Keiran's investigation moves towards one of the big unanswered questions: why wasn't Juanita's case solved at the time? What went wrong with the police investigation? Revelations about entrenched police corruption start to tumble out during the 1983 inquest into Juanita Nielsen's disappearance. Young crime reporter Neil Mercer finds himself in the centre of the furore when it's revealed he has recordings of multiple interviews with Carousel Club manager Jim Anderson he's then forced to hand over. Mercer tells Keiran he got to know "Jimmy" as he calls him over a period of more than two decades. Anderson admits both he and his boss Abe Saffron used blackmail as a way of controlling and/or calling in favours from powerful people. Mercer believes senior police may have been compromised in this way and, as a result, deliberately undermined Juanita's case. Mercer's evidence also exposes details of the serious rift between the two partners in crime. The final bombshell ... we learn Anderson is a police informer who had a role in eventually bringing down Saffron on tax evasion charges.

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S5 06 | The Informant

In the weeks leading up to her disappearance, Juanita Nielsen received strange phone calls with requests for her to meet to talk about advertising in her newspaper. She told her business partner something wasn’t right about them. After some serious digging, Keiran tracks down a man who owns up to being the voice behind those calls. He has never spoken publicly about what he knows. Lloyd Marshall was one of three men charged over a plan to abduct Juanita, but later acquitted. He worked at the Carousel Club and divulges disturbing details of how the underworld operated in Kings Cross around that time. Lloyd thinks Juanita was conned into turning up to the venue that final day. He shares with Keiran his suspicions that his boss Jim Anderson was involved in Juanita’s disappearance. 

S5 05 | The Abduction Plot

If Juanita was killed because she knew too much, what was she working on that put her in such danger? Keiran dives down the rabbit hole of years of whispered suggestions that crime boss Abe Saffron had kept dossiers for blackmailing prominent people. The lead was first uncovered by a journalist duo who received death threats and were so scared they left the country. The story's wild twists include talk of photos of illegal sex acts, a bank robbery, a famous media mogul, a crooked judge and walkie talkie conversations with a prisoner in jail. Was Juanita the person on the other end of the handset, in a car outside the jail? Did she gain information about secret dossiers and was she threatening to release them?

S5 04 | Secret Dossiers

Keiran looks deeper into the details of what happened on Juanita’s last day and the business meeting she had at The Carousel Club on July 4, 1975. Who are the people behind the club and what connection might there be with what is happening in Victoria Street? In her own unconventional way, Aunty Pip follows a lead on the receptionist at the club, regarded as the last person to see her cousin Juanita alive. Pip takes off in a shonky campervan to a country town for an interview with Loretta Crawford. Loretta hasn’t spoken for twenty years and has new information to share about exactly who she believes might be behind Juanita’s suspected murder.

S5 03 | The Carousel Club

When Juanita moved to Kings Cross in 1970 to run a local newspaper, she didn't realise the suburb was about to explode… and that her street would be at the centre of it. Keiran traces the response to multi-million dollar development plans and how protesters and residents groups clashed with hired thugs in a three-day street battle. She meets with a protest leader who tells the terrifying story of being thrown in the boot of a car and kept hostage for several days. Things ramp up further when the powerful union boss Jack Mundey steps in and imposes a series of green bans. An Aboriginal woman squatter loses her life in a suspicious fire.

S5 02 | The Fight For Victoria Street

At primary school, Keiran McGee did a talk about her activist aunt Juanita Nielsen telling the class she was murdered by the Kings Cross underground. Her classmates didn’t clap. Decades later, Keiran is embarking on her own investigation to find answers for her family about Juanita’s unsolved disappearance and get to know the aunt she never knew. Her first interview is Juanita’s ex-boyfriend, who was one of the last people to see her alive.  Keiran, along with Aunty Pip, discovers a trove of documents that other family members have put aside, more than twenty boxes revealing numerous leads and fresh evidence from witnesses who’ve never been made public. 

S5 01 | My Aunt Juanita

In 1975, Australia was transfixed by the disappearance of Juanita Nielsen. Juanita was a journalist, fashion model, socialite and Sydney's most famous anti-gentrification activist. 46 years later, our new series looks into Juanita's suspected murder — who might have killed her and why? What made Juanita a target? Over seven episodes, Unravel: Juanita takes listeners on a wild ride into a world of crime and corruption, with interviews and explosive revelations from witnesses who've never spoken out before. The series has a unique insider perspective, investigated by Juanita's niece Keiran McGee with help from Pip Rey, Juanita's cousin. Episodes 1 and 2 drop on July 13, then weekly every Tuesday.

INTRODUCING Season 5 — Juanita

Snowball host Ollie Wards has, for now, officially given up his pursuit of Lezlie Manukian, the Californian conwoman who married his brother and cleaned out the family finances. Instead, he has a recommendation for a new podcast series... a political thriller about the day that broke democracy in Australia. November 11, 1975... the day Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was sacked. It's called The Eleventh and comes via the core team behind Unravel True Crime. Follow this link to Episode One: http://bit.ly/2vCW2ak Or check out the show's website: https://abc.net.au/TheEleventh

PRESENTS — The Eleventh

After the confrontation in the supermarket carpark, Ollie is left feeling confused — has he been charmed just like everyone else in this story? Will Lezlie fail to keep her promises to Ollie or leave him and his family hanging?

S4 07 | The Morning After

Ollie and Simon have criss-crossed California to find themselves parked in a supermarket car park staking out where Lezlie supposedly works. They may only have one shot to talk to her and finally get some answers. It doesn't go the way Ollie imagined.

S4 06 | Stakeout

Ollie and his brother Simon follow the trail of broken dreams and failed restaurants to Paso Robles, California. It's apparent Lezlie's exploits didn't stop when she left New Zealand. Ollie discovers his former sister-in-law had manufactured an image of a successful restaurateur in Hawaii, Lake Tahoe and New Zealand. Her exotic CV and exciting stories pull a new family into her web — with disastrous consequences.

S4 05 | Black Widow

Following the trail to Lezlie Manukian, Ollie and his other brother Simon end up in California. With a muscle car and loud Hawaiian shirts, the brothers look every bit like '80s TV detectives as they head off on their very first stakeout. But, when the trail runs cold, they decide to chase down a lead at Lezlie's first restaurant in the resort town of Lake Tahoe. Meanwhile, Lezlie's emails become stranger than fiction.

S4 04 | Charmed

Lezlie Manukian's stories about her time in Hawaii usually ended with murderous local mobsters running her off the island. So, to track down his brother Greg's ex-wife, Ollie Wards needs to understand her past. What really happened according to "the coconut wireless"?

S4 03 | The Coconut Wireless

Ollie and Greg's dad, David Wards, picks through the clues left behind by Greg's American wife, Lezlie. He realises that the entire family may have been victims of an elaborate con job. David is obsessed with finding answers, launching his own investigations and even becoming a 60-something computer hacker.

S4 02 | The Great Houdini

When Ollie Wards' brother Greg marries his American dream girl in New Zealand and they go into business together, it seems like a perfect start to a new life. But only a few months later, Greg is heartbroken, the family home is gone — and so is Lezlie.

S4 01 | The Girl With The Dragonfly Tattoo

Unravel True Crime is a podcast where, each season, some of Australia's best journalists investigate unsolved crimes. Season 1 is Blood On The Tracks.

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Unravel True Crime

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