Australia's forgotten homicide history captured in podcaster Michael Adams' new book

From 'The Hammer Horror' and 'The Bungendore Bones' to 'The Park Demon', 'The Human Glove' and 'The Pyjama Girl'.

In the midst of them all was a cop who made his big break in Eden before becoming Sydney homicide chief, Detective Sergeant Tom McRae.

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Having researched these horrific cases in depth, analysed police reports, and searched through a trove of newspaper articles, author Michael Adams has captured a unique angle on Australia's homicide history in his recent release, The Murder Squad.

"It wasn't like [Tom McRae] had caught Jack the Ripper, he caught a trio of blokes who'd stolen some stuff that had floated free from the SS Cumberland, tins of drippings and some preserved rabbit, but it was still considered to be good police work," Mr Adams said of the case that saw McRae noticed by Sydney bosses.

On July 10, 1917, fishermen Norman Hegarty, William Gilbert, and Joseph Lee stole a quantity of goods from the SS Cumberland, a four-masted steamer ship that had lost hatches in the side of the ship due to an explosion off Mallacoota.

As cargo floated away from the vessel, the three thieves took 14 tins of dripping, one life buoy, three copper boat tanks, two wooden barrels, three gratings, 19 tins of rabbits, three lifebelts, one chair and some broken furniture.

At the time, Tom McRae who was a constable in Eden, went to Gabo Island, 500 metres off the coast of Croajingolong National Park in far-east Victoria, to investigate, resulting in a conversation with thief Hegarty who, after a few questions, desired to tell the whole truth and make a statement.

The case was noticed by Sydney hard-man CIB Chief Billy MacKay, who provided much praise, and was a man McRae would work with in the Murder Squad years later.

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Mr Adams said his research revealed in the Twofold Bay Magnet how McRae and his wife Mildred were recognised and well-respected during their service in Eden, before being restationed in Burrinjuck, and later in Sydney by 1921.

Mr Adams said his podcast Forgotten Australia, which he has been producing for five years, allowed him to research a number of various forgotten murders that happened in NSW during the 1920s and '30s, and there was a similarity in who covered the cases.

"A lot of these were investigated by the same little group of cops and a lot of them happened really close together, in terms of timeframe, so I thought 'what a story, what a dramatic series of circumstances, and what a backdrop'," Mr Adams said.

"I found McRae a really interesting person, as a lens to look through at this era, because, you know, he was Chief of the Homicide Squad by the 1933/34, he was the top homicide cop in the state, possibly in the country."

Mr Adams describes his non-fiction book 'The Murder Squad', as a blend of film noir mixed with horror, set in 1930s Sydney.

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