The Goldfields Murders of 1926
5/24/202637 min
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 Lawrie. 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 from Forgotten Australia joins us again, one of my favorite guests- Oh, thank you so much ... because you're just such a great storyteller.
Michael Adams· Guest0:57
Thank you.
Meshel Laurie· Host0:57
And also, I love historical crime. It tells us so much about Australia. What are you talking about today?
Michael Adams· Guest1:03
Talking about a case that I call Blue Murder on the Golden Mile, 'cause it's about the killing of cops on the Golden Mile in Western Australia, which was the area around Kalgoorlie, which was called the Golden Mile at the turn of the century because it was the richest place on earth. The gold rush had started in the 1890s, and by about 1900, Kalgoorlie was, and Coolgardie and Boulder, was producing a massive amount