Shortcut: The Goldfields Murders of 1926
5/24/202615 min
This is a "Shortcut" episode. It’s a shortened version of this week’s more detailed full episode, which is also available on our feed.
In 1926, Detective Inspector John Walsh and Detective Sergeant Alexander Pitman were murdered while investigating gold thieves near Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
This sparked one of Australia's biggest manhunts after their bodies were found in a disused mine shaft.
Joining us to unpack this case is Michael Adams from the Forgotten Australia podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.
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CREDITS:
Host: Meshel Laurie
Guest: Michael Adams
Executive Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMeshel Laurie· Host0:00
[gentle music] This is Australian True Crime with Michelle Laurie. Our old pal Michael Adams from the Forgotten Australia podcast joins us again to tell us about an historical crime. This time we're traveling back almost exactly 100 years to the gold mines of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. It's a classic Wild West scenario, with lots of money to be made, lots of dodgy characters trying to get their hands on it, and an under-resourced police department tasked with keeping it all under control. This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin nation. And a warning, this episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.
Michael Adams· Guest0:46
There were these two veteran detectives, uh, Detective Inspector John Walsh and Detective Sergeant Alexander Pittman. I think Pittman was about 53 and John Walsh was about 64, so they were, they were long in the tooth. They were, you know, veterans. So what they would do is they'd go out late at night or early in the morning to catch these guys when they were sort of, you know, either setting up or about to come back in with their stolen gold. So anyway, on the 28th of, um, April 1926, these two cops, and they operated on bicycles.
Meshel Laurie· Host1:23
Oh.
Michael Adams· Guest1:23
So they ride out of town, and that's it. They're just not seen.
Meshel Laurie· Host1:27
Oh, no.
Michael Adams· Guest1:28
Um, and no one's worried