Tag Archives: crime

Book Review: The Trauma Cleaner: One woman’s extraordinary life in decay and disaster by Sarah Krasnostein

This is quite possibly the most incredible non-fiction memoir that I have ever read in my life. I know that sounds big, but this book was a real knock-out. It has won countless awards including the Victorian Prize for Literature. Originally a fantastic long-form essay on Narrative.ly, author Sarah Krasnostein then developed the story ofContinue reading “Book Review: The Trauma Cleaner: One woman’s extraordinary life in decay and disaster by Sarah Krasnostein”

Film Review: Backtrack Boys

Framing delinquent youth as hopeless cases is a common narrative ploy by a ruthless and shallow media. There’s the assumption that youths are going to gather together in gangs, commit crimes and cause havoc. Director Catherine Scott has thrown a fresh bucket of water on an old stereotype. Just as she did in her otherContinue reading “Film Review: Backtrack Boys”

Every Picture Tells A Story: William Stanley Moore (1925)

William Stanley Moore according to his official police record was an “opium dealer/ Operates with large quantities of faked opium and cocaine./ A wharf labourer; associates with water front thieves and drug traders.”   Mugshot by New South Wales Police Department (1925). He reminds me of one of the brothers in Peaky Blinders, not toContinue reading “Every Picture Tells A Story: William Stanley Moore (1925)”

The Purgatory of Good and Bad Choices: Vintage Criminal Portraits

These photos of Australian female criminals come from a series taken between 1910 and 1930 by the NSW police. For the benefit of the modern-day reader, a surprising amount of detail remains of the subjects’ stories. Unlike a typical mug shot, these women were allowed or perhaps even encouraged, to compose themselves or position themselves inContinue reading “The Purgatory of Good and Bad Choices: Vintage Criminal Portraits”