TRUE CULTURE Archives | True News Weekly

MORRISON’S MACHIAVELLIAN MEMOIR! Manipulating Mental Health for Maximum Mileage

30 April, 2024 James Johnson

OOK REVIEW: Once upon a time in a land Down Under, Scott Morrison, a former Prime Minister cloaked in controversy, graced the political stage with performances that would make even the most hardened cynics cringe. As we sit back with our daily coffees reading the latest chapter in the Morrison saga, it’s hard not to scoff, or perhaps sneer, at the audacity of it all. This review by James Johnson.

MYSTIQUE AND MALICE! The Sinister Saga of The Marquis de Sade’s Most Notorious Work

16 April, 2024 Therese Taylor

BOOK REVIEW: It was a manuscript said to be so perverse that everyone wanted to own it. Therese Taylor with this review of ‘The Curse of the Marquis de Sade’.

BEHROUZ BEAT THE RAT OF COLONISATION! A night out with Behrouz Boochani and friends in Australia

16 February, 2023 Linda Rose

Celebrated writer, Behrouz Boochani, has been visiting Australia for the first time after spending years imprisoned in this nation’s notorious offshore detention centres for asylum seekers. It has been a bittersweet moment for his friends, some of whom have not seen him for a decade. Linda Rose with this personal reflection.

RealiTISM!

16 November, 2022 Kieran Butler

CRIME CULTURE: They haven’t played a gig in almost 20 years but that all changed last weekend when satirical alt-rockers TISM made a triumphant return to the stage. Longtime fan Kieran Butler was there for all the glorious chaos.

THE DEATH OF THE KILLER! Jerry Lee Lewis and other famous men who GET AWAY with rape and murder

10 November, 2022 Gary Johnston

Upon his recent death, rock and roll musician Jerry Lee Lewis was widely lauded by many as a pioneer and icon even when those same obituaries sneered at his paedophiliac marriage to a teen girl. Yet, marrying his 13-year-old cousin wasn’t even his greatest sin. He was also a murderer of women. Gary Johnston with this account of the man known as ‘The Killer’ who likely killed one, if not two, of his seven wives.

CRIME CULTURE: ‘T’ by Alan Fyfe

14 October, 2022 Therese Taylor

BOOK REVIEW & INTERVIEW: ‘T’ is the debut novel from poet Alan Fyfe. It’s a hauntingly allegorical tale of life on and in the margins. Therese Taylor with this review and interview with its author.

Is ‘Middle Eastern crime’ really a myth? BAD Sydney to hear from voices that matter

6 September, 2022 Therese Taylor

CRIME CULTURE: Residents of Western Sydney have long got used to the epithet of ‘Middle Eastern crime’ being bleated equally aloud and all over the place by tabloid shock jocks and senior police alike. Ahead of this year’s BAD Sydney Festival, Therese Taylor speaks with one of its special guests – novelist Michael Mohammed Ahmad – about the realities of crime and ‘ethnicity’.

“YOU NEVER FORGET THE SMELL OF A DEAD BODY”! Veteran forensic cleaner exposes how fiction GLORIFIES her job, reveals she was once ATTACKED by MURDERER who came back to the scene

16 August, 2022 Nour Ahmad

EXCLUSIVE: Forensic cleaner Lee Iordanidis loves what she does but believes that the media’s portrayal of her job is very different to the grisly reality. It’s a profession which has seen her attacked by a murderer, stabbed with a syringe, and having to clean up after a child’s suicide. Nour Ahmad reports.

RANGERS GREATS FAILED TO TELL POLICE ABOUT NEELY ABUSE! Walter Smith and Graeme Souness implicated in cover-up over paedophile “super scout” Gordon Neely

8 August, 2022 Gary Johnston

EXCLUSIVE: Scottish football icons, Walter Smith and Graeme Souness, are alleged to have purposely failed to alert police to paedophile “super scout”, Gordon Neely, after the legendary Rangers management team became aware of sexual abuse claims against their friend while they were all at the club. Neely would then go on to abuse more boys for at least another decade. Gary Johnston reports.

CRIME CULTURE: Hollywood’s True Crime Obsession Stranger Than Fiction

24 June, 2022 Joanna Psaros

True crime is not just a trend. It’s a key part of big entertainment, writes Joanna Psaros.

THE INTERSECTION OF ART AND GRIEF! One man’s non-fiction narrative of his brother’s outback murder

15 June, 2022 Nour Ahmad

EXCLUSIVE: The grieving brother of WA outback murder victim, Raymond Kehlet, is speaking out following the state DPP’s decision not to prosecute the killing. Dave Kehlet tells Nour Ahmad how the disappointing investigation inspired him to create a literary newsletter and Facebook group where he conducts his own inquiry into what happened that fateful day.

CRIME CULTURE: Sulari Gentill’s The Woman in the Library

4 June, 2022 Therese Taylor

INTERVIEW & BOOK REVIEW: Crime-fiction writer, Sulari Gentill, talks with Therese Taylor about her new novel, ‘The Woman in the Library’.

TRUE OPINION: The Last We Heard of Depp?

2 June, 2022 Maisy Rae

The Johnny Depp / Amber Heard defamation trial has continued to grip millions of viewers internationally, and with the Virginia jury largely deciding in Depp’s favour, Maisy Rae explores why it’s hard to tune out the trial’s heavy costs.

CRIME CULTURE: The Chaser’s SPIN

17 May, 2022 Irfan Yusuf

LIVE REVIEW: The federal election campaign is ripe for satire with The Chaser dedicating a new live show to the foibles of politics. Irfan Yusuf, went along to the Enmore Theatre in Sydney’s inner-west hoping for a laugh, or two, or three.

TRUE OPINION: Too Big, Too Rich, Too Famous

10 May, 2022 Miles Hunt

What kind of society lets celebrities get away with abuse, wonders novelist and lawyer Miles Hunt.

DARK ACADEMIA! Uni lecturer charged with wife’s murder asked about “disadvantages” of being married to him

9 May, 2022 Therese Taylor

EXCLUSIVE: Melbourne university lecturer, Adam Brown, has left a trail of possible clues for police as well as a host of armchair sleuths in the wake of his wife’s alleged murder due to a heavily online presence across social media. Historian and academic, Therese Taylor, investigates.

BAD ART FRIEND! Billionaire Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest wants “perpetual” copyright over writers yarns

3 May, 2022 Serkan Öztürk

EXCLUSIVE: Billionaire mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s charitable organisation, the Minderoo Foundation, has come under fire from award-winning writers and others from Western Australia’s arts scene for sneakily trying to obtain the copyright of authors and poets forever. Serkan Ozturk reports.

DICKHEAD DEPP’S DEFAMATION! Johnny Depp’s performance on the stand is a winner for creeps

2 May, 2022 Gary Johnston

ANALYSIS: Actor Johnny Depp’s performance on the stand in his defamation battle against ex-wife Amber Heard is a signal for other creeps to excuse their misogyny, writes Gary Johnston.

RAMADAN OVER RACISM! An ode to Lakemba’s Night Market

29 April, 2022 Irfan Yusuf

CRIME CULTURE: Even until just a few years ago, the western Sydney suburb of Lakemba was regularly portrayed by the mainstream media as a no-go zone full of dangerous and violent ‘Lebos’. Crime Culture editor, Irfan Yusuf, pays a visit to the suburb that is now attracting thousands of people nightly with its ever growing annual Ramadan Night Market.

DOES AUSTRALIA HAVE ITS OWN JIMMY SAVILE? Celebrity cover-ups aren’t only an English specialty

18 April, 2022 Gary Johnston

CRIME CULTURE: With the release of a Netflix documentary that tells how a ‘beloved’ British TV personality successfully exploited his fame to disguise five decades of unspeakable sexual abuse, the question must be asked – could it happen in Australia? Or has it already? Gary Johnston takes a look.