A couple of months ago we held a night for subscribers to The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, a conversation with John Silvester, hosted by crime and justice reporter Erin Pearson.

We recorded the whole thing and so for today’s episode, we bring you this special episode with Sly.

In the conversation, Sly shared how he became a journalist and then all the highlights from his long career – from the gangland war in Melbourne and his dealings with Carl Williams, how a Christmas card from Mark "Chopper" Read sparked a long relationship, and what was so different about Erin Patterson, who was convicted - and since appealed - of the notorious mushroom murder case.

You too can have access to nights like this by becoming a subscriber. 

Background reading, watching and listening:

• Sly’s latest column – ‘You’re gunna get it’: How police stared down a double-murderer and prevented further carnage
• A tour of the Naked City: Melbourne's crime secrets revealed by John Silvester

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Brian Coghlan is laid back, an asset he was able to use in his workplace. As a prison officer, he quickly learnt that being seen as a good guy around bad people was the key to life behind bars.
For 26 years at Port Phillip Prison, he dealt with the worst society had to offer – sex offenders, serial killers and manipulative mass murderers who knew they were destined to die in jail.
He spent most of those years working in the top-level protection unit that housed the likes of Peter Dupas, Julian Knight, Raymond "Mr Stinky" Edmunds and the Bega schoolgirl killers.
Coghlan decided very early to deal with each inmate on the basis of how they behaved in jail, not what they did to get there.
In this episode, he talks to John Silvester about the tricks to surviving in jail, as an inmate and as a prison officer, and his unique insight into some of the country’s worst inmates.

Background reading/viewing

• John Silvester's full story on Brian Coghlan – 'Dealing with Victoria's most notorious killers'.
• John Silvester's latest column – '$500 to firebomb: How crime gangs are outsourcing Melbourne’s Bar Wars.'
• Foreign Correspondent, ABC, 'The man from Tobasco: The story of Carlos Cabal Peniche.'

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Barry Michael was a professional boxer who made his name in the ring as a smart and brave fighter with a kit of wicked body punches.
Alphonse John Gangitano, a mobster who preferred a king hit to a fair fight, was in the corner of the talented Lester Ellis when Michael took Ellis’ world title.
The trouble was, Gangitano wanted the title back.
In today’s episode of Naked City with John Silvester, Michael recounts what happened when Gangitano ambushed him in a Melbourne nightclub, and what happened when "Sly" took him on in the ring.

Background reading

• John Silvester’s story on Barry Michael.
• All of John Silvester’s stories and columns.

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Michael Aston loved being a cop, or more specifically, a road policing officer. He said it was the best job in the world, until it wasn't. Aston is no longer a cop, with his career and mental health disappearing into the quicksand of the legal system where no one is accountable.

It was 2020, and the start of the dark days of COVID, when Aston was policing then-premier Daniel Andrews' lockdown laws that prevented Victorians from travelling outside a five-kilometre radius. 

On a road outside of Coldstream, north east of Melbourne, Aston tried to pull over a driver to check his work permit – and encountered a sovereign citizen.

This was years before the name Desmond 'Dezi' Freeman ripped into the public's consciousness for shooting three police officers, two fatally, in the Victorian High Country.

But back in 2020, Aston's run-in with a sovereign citizen changed his life.

Aston and his wife, Deanna, open up to John Silvester in today's special episode of Naked City.

Background reading

• John Silvester's full story on Michael Aston.
• All of Sly's columns, and stories.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Former deputy commissioner and counter-terrorism boss Ross Guenther had a unique life before policing, playing in big bands with music greats Jerry Lewis and Barry White.
He was no slouch in his policing career either, heading up the counter-terrorism squad for Victoria Police.
In this episode of Naked City, he talks to John Silvester about a foiled terrorism plot, and how his music career helped him hunt down Tony Mokbel after the drug boss’ infamous escape to Greece. 

And if you want to read all of Sly’s stories, click here.

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Anne Hooker worked as a prison officer for 13 years for Corrections Victoria, and Port Phillip Prison for a further 23 years.
She also set up and ran a unit in jail called Penhyn, which housed young men aged 18 to 25.
The unit became so highly sought after within the prison system that there was a waiting list to enter it, and as Hooker explained to Naked City host John Silvester, the environment she created in there led to recidivism rates (the times an offender returns to prison) slashed.
Anne Hooker is one of a handful of experts who has the practical and academic experience to provide at least some of the answers to the country's – and particularly Victoria's – youth crime epidemic.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sol Solomon has investigated some of the country's worst, most high-profile and just plain bizarre homicides.
In part two of his interview with Naked City's John Silvester, the former detective talks about some of the most difficult cases - such as investigating the murders of police officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller. And the best, like hearing a killer confess to a cold case murder of a single mother during an elaborate undercover sting.
He also reveals the strangest case...investigating a real-life cannibal.

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For former homicide detective Sol Solomon, there was only one Carl. Underworld heavy and gangland killer Carl Williams who was to be the star witness into the 2004 murders of police informer Terence Hodson and his wife, Christine.
But with his murder, the case against former detective Paul Dale and hitman Rod Collins collapsed.
Solomon’s career is littered with high points; catching contract killers, multiple murderers and solving cold cases. But the death of Williams was a low point.
You can read the full story here: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/murder-carl-williams-and-a-gun-under-the-table-inside-the-career-of-a-killer-catcher-20260310-p5o968.html

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For more than 30 years, Joy and Roger Membrey – before he died in 2023 – have been hunting for answers over the murder of their 22-year-old daughter, Elisabeth.
Elisabeth, a politics graduate who had been offered a trainee journalist position with Channel Ten, went missing from her sharehouse in 1994. Police believe she was killed in the hallway and taken from the scene, though her body has never been found.
There have been false dawns. First, the Membreys were told by police they found the killer. But he was cleared. And now, there is a new suspect.
Today, John Silvester speaks to Elisabeth's mother Joy about her enduring quest to find her daughter's body, and police investigator Andrew Stamper about the new investigation.

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Melbourne's gangland war in the early 2000s captured the country's imagination. People like Carl and Roberta Williams became household names. Eventually, Eddie McGuire – the then Channel Nine CEO – demanded his team commissioned a television series. It became Underbelly, based on a book written by Andrew Rule and John Silvester.
The show created controversy from the get-go. A Supreme Court judge banned it from sale in Victoria as it was so close to the truth it could impact on jury trials, while at the same time, the series was criticised for glamourising gangsters. And as for the gangsters themselves, well, they were being taken out by actors researching their roles, some of whom became so well-known as their criminal characters they would be mistaken for them in the street.
And then there was the time Roberta Williams turned up on set, demanding to know who was playing her in the series.
In today's special episode of Naked City with John Silvester, actor Rodger Corser revisits the hit series with Stuart Bateson, the real-life detective that his character was based on.

For all of Sly's columns and stories, visit www.theage.com.au.

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