It was a grim sign that conjured up images of a sinister mob wielding sledgehammers and wrecking balls. But there was a surprise twist to Whelan the Wrecker’s methods that helped create Melbourne’s beauty as it is today.
Even before journalist Colin Bednall helped introduce TV to Australia and discovered “The King” Graham Kennedy, it was apparent he was a kid destined for great things.
His party boy lifestyle and taste for gambling, grog and brothels didn’t stop Charles Standish becoming one of the most powerful men in Victoria as chief of police and head of the Freemasons.
While most of the world was forced to face the killer Spanish flu in the late 1910s, one Melbourne factory was busy introducing a crazy contraption to help staff beat the bug.
When women were expelled from gyms almost 150 years ago amid claims it was unladylike or might harm fertility, a bizarre new sport was born.
With talking birds, live monkeys, a hall of mirrors and live bands, the famous Cole’s Book Arcade in Bourke St was more than a bookshop — it was an event. And EW Cole was the eccentric man behind it all.
Long Harry Slater was a gang leader, standover man, cop-shooter, house bomber, suspected murderer and gang war adversary to Squizzy Taylor, making him Australia’s most feared criminal until the early 1920s.
Older sibling to underworld king Leslie “Squizzy” Taylor, Claude “Big Squizzy” Taylor lived a colourful life of crime, was shot in the groin by his estranged wife and helped kick off a razor gang war. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST.
The Brownout Strangler killed three Melbourne women in 16 days. If not for a split-second quirk of fate, chances are he would have evaded detection and escaped the noose.
It was an unconventional love story – the local farmer’s daughter and the Italian prisoner of war detained in an internment camp. But it was one that would end in tragedy.
Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/journalists/jen-kelly/page/25