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Australia's Most Infamous Jail

Inside the Walls of Pentridge Prison

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Australia's Most Infamous Jail

By: James Phelps
Narrated by: Silas Aiton
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About this listen

'Pentridge was a place of murder and mayhem. A bluestone hell. The worst prison Australia has ever seen.' Andrew Kirby, former inmate

Welcome to Pentridge, Australia's most infamous prison.

In the long-awaited return to his bestselling true crime series on life behind bars, James Phelps has finally turned his attention to HM Prison Pentridge—the bluestone behemoth that was home to Victoria's worst criminals for more than a century.

Beginning with a gang of guards and a handful of convicts, for more than 145 years Pentridge housed a who's who of Australian criminals and Melbourne's underworld including Ned Kelly and Mark 'Chopper' Read.

From solving the mystery of Ned Kelly's missing skull to the shocking truth about who really cut off Chopper's ears—Australia's Most Infamous Jail includes true and uncensored accounts of inmates (including a convicted serial killer, a mass murderer and the real Romper Stomper), guards, archaeologists and even a former governor-general. This is gritty true crime storytelling, on steroids—about what life was really like behind the bluestone walls of Pentridge.

©2024 James Phelps (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers Australia, New Zealand & Oceania Best of 2024 Crime Murder Oceania Social Sciences True Crime
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Tremendously interesting history of the dark and brutal Pentridge Priison. Narrator’s voice easy to listen to, and well written. If this is an area of interest, I highly recommend listening to this book.

Very Interesting History…

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Great story and read entertainingly. Listened to it every night until it was finished. Left wanting more.

Great story

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I couldn't turn this off it was factually amazing, so descriptive. I loved it so much I was sad when it finished.

Pentridge jail.

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An absolutely fantastic book about the horror that was Pentridge Prison. It's full of facts and stories that most people won't know, and is entertaining from start to finish.

A must listen

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Growing up in coburg, I passed this prison daily. I had a chance to tour twice in the late 90’s. Such an interesting book, answering a lot of questions I had

Loved this!

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Enjoyed learning about the history and stories from Pentridge. As a Victorian, it was always a place to be feared. Well read and written.

Historical records from the scariest prison!

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Not quite what I expected. I thought there would be more recent stories but well over half of the book still dwelled in the 19th century. People listening to this genre tend to want the recent stuff.

Too much history

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Such an impressive, in depth look at Australia’s dark penal history. Truely fantastic, wish there was more.

Fantastic read

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A fair mix of truth and fantasy it made for interesting background noise. One correction however, a prisoner who pinches from other inmates isn't a "Peter-thieving", he's a Peter thief. Not sure where the term originated.

"Peter-thieving"

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Fascinating story of Pentridge's horrific past, narrated perfectly and tying up some interesting loose ends

Excellent narration and story telling

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