Showing results by author "Matthew Condon" in All Categories

The gripping finale to Three Crooked Kings and Jacks and Jokers brings to a close Matthew Condon's best-selling true-crime trilogy. In 1983, the soon-to-be-knighted Police Commissioner Terry Lewis continues to turn a blind eye to the operation of The Joke, a highly organised system of graft payments from illegal gambling, prostitution and illicit drugs. As the tentacles of this fraudulent vice network spread, the fabric holding together the police, judiciary and political system starts to unravel.

Three Crooked Kings is the shocking true story of Queensland and how a society was shaped by almost half a century of corruption. At its core is Terence Murray Lewis, deposed and jailed former police commissioner. From his entry into the force in 1949, Lewis rose through the ranks, becoming part of the so-called Rat Pack with detectives Glendon Patrick Hallahan and Tony Murphy under the guiding influence of Commissioner Frank Bischof.

How a famous cold case, a murderous fire and a quest for justice finally brought down one of Australia's worst killers. In 2017, Vincent O’Dempsey was sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murders of Barbara McCulkin and her two young daughters. It took over 40 years to bring him to justice. Feared for decades by criminals and police alike, O’Dempsey associated with convicted underworld figures and has been linked to a string of haunting cold cases, including the deadly Whiskey au Go Go nightclub firebombing that killed 15 innocent people.

Ghost Gate Road is one of those rare stories that you can never unhear, and it will embed itself in your subconscious like a virus and haunt you. Through time psychopaths have lived amongst us. But there are psychopaths and then there is Australia’s Vince O’Dempsey. Currently in prison for life for three murders, and charged with another, he has self-confessed to thirty-three killings. His weapons of choice are knives, and as a last resort, his bare hands. On the serial killer pop charts thirty-three victims puts him way above the Milwaukee cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, on a level-pegging with ...

The gripping second instalment of the rise - and spectacular fall - of one man, an entire state and generations of corruption. 1976. Terry Lewis, exiled in Western Queensland, is soon to be controversially appointed Police Commissioner. As for the other two original Crooked Kings, Tony Murphy is set to ruthlessly take control of the workings of 'The Joke' while Glen Hallahan, retired from the force, begins to show a keen interest in the emerging illicit drug trade.