CRIME CULTURE – True Crime News Weekly

TRUE OPINION: Too Big, Too Rich, Too Famous

May 10, 2022 Miles Hunt

What kind of society lets celebrities get away with abuse, wonders novelist and lawyer Miles Hunt.

DARK ACADEMIA! Uni lecturer charged with wife’s murder asked about “disadvantages” of being married to him

May 9, 2022 Therese Taylor

EXCLUSIVE: Melbourne university lecturer, Adam Brown, has left a trail of possible clues for police as well as a host of armchair sleuths in the wake of his wife’s alleged murder due to a heavily online presence across social media. Historian and academic, Therese Taylor, investigates.

BAD ART FRIEND! Billionaire Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest wants “perpetual” copyright over writers yarns

May 3, 2022 Serkan Ozturk

EXCLUSIVE: Billionaire mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s charitable organisation, the Minderoo Foundation, has come under fire from award-winning writers and others from Western Australia’s arts scene for sneakily trying to obtain the copyright of authors and poets forever. Serkan Ozturk reports.

DICKHEAD DEPP’S DEFAMATION! Johnny Depp’s performance on the stand is a winner for creeps

May 2, 2022 Gary Johnston

ANALYSIS: Actor Johnny Depp’s performance on the stand in his defamation battle against ex-wife Amber Heard is a signal for other creeps to excuse their misogyny, writes Gary Johnston.

RAMADAN OVER RACISM! An ode to Lakemba’s Night Market

April 29, 2022 Irfan Yusuf

CRIME CULTURE: Even until just a few years ago, the western Sydney suburb of Lakemba was regularly portrayed by the mainstream media as a no-go zone full of dangerous and violent ‘Lebos’. Crime Culture editor, Irfan Yusuf, pays a visit to the suburb that is now attracting thousands of people nightly with its ever growing annual Ramadan Night Market.

DOES AUSTRALIA HAVE ITS OWN JIMMY SAVILE? Celebrity cover-ups aren’t only an English specialty

April 18, 2022 Gary Johnston

CRIME CULTURE: With the release of a Netflix documentary that tells how a ‘beloved’ British TV personality successfully exploited his fame to disguise five decades of unspeakable sexual abuse, the question must be asked – could it happen in Australia? Or has it already? Gary Johnston takes a look.

CRIME CULTURE: Only foos will blame the drugs and forget the man

March 30, 2022 Irfan Yusuf

Foo Fighters drummer, Taylor Hawkins, lived a life in the spotlight while battling near-crippling anxiety, writes Irfan Yusuf.

CRIME CULTURE: The Mother Wound

March 1, 2022 Irfan Yusuf

BOOK REVIEW: Amani Haydar’s surging, award-winning memoir, ‘The Mother Wound’, is a powerful symbol of hope and change but also a tragic reminder that family violence is an all-too-familiar tale that follows a similar pattern regardless of religion or culture, writes Irfan Yusuf.

RELIGIOUS RULES, OK! Sport a holy ground for sin

January 31, 2022 Irfan Yusuf

AFLW footballer and Muslim trailblazer, Haneen Zreika, sat out this weekend’s Pride Round due to her religious beliefs but does a clash of values always have to equal a sin, wonders Irfan Yusuf.

BOYCOTT UNITES FOR PALESTINE’S FREEDOM! Sydney Festival’s high ideals revealed to be rank hypocrisy

January 13, 2022 Irfan Yusuf

The growing artistic and cultural boycott of the Sydney Festival over a questionable sponsorship arrangement with the Israeli Government has pushed art into the background, writes Irfan Yusuf.

CRIME CULTURE: On Making BAD Great! An Interview with Catherine du Peloux Menagé

November 26, 2021 Therese Taylor

INTERVIEW: Excitement is building as the BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival returns in under a week to the State Library of New South Wales between 2-5 December. From Rural Noir to Investigative Journalism to Cozy Crime to Indigenous perspectives on the criminal justice system, there will be plenty of diverse views and opinions from a star-studded guest list across crime fiction and true crime. The Festival’s artistic director, Catherine du Peloux Menagé, speaks to Therese Taylor for True Crime News Weekly about what audiences can expect.

CRIME CULTURE: Sydney goes BAD with Crime Festival

November 23, 2021 Serkan Ozturk

Investigative journalist Louise Milligan, actor-turned-crime fiction writer Bryan Brown, and star podcaster Meshel Laurie are just a few of the reasons this year’s return of the BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival is expected to be make it bigger and badder than ever before.

CRIME CULTURE: CSI Told You Lies

October 30, 2021 Irfan Yusuf

BOOK REVIEW: Author, podcaster and true crime fanatic Meshel Laurie doesn’t fail with her stated aim to give victims “a voice through forensics” in her latest book, ‘CSI Told You Lies’, writes Irfan Yusuf.

ART, SEX ABUSE, FRAUD, MURDER, SUICIDE! Wicked life & death of Herbert Hepburn Calvert glimpsed for first time after 100 year cover-up

October 12, 2021 Therese Taylor

EXCLUSIVE: At the time of his death almost 100 years ago, in 1923, artist Herbert Hepburn Calvert was lauded as “one of the best known painters of Australian birds.” Yet his whimsical but realistic depictions of this nation’s birdlife hid a much darker, tormented soul and criminal life. That ended with a supposed late-night fall in a busy Adelaide hotel while he likely happened to be travelling with a much younger but equally-as-tormented “artist” and convicted felon.

CRIME CULTURE: Banquet – The Untold Story of Adelaide’s Family Murders

September 11, 2021 Therese Taylor

BOOK REVIEW: The publication of ‘Banquet: The Untold Story of Adelaide’s Family Murders’ – a detailed account by investigative journalist Debi Marshall of the unsolved serial murders of young men in Adelaide 40 years ago is important, writes Therese Taylor.

IT’S GOOD TO BE BACK & BAD! Sydney Crime Festival to feature women writers this month before crowds return in December

September 7, 2021 Serkan Ozturk

The BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival is back again this year with not even a dangerous Covid Crisis being able to kill it off, with weekly online talks featuring four best-selling female authors taking place all throughout September before the festival returns for live, in-person events in early December.

CRIME CULTURE: The Sins Of The Sheikh

August 30, 2021 Irfan Yusuf

BOOK REVIEW: The giant shopping malls and skyscrapers of Dubai are a playground for a patriarchy that only pays lip service to human rights, suggests Irfan Yusuf, as he casts his eye over 60 Minutes journalist Tom Steinfort’s new book ‘The Sins of the Sheikh’.

CRIME CULTURE: My Father The Murderer

August 6, 2021 Irfan Yusuf

BOOK REVIEW: ‘My Father The Murderer’ is a troubling rumination on the effects and aftershocks of domestic violence, writes our new Crime Culture editor Irfan Yusuf.

CRIME CULTURE: The Information Editor

April 24, 2021 Miles Hunt

In his latest novel, ‘The Information Editor’, author and lawyer Miles Hunt imagines a world in the not too-distant-future where unbridled neoliberal greed and rampant technological authoritarianism have truly taken hold.