The singing detective

As a young cop of Greek heritage Nick Cecil was used to infiltrate ethnic gambling houses and became a key undercover in a task force assigned to smash illegal bookie syndicates in the 1950s. Much later he was sent to find The Great Train Robbery crook Ronald Biggs by putting his wife Charmian unde…

A needle in a haystack in a giant washing machine

David Key was winched from the police helicopter 400 times on rescue missions. He tells Silvester what happened when he was lowered into 30 metre waves in the fatal 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and how close the helicopter came to crashing through lack of fuel. In 2009 he was lowered into Black…

Capturing Australia's No.1 fugitive

For more than a decade Russell Cox was Australia’s most wanted criminal. In 1977 he became the only man ever to escape from Sydney’s maximum security Katingal Prison. In 1988 Fox was arrested in a wild shootout at Doncaster Shoppingtown about to commit an armed robbery. Ken Ashworth was one of the …

Traitors within

In 1984 NSW policeman Mick Drury was shot in his Sydney home. The gunman was hitman Christopher Dale Flannery, the hit was organised by corrupt NSW detective sergeant Roger Rogerson to stop Drury giving evidence against Melbourne drug dealer Alan Williams. Years later Williams confessed to Silveste…

The crook and the copper

Christopher Dean Binse was a prodigious armed robber and expert escape artist. He led a cat and mouse chase with armed robbery squad detective Ken Ashworth. When Ashworth eventually caught him in 1992, Binse expected to be bashed but instead he was treated fairly. Shocked, Binse agreed to a taped o…

Inside the Hells Angels

In the 1980’s Hells Angels member Peter John Hill flew to America and was taught to cook speed. Eventually Sergeant Steele Waterman became a key member of the task force assigned to investigate the Angels amphetamine production. We hear from both Waterman and Hill how a jury was nobbled and learn o…

Getting away with murder

In 1993 elderly grandma Phyllis Hocking was bashed and murdered in her son’s home. The scene was left to look like it was a burglary gone wrong, but homicide investigator Charlie Bezzina wasn’t buying it. He believed the son, Philip Hocking, was most likely the suspect as he was the only beneficiar…

The best defence is self-defence

Mick Gatto is one of Australia’s most colourful identities. He's survived death plots and was acquitted of the murder of hitman Andrew Veniamin. In the first episode of Naked City, John Silvester returns to his candid 2009 interview with Gatto, who opens up about the Melbourne underworld, Veniamin,…

Coming soon: Naked City

The first episode of Naked City will drop Wednesday 29 April, with a new episode published every Wednesday. Make sure to subscribe now and get all the episodes straight to your device.  John Silvester, Australia’s longest-serving crime reporter, will take you on a journey through his 40 years of d…

Trailer: Naked City

John Silvester, Australia’s longest-serving crime reporter, will take you on a journey through his 40 years of dealing with the nation’s most dangerous criminals. Subscribe now and get all the episodes straight to your device the minute they are published.