment and was chilled by the terror the Sydney nurse must have felt.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Inspector Jodie Pearson had seen the damage an explosion could do to a human body and felt prepared for what she might face on any callout. The murder of a top cop in a targeted car bombing, with the killer still at large, changed that. “I was terrified,” she says of approaching the scene, vision restricted by her heavy bomb suit. “I was thinking, ‘Oh God, they’ve already targeted a former policeman. Are they targeting me?’” Then she found a second body.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now Queensland Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford’s world was literally blown apart when as a junior constable a bomb went off outside the Russell St police HQ where she was stationed in Melbourne. Since then she’s worked to bring paedophile priest Kevin O’Donnell to justice, helped develop police tactics to end the Melbourne gangland killings and been involved in counter terrorism in two states. At times she’s been harassed and faced chilling death threats, but perhaps most bizarre of all were the actions of a love-struck crim.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just how Sara Morse ended up spending Christmas Day with Carl Williams – the gangland killer having been snuck out of prison – is a tale from the darkest days of Melbourne’s underbelly. But for Morse’s mum the biggest concern was that Williams shouldn’t get a taste of her homemade Christmas pud. It’s a light-hearted twist in a career dominated by murder and sexual violence – “if you focus on it too much, you would never leave your house” – but the now detective senior sergeant wouldn’t do anything else.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She trained at the FBI Academy featured in Silence of the Lambs, but when it comes to depicting the work of criminal profilers, Kris Illingsworth says TV’s Mindhunter does it best – though real life is still nowhere near as glamorous. Instead it’s hours on end of studying the minute detail of a crime that has fuelled her insights into cases such as the Sydney Granny Killer, the Snowtown murders and the Norfolk Island killing of Janelle Patton. “You only get called to the cases that they can’t solve or that are particularly hard for some reason,” she says. “You never get the easy cases … which I like.” WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation, you swear you never could have predicted? A situation so far from the ordinary that even remembering it feels surreal? Season 2 of I Swear I Never is publishing now, you'll hear from Peter, an ex homicide detective haunted by his past, Tina, a mum who hit rock bottom after a prescription drug addiction and Amber, a pregnant woman who went out to dinner during a pandemic and got more than what she ordered. Search I Swear I Never wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.