For the first time, The Daily Telegraph’s Sydney Murder Map series has exclusively plotted some of the biggest murder cases that shocked Sydney.

Every murder is a tragedy and these 500 deaths spanning 80 years barely scratch the surface of a crime that has plagued our harbour city time and again.

The interactive map identifies high profile killings with a recorded conviction as well as cold cases and lets you shine a light into Sydney’s murderous past to see what happened in your own backyard.

Most times these killings are crimes of passion, one person lashing out in a fit of rage.

Sometimes these cases are the cold, premeditated execution of a plan to get rid of someone who has long been hated.

And other times murder is simply business, a money-making transaction used to great effect in our own Sydney gangland wars.

Whatever the motive, the outcome remains the same: Another life lost as family and friends get left behind to heartbreakingly pick up the pieces.

SYDNEY’S MURDER CAPITALS EXPOSED

Sydney’s west has secured the unwanted title of the city’s murder capital, new data delving into the state’s highest profile killings reveals.

Figures exclusively compiled by The Daily Telegraph track 500 murders spanning 80 years to identify the Sydney hot spots bathed in blood, with individual cases mapped based on suburb and local government area.

While City of Sydney recorded the highest number of murders for a single council area, three other regions in Western Sydney combined to paint a grim picture of life on streets in the west.

Canterbury-Bankstown (51 murders), Liverpool (30) and Blacktown (28) all featured in the top five LGAs for high-profile murders across the Sydney.

They were individually beaten by City of Sydney’s 65 recorded murders but combined as a region to dominate, making up more than 20 per cent of the overall killings identified.

Check out the five murder capitals of Sydney below.

City of Sydney – 65 murders

City streets are the deadliest in all of Sydney, with people being murdered at a faster rate than anywhere else.

Cases vary from grim DV situations, to random bashings and planned gangland attacks.

One case which captured the city was the murder trial of Simon Gittany.

The corporate high-flyer threw his Canadian fiancee Lisa Harnum, 30, from the balcony of their 15th-floor apartment at The Hyde in 2011.

Gittany snapped because Miss Harnum was going to leave him, so chose to throw her to her death instead.

Other well known cases include the Hilton Hotel bombing in 1978 which claimed the lives of Alec Carter, William Favell and Paul Burmistriw.

Perpetrator Evan Pederick was sentenced to 20 years jail for the act.

Long-time AC/DC manager Crispin Dye was also bashed on a Darlinghurst street in 1993 and died in hospital a few days later. His murder is yet to be solved.

Canterbury-Bankstown – 51 murders

In the thick of Sydney’s gangland war, it’s no shock targeted underworld attacks make up a fair portion of Canterbury-Bankstown’s murders.

Notorious cases include the murder of Dimitri Debaz, who was killed by leader of Assyrian criminal group DLASTHR, Raymon Youmaran, after a fight at a Sefton strip club in 2002.

Debaz was shot three times in the back in an execution style murder.

Youmaran was sentenced to a minimum of 17 years in jail.

Northern Beaches – 31 murders

Murder well and truly stretches north of the harbour.

Far away from the west’s gangland war and the city’s deadly core, the Northern Beaches has more than its fair share of bloodstained streets.

With domestic violence the most common theme among the murders, the affluent area is rich in white collar criminals.

The most well-known case was that of mother-of-two Lynette Dawson, who went missing and was never seen again.

Her husband and former Newtown Jets star Chris Dawson was found guilty of her murder 40 years later and sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in jail.

Liverpool – 30 murders

While more well-known criminal groups dominate the headlines, lesser known Asian gangs that often fly under the radar have made their mark in Liverpool.

Mao Vann shot Userph Rima, 16, with a sawn-off shotgun at the Greater Union cinema complex during a dispute over a stolen mobile phone in 2002.

Vann was sentenced to a maximum of 19 years in jail.

One year later Meng Thammavongsa shot Khang Vinh Tien, 18, with a pen gun at a party before he fatally kicked him in the head.

Thammavongsa was sentenced to a maximum of 21 years in prison.

Blacktown – 28 murders

Men ending the life of their partner or ex-partner is all too common in Blacktown.

Though domestic violence is a clear scourge, it was Roger Dean’s act at a Quakers Hill nursing home which will live long in the memory.

On November 18, 2001, Dean deliberately lit two fires which killed 11 people and injured many others.

Dean was given 11 life sentences for the murders.