Ocean Crimes

The Outlaw Ocean is a riveting, adrenalin-fuelled tour of a vast, lawless and rampantly criminal world that few have ever seen: the high seas. There are few remaining frontiers on our planet. But perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are the world’s oceans: too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to the unbridled extremes of human behaviour and activity.

Under the cover of night on June 11, 1962, using only crude homemade tools, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin tunneled their way out of Alcatraz, America's most secure maximum security prison. Enacting a complex escape plan, the trio broke free from the cellblock, made it undetected past patrolling guards, inflated homemade life vests and a raft, and set sail into a foggy history.

On Australia day, 26 January 1966, Jane, Arnna, and Grant Beaumont were abducted from Colley Reserve, Glenelg, South Australia, and never seen again, leading to one of Australia's most extensive police investigations and manhunts. Five decades later, no trace of the children has ever been found.

A tanker steaming through the deep Northwest Providence Channel of the Bahamas comes across a shocking sight: a lone dinghy carrying Captain Julian Harvey and the body of a young girl. They are all that remain of the ketch Bluebelle, a handsome sixty-foot sailing yacht chartered by the Duperrault family of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

An off-duty coast guardsman is fishing with his family when he calls in some suspicious behaviour from a nearby boat. It's a snazzy craft, slick and outfitted with extra horsepower, and is zipping along until it slows to pick up a surfaced diver...a diver who was apparently alone, without his own boat, in the middle of the ocean. None of it makes sense, and his hunch is proved right when all three guardsmen who come out to investigate are shot and killed.

It’s party time on board the Aurelia! On the LA to Hawaii leg, a Hollywood film crew are shooting scenes for a new action movie and Barbie has been given a bit-part role. It’s all great fun, and Patricia isn’t surprised when her cute, blonde friend attracts the attention of the handsome A-lister male lead. But when he's found murdered in the upper deck pool and the killer leaves a message that Barbie is next, it falls to Patricia to work out who the killer is. With Barbie, her trusted butler, and an odd-looking extra she befriended, Patricia will have plenty of help.

On November 13, 1974 the quiet village of Amityville was rocked by the murders of six members of the DeFeo family at 112 Ocean Ave. The only surviving member of this tragic ordeal was Ronald DeFeo Jr., who was later charged and convicted to six-life-sentences. Thirteen months later, the Lutz family moved into the lavish Dutch Colonial home, but moved out mysteriously after just 28-days, claiming that the house was haunted! Then came a media frenzy, and with the release of Jay Anson's runaway best-selling book The Amityville Horror, which was later transformed into a blockbuster movie, the story became an international phenomenon.

The call came on the morning of July 13, 2011, from the historic Spreckels Mansion, a lavish beachfront property in Coronado, California, owned by pharmaceutical tycoon and multimillionaire Jonah Shacknai. When authorities arrived, they found the naked body of Jonah's girlfriend, Rebecca Zahau, gagged, her ankles tied and her wrists bound behind her. Jonah's brother, Adam, claimed to have found Rebecca hanging by a rope from the second-floor balcony. On a bedroom door in black paint were the cryptic words: She Saved Him Can You Save Her.

When Samantha Claymore doesn’t return home after an afternoon bicycle ride on Martha’s Vineyard, Detective Abby Pearce acts immediately. She knows from experience how quickly a lost girl can become a tragedy. Back on the island for the first time since she ran away as a teenager, Abby hopes solving Samantha’s case will make up for her past mistakes....

In the fight against the French, a treaty with the Sultan of Pulo Prabang, a piratical Malay state, may prove decisive. Captain Jack Aubrey and ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin, along with a hand-picked crew, must survive the dangers of the high forties and convey a diplomatic envoy to ensure this key alliance, but dangers, both natural and man-made, will dog their every move.

Life is a Crime Wave is the 13th mission of Black Ocean: Mirth & Mayhem. It follows a mismatched duo of itinerant comedian and outlaw wizard as they roam the galaxy trying to eke out a living and stay ahead of the consequences of their actions. Black Ocean: Mirth & Mayhem looks back at an earlier era in the Black Ocean universe, and returning listeners will get to see how some of their favorite characters came to be. Fans of morally gray heroes and slick-talking conmen will love this series.

Author and historian Michael Esslinger spent seven years conducting interviews with Whitey Bulger following his capture in 2011. Their conversations captured Bulger's memories of an early life in crime, his years as a prisoner on Alcatraz, and his life as one of the FBI's Most Wanted fugitives. The Last Interviews is a collection of Bulger's own memories, transcribed directly from personal interviews that chronicle a lifetime spent in crime. It is a scrapbook weaved together from prison documents, personal letters, and candid conversations that offer intimate details about his life.

Troy Bodean just wants to get away. He thought the southernmost point in the US - Key West - was far enough away...but that’s when it all went sideways, or rather...down. Flying a seaplane for his brother’s tourist ferry to Fort Jefferson, he spotted the thing in the water. Dreams of shipwrecks, treasure, and fame filled his head, until everyone started trying to kill him - including Hurricane Daniel! In a race against time and all the shadowy forces hoping to steal his find, Troy Bodean is at it again. Find out what comes up from the deep and if Troy will live to enjoy the bounty.

Esper may dress the part. She has her own ship. She even carries a blaster - not that she ever uses it. But she violates the cardinal rule of the galaxy’s most cold-blooded profession: get paid. At least she's not alone. Her partner, Kubu, is an alien who gets mistaken for a dog. One is a wizard on the run from her past. The other is a lovable eating machine. Between them, they haven’t got a ruthless bone in their bodies. But when a client hires them, they’ll do whatever it takes to bring a target home safely. This time, it’s a teenage kidnapping victim.

At 17-years-old, Lily Arthur was caught between an era of women's liberation and the draconian ideology that young women should be punished for deviating from society's "moral codes".

Instead of an honest future in robotics, Baxter Cruise trades his talent for dirty money. After a string of bad choices, it’s just another downward slide. But this time, the consequences are dire. The cartel now holds Baxter and his secrets in a deadly grip. Nothing is off limits as they exert their control over him through blackmail and coercion. Abducted to a foreign country and forced to aid the cartel’s nefarious plans, he searches for a way to escape. When the project ends, there’s no reason to let him live.

Born into a family of criminals, John Kruger began his life of crime while still in primary school. Bagman of the Brothel follows his tumultuous upbringing in southern Sydney and into adulthood, where he found himself employed by a mafia organisation during the 1980s.

With the capture of the Eye of Ra, Esper and her friends discover that small problems have started looking too small. When a plague breaks out on the occupied planet of Meyang, she decides it's time to see what her new ship and crew are capable of. However, the situation is more complicated than they counted on. Not only does the occupying force not want them there, the azrin living on Meyang are none too keen on interference from outsiders. But never let it be said that Esper wasn't willing to help those who refused to be helped.

Esper and Kubu take an outlaw vacation to a remote planet whose tiny colony seems idyllic. It’s far enough for the Convocation wizards dogging them to lose their trail. The plan is simple: Stay out of trouble, let the heat die down, and slink back quietly to civilized space. But these two aren’t good at keeping out of trouble. Before long, they’re exposed to the rotten core beneath this purported utopia. Bitter feuds lurk just below the surface. Feigned friendships mask deadly rivalries. Cliques control what passes for a government on the colony.

Carl Ramsey has done the unthinkable: he turned down a lucrative job. When the deed is too despicable even for outlaws like the Mobius crew, someone nasty had to be behind it. Carl and his friends decide to hunt down their potential employer and turn him over to the authorities. But as amateur vigilantes, they mire themselves in a moral quagmire of conflicts of interest. With victory (and a tidy payday) in their sights, can they live with the awful truth they uncover?