true crime
The Bachelor King: Apply to become Tiger King’s new husband
Joe Exotic this week announced the hunt for the Tiger King’s new husband. He invited potential spouses aged 18 or more to enter a competition called The Bachelor King. His press release promises the winner a 3-night, 4-day all-exclusive paid romantic getaway with Joe himself. However, conditions apply. The romantic getaway can only take place …
Alleged Parliament House rapist scrubs internet presence
The alleged Parliament House rapist purportedly scrubbed his internet presence and disappeared from public view this week. His actions follow allegations of inappropriate behaviour, sexual assault and rape from four women. Various independent news media and social media accounts named the supposed perpetrator over the last week. They describe him as a former Liberal Party …
1750 deathbed confession includes tale of failed gay seduction
A British museum recently acquired a 1750 pamphlet detailing the deathbed confession of Thomas Mun, executed for various crimes in that year. Mun speaks candidly about various exploits including an account of a failed gay seduction. Executed for robbing a mail coach, Mun apparently handed the manuscript to his jailer on the morning of his …
Happy Birthday Ned Kelly, though we never knew you at all
Although a national icon, Ned Kelly remains something of an enigma. The most famous bushranger of them all stares out at the world through a slit in his armour plate helmet and everyone makes of him what they will. Despite Red and Ellen Kelly not registering Ned’s birth, documentation indicates a December 1854 birthdate. In …
Garry Wotherspoon on a great character from Sydney’s past.
In Through the Gay Looking Glass: The Many Lives of Clive Madigan, historian Garry Wotherspoon takes us on a joyous romp through post-World War II gay Sydney. “Giggles and squeals pierced the night air as they tripped daintily along the platform of the North Strathfield railway station. High-stepping little things in ‘drag’ (women’s clothing to …
Joe Exotic: the shocking true story of Netflix’s Tiger King
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness brings to the small screen an unbelievable cast of real-life characters. The Netflix docu-series highlights Americans who conduct ‘big cat rescue’ operations. They then house the lions, tigers and other big cats they ‘rescue’ in for-profit roadside zoos. The series star is undoubtedly Joe Exotic, a gay mulleted cowboy, …
The true crime story behind POSE’s cadaver in the closet
Season Two of the magnificent POSE television series features the ‘cadaver in the closet’ episode. In the series, based on the 80s New York Ballroom scene, one of the stars of Ballroom, Elektra, needs to dispose of a body. While working as a BDSM mistress, one of her clients asks her to leave him alone …
Secret History of Fortitude Valley 2: In the evening
Destiny Rogers recalls a misspent youth in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. In the mid-1970s, Fortitude Valley possessed two distinct identities – the day-time Valley and the night-time. Fortitude Valley by day Once a famed retail hub, local businesses still hoped suburban shopping malls would prove a passing fad. Perhaps Brisbane shoppers would again favour Brunswick Street. …
Queensland man charged over 1976 murder
Police today charged a Bundaberg man with the 1976 murder of Rex Kable Keen in Brisbane. Hotel staff discovered his body in room 1205 at Lennon’s Plaza Hotel on the morning of 14 August 1976. The 46-year-old motel manager regularly stayed at Lennon’s on his visits to Brisbane. In August 2014, he came to town …
Revisiting Brisbane’s Whiskey Au Go Go Firebombing, Forty-Five Years On
In March 1973, the firebombing of Fortitude Valley’s Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub resulted in the deaths of fifteen people. Excluding the appalling colonial decimation of Aboriginal populations, the Whisky Au Go Go fire was the worst mass murder in Australian history before the Port Arthur shootings of 1996. Among the people killed that night …