Swingers, sex and death: Sydney mystery inspires new drama
It is one of Sydney’s most puzzling unsolved mysteries — the deaths of a physicist and his lover in 1963. The mystery, which involves a swingers party and wild espionage conspiracy theories, is the inspiration behind a new audio drama from renowned Australian playwright Louis Nowra.
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One of Sydney’s most baffling unsolved mysteries, involving a swingers party, two dead bodies and wild espionage conspiracy theories, is the inspiration behind a new audio drama from renowned Australian playwright Louis Nowra.
CSIRO physicist Gilbert Bogle and his lover Margaret Chandler were found on the banks of the Lane Cove River on New Year’s Day 1963, their bodies covered by clothing and pieces of cardboard, but with no sign of physical injury.
While there was some evidence at the scene that suggested the pair may have been poisoned, no toxins were found during their autopsies and the findings of a subsequent inquest were inconclusive.
The unexplained deaths of Bogle and Chandler, who were both married and had kids with other people, quickly captivated Sydney with talk of suburban high society swingers parties and questions about the unidentified person who covered their remains.
Dr Bogle’s work at the CSIRO, the same place Chandler’s husband worked, also added an element of intrigue.
Nowra, the award-winning author of Cosi, was captivated by the mystery when he moved to Sydney from Melbourne in the early 1980s, and eventually started researching the case with the intention of writing a book on it.
Deciding against that idea he instead used it as inspiration for his new audio drama The Goodbye Party.
“The fascinating thing to me was not only the two unexplained deaths, but that it seemed to open up a can of worms about sex, about how Sydney considered itself a conservative city on the top but underneath in the suburbs of all places — in the North Shore of all places — was this seething sexual scene,” he said.
“These people were wife-swapping and this was happening in the suburbs, it could have happened next door and that really interested me.”
In the spirit of the old radio play, The Goodbye Party is a 12-chapter drama with a cast of more than 40, including Ben Oxenbould, Steve Bisley and Aaron Pedersen.
The Audible Original, which is available on Monday, centres on a story similar to that of Bogle-Chandler. A young couple is found naked by the side of a Sydney creek in 1984 shortly after they were at a swingers party. Detective Eric O’Malley looks into the case but it is eventually ruled an accident, much to his better judgment.
Thirty-five years later the retired cop is found dead by his son James in what seems like a staged overdose. James picks up the case his father was still obsessed with and determines to solve, plunging into a dangerous world that many don’t want revealed.
Nowra, who has written for the stage and screen, as well as both fiction and non-fiction works, was drawn by the opportunity to become a part of the booming audio market.
“This is what really attracted me to it — I could have a cast of thousands,” he said.
“I’ve written radio plays for the ABC and BBC and what really appealed to me about audio books is that you can listen to it at any time, you could be walking the dog or cooking.”
Having researched the Bogle-Chandler case extensively, he is aware of all the theories that have been thrown up over the years, the latest that the couple were killed by gases emitted from the river.
“He was an expert in lasers and the CIA was fascinated by lasers at the time,” he said.
“There’s a poison but they couldn’t discover any poison in their system, so it could have been a new poison the CIA had — or the Russians did it because the Russians didn’t want the knowledge to be developed as fast as the Americans were doing it.
“But the field is open and you could develop your own theory and it would be just as valid as mine.”