Black Sheep

The founding father of West Auckland - Don Buck was notorious in the early 20th century for his hard drinking, hard living gum digging camp in the foothills of the Waitakere ranges. Black Sheep investigates the legend of this enigmatic and feared folk hero - the original Westie.

Watch the video of Marianne Simpkins reading her poem The Ballad of Don Buck's Hill

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“Oh Mummy save me from Dr Gray, because teacher says he’s coming today, and if I’m stupid he’ll take me away”. William Ray looks at the life and legacy of Dr Theodore Gray, a staunch eugenicists who was head of New Zealand's Mental Hospitals Department for 20 years.

Further reading:

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In part two, we look at the years Elsdon Best spent living in Te Urewera, attempting to preserve knowledge he believed was on the brink of being lost forever, the remarkable relatioship he built with Tūhoe leaders, and how that relationship fell apart.

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Described in his own time as "the white Tōhunga of Tuhoeland" and by some today as a "structural rascist" who "stole" knowledge, it's fair to say Elsdon Best is a controvesial character. In the first of a two part episode, Black Sheep traces the early life of this self-taught ethnologist.

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New Zealand's most awarded podcast is RNZ's own Black Sheep, and it's back with its 9th season. Hosted and produced by William Ray - he explores New Zealand history through the lens of real life, shady, controversial and sometimes downright villainous characters. Saturday Morning's own Susie Ferguson has even been typecast as a murderous Scottish villain in it. Susie and William discuss how the seasons come to be, and wonder why William is so obsessed with the sketchy side of life.

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In the second of Black Sheep's two-part episode on Elspeth Kerr, detectives unravel the mystery of 9-year old Betty Kerr's poisoning and uncover more potential victims of a beloved nurse, turned serial poisoner.

The Trials of Nurse Kerr: The anatomy of a secret poisoner by Scott Bainbridge

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Elspeth Kerr was a beloved local nurse in 1930s Devonport, but when her husband died suddenly and her foster daughter fell into an inexplicable coma, locals discovered the shocking truth: Nurse Kerr was a serial poisoner. But more than 90 years later, elements of her crimes remain a mystery. In the first of a two part episode, Black Sheep investigates the chilling story.

The Trials of Nurse Kerr: The anatomy of a secret poisoner by Scott Bainbridge

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Black Sheep returns on Friday 30 January for its 9th season with a new cast of rogues, villains and controversial characters. Murderous nurses, foul-mouthed goldfield barkeepers, sly grogging kāuri gum dealers and more! Join William Ray as he looks at the darker side of New Zealand history.

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We're ducking into your feed to bring you an episode of a new RNZ podcast: Kelly Tartlon's Final Treasure Hunt. This story has everything! Kidnapping, smuggling, scurvy, and imaginary islands full of Jewish gold... Make sure to follow Kelly Tarlton's Final Treasure Hunt wherever you get your podcasts.

To see more of Kelly Tarlton's Final Treasure Hunt, visit the RNZ website here.

Special thanks to the Tarlton family for their support and trust in making this podcast.

For more about Kelly Tarlton we recommend:

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On 27 September 1974 New Zealanders woke to the news Dr Bill Sutch, a famous economist, historian, and former senior government official had been arrested and accused of spying for Soviet Russia. He was later found not guilty, but over the last 50 years, suspicion has swirled, and new evidence has been revealed. Check our RNZ's award Winning Podcast The Service for more about the history of the SIS in New Zealand.

Check our RNZ's award Winning Podcast The Service for more about the history of the SIS in New Zealand

Further reading:

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Early NZ missionary Thomas Kendall arrived in London in 1820 with the Ngāpuhi Rangatira Hongi Hika. He would return to Aotearoa a year later with the first ever written dictionary of Te Reo Māori, a newly won clerical collar ...and more than 300 muskets.

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Freddie Angell was New Zealand's most notorious wildlife smuggler. His repeated attempts at stealing and exporting native wildlife in the 1990s, including Kea and Tuatara, made him all but a household name. Black Sheep speaks to documentary-maker Andy MacDonald about his extraordinary story.

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Early Missionary Thomas Kendall facilitated the sale of hundreds of muskets to Ngāpuhi Māori, helping to enable the bloodiest wars in New Zealand history. But there's more to Kendall's story. He was instrumental in the transformation of Te Reo Māori into a written language, and became so fascinated by Māori spirituality that he (in his own words) "almost completely turned from a Christian to a Heathen".

Thomas Kendall was among the very first missionaries to arrive in Aotearoa. In 1814 the devoted Calvinist and former schoolteacher threw caution to the wind, taking himself, his wife and five children to live alongside Māori at Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands.

Kendall had dreams of founding a school, teaching Māori to read and write - and eventually converting them to the Christian faith.

It all went wrong almost immediately. The school failed, Kendall fought bitterly with his fellow missionaries, his wife gave birth to another man's child, and he swiftly discovered the only way for the mission to survive in the Bay of Islands was by trading muskets to Māori - particularly the famous Ngāpuhi Rangatira Hongi Hika.

Over the next decade, Thomas Kendall facilitated the sale of hundreds of muskets to Māori, helping to enable the bloodiest wars in New Zealand history: The Musket Wars.

However, Kendall's most important legacy was formed during a trip to England in 1820 alongside Hongi Hika and another Ngāpuhi chief, Waikato. Together with an academic at Cambridge University, Kendall, Hongi and Waikato would create the first dictionary and grammar of Te Reo Māori.

In the first of a two part series of Black Sheep, William Ray speaks to religious historian Peter Lineham Professor Emeritus at Massey University and Ngāti Rarawa kaumatua Haami Piripi about the complex, fraught story of Thomas Kendall.

Further reading:

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In the 1900s a series of lurid headlines were published in the New Zealand Truth about George Howe, a "Beastly Brothel-keeper" who pimped out underage girls from his shop on Wellington's Adelaide Road. But what Truth found most "beastly" about Howe, is that he was Chinese. Black Sheep looks at the case of George Howe, and the "editorial hate-crimes" of what was once NZ's most influential newspaper.

Content warning: contains discussion of underage prostitution and quotes racist slurs which featured in the NZ Truth Newspaper i.e. "slimy slit-eyes" and "concupiscent chows"

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In 1892 a masked figure in a bizarre uniform began a 15 month crime spree, robbing people at gunpoint in and around New Plymouth. When he was finally arrested and unmasked, residents were dumbfounded to discovered the perpetrator was mild-mannered Robert Wallath - the teenage son of a local farmer and carpenter.

Wallath, it turned out, had a deep fascination for highway criminals and at trial his lawyers claimed his mind had been "polluted" by trashy novels about Dick Turpin and Ned Kelly.

But later in life, Wallath claimed his crimes had divine inspiration. So what really drove this Taranaki teenager to commit such a brazen string of robberies and thefts?

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"As morning dawned we stood and watched / That devastated scene / Where but a single yesterday / Had flourished Surafeen." In the final episode of a three-part series, RNZ's Black Sheep investigates the Surafend massacre of December 1918.

Read more about the story of Surafend on the RNZ website here.

T’was a never to be forgotten night
The village was soon in flames
The wallads knocked when sighted
But protected were the dames.

Although we are fighting Anzacs
Our honour we uphold
And treat the women fairly
As did our ancestors of old.

As morning dawned we stood and watched
That devastated scene
Where but a single yesterday
Had flourished Surafeen

We turned away in silence
But feeling justified
That for our murdered comrade
We would gladly have died.

- RSA Review, August 1938

These lines are extracted from a longer poem published in RSA Review, the official magazine for New Zealand War veterans. They were credited to an unnamed New Zealand soldier who participated in the 1918 Surafend massacre.

In the final episode of our three part series RNZ's Black Sheep we look at the unanswered questions surrounding these killings, and especially the question of what motivated them.

Host William Ray speaks to military historian Terry Kinloch, author of Devils on Horses, Paul Daley, author of Beersheba and New Zealand Defence Force Historian John Crawford

Further sources:

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"They ​went ​out ​to ​this ​village, ​and ​they ​went ​through ​it ​with ​the ​bayonet.” In the second of a three-part series, RNZ's Black Sheep investigates the Surafend massacre of December 1918.

Read more about the story of Surafend on the RNZ website here.

“They ​got ​their ​heads ​together, ​the ​New ​Zealand and ​Australians, and they ​went ​out ​to ​this ​village ​and ​they ​went ​through ​it ​with ​the ​bayonet.”

- Edward O'Brien, Veteran of the Anzac Mounted Division, 1988

These are the words of Edward O’Brien - a former member of the Anzac Mounted Division. His words were recorded on tape by an oral historian and now sit in the archives of the Australian War Memorial.

Edward was one of a handful of Anzac's to admit seeing the Surafend massacre first hand, but his testimony does little to explain what happened.

In the second of a three part series, RNZ's Black Sheep podcast unpicks the story of the massacre, and the events which followed it - including the Anzac's little known role in suppressing the 1919 Egyptian revolution.

William Ray speaks to military historian Terry Kinloch, author of Devils on Horses, Paul Daley, author of Beersheba and New Zealand Defence Force Historian John Crawford

Further sources:

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“There was a time when I was proud of you men of the Anzac Mounted Division. I am proud of you no longer.” In the first of a three-part series, RNZ's Black Sheep investigates the Surafend massacre.

Read more about the story of Surafend on the RNZ website here.

“There was a time when I was proud of you men of the Anzac Mounted Division. I am proud of you no longer. Today, I think you are nothing but a lot of cowards and murderers.”
- General Edmund Allenby, reported speech to Anzac Mounted Division, 16 December 1918

These words are attributed to General Edmund Allenby, the British Commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. He was speaking to the Anzac Mounted Division in the aftermath of the Surafend massacre, where an estimated 200 members of the Division killed upwards of 40 male Arab civilians in a small village in southern Palestine in December 1918.

More than a hundred years later, much of the story of the massacre remains a mystery. Basic facts around the numbers killed, the identity of the killers, and their exact motivation are unknown.

In the first of a three part series, William Ray speaks with military historian Terry Kinloch, author of Devils on Horses, to unpick the story of the Anzac mounted Division's campaign through Sinai and Palestine, and how it might help explain the massacre.

Further sources:

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Black Sheep Season 8 is just around the corner with a whole new cast of controversial, villainous, or simply misunderstood figures from New Zealand history.

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The last of the so-called 'lunatic asylums' closed only 20 years ago. They were founded on ideas of paternalism and social progress and survived on the basis they offered safety. In this special crossover with the Nellie's Baby Podcast, William Ray and Kirsty Johnston look into their origins.

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From the 1840s onward, Frederick Maning would become an increasingly bitter and angry man who demonised Māori who opposed colonisation. So what explains this radical transition from a romantic early Pākehā settler? RNZ's Black Sheep podcast investigates.

Frederick Maning was one of the first Europeans to settle in Aotearoa, marrying a high-ranking Ngāpuhi woman, and writing two books filled with colourful anecdotes of his time living alongside Māori. But attitude to his adopted land - and its people - twisted and turned over time, leaving a complicated legacy.

Maning was there for key moments in the early years of cross-cultural contact. He witnessed the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi at Māngungu, and allegedly counselled Māori against signing it; he took up arms in the Northern War (including the infamous Battle of Ōhaeawai); and was one of the first judges on the Native Land Court.

But while his books painted a romantic picture of his early life among Māori, Maning's private letters from later in life described Tangata Whenua using racist language, and advocated extreme violence against those who resisted colonisation.

In this two part episode of Black Sheep, we look at these two lives of Judge Frederick Maning.

For further reading:

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Frederick Maning was one of the first Europeans to settle in Aotearoa, he married a high-ranking Ngāpuhi woman, and wrote two books filled with romantic anecdotes of his time living alongside Māori. So why did so many of his private letters express such violent, racist attitudes towards Māori? RNZ's Black Sheep podcast investigates.

Frederick Maning was one of the first Europeans to settle in Aotearoa, marrying a high-ranking Ngāpuhi woman, and writing two books filled with colourful anecdotes of his time living alongside Māori. But attitude to his adopted land - and its people - twisted and turned over time, leaving a complicated legacy.

Maning was there for key moments in the early years of cross-cultural contact. He witnessed the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi at Māngungu, and allegedly counselled Māori against signing it; he took up arms in the Northern War (including the infamous Battle of Ōhaeawai); and was one of the first judges on the Native Land Court.

But while his books painted a romantic picture of his early life among Māori, Maning's private letters from later in life described Tangata Whenua using racist language, and advocated extreme violence against those who resisted colonisation.

In this two part episode of Black Sheep, we look at these two lives of Judge Frederick Maning.

For further reading:

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In the 1910s, Hjelmar Dannevill wowed high society with gripping tales of adventure as a medical researcher and journalist. But suspicions over her fantastical stories and insistence on wearing men's clothing saw her locked up as a German spy during WWI. RNZ's Black Sheep podcast investigates the mystery of "Dr Dannevill".

Content Warning: This podcast includes discussion of suicide and self-harm

In the 1910s, Hjelmar Dannevill wowed Wellington high society with gripping tales of adventure as a medical researcher and journalist. But suspicions over her fantastical stories and insistence on wearing men's clothing saw her locked up as a German spy during WWI.

So, how much of Dannevill's story was for real? And why did she insist on dressing the way she did?

RNZ's Black Sheep podcast speaks to historian and author Julie Glamuzina about the mystery of "Dr" Hjelmar Dannevill, and what it shows about attitudes to gender in early 20th century New Zealand.

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In 1935, a series of extraordinary newspaper articles claimed a backyard inventor called Victor Penny was trying to build a Death Ray for the New Zealand government. The claims seem absurd... So why were they taken so seriously?

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Dr Alfred Newman may be the most notorious scientific racist in New Zealand history. His 1882 paper "A study of the causes leading to the extinction of the Māori" was so extreme that it scandalised not just Māori, but also New Zealand's wider scientific community. So what can Newman's story tell us about the history of scientific racism in Aotearoa?

Dr Alfred Newman may be the most notorious scientific racist in New Zealand history. His 1882 paper "A study of the causes leading to the extinction of the Maori" used such extreme and callous language that it scandalised not just Māori, but also New Zealand's wider scientific community.

Dr Newman's views didn't spring out of nowhere. He was building on a longer history of racial supremacy - bouyed in part by Charles Darwin's theories of "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest", which many 19th Century Pākehā seized as a scientific justification for preexisting ideas of racial superiority.

However these ideas of white supremacy have always been contested in Aotearoa - by Māori and also some Pākehā. Dr Newman's notorious 1882 paper saw significant criticism from New Zealand's top scientists of the time.

In this episode of Black Sheep, we investigate Dr Alfred Newman's story - and the wider story of scientific racism in Aotearoa.

For further reading:

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In the second of a two-part episode on Charles Mackay Black Sheep investigates the mysteries surrounding the Whanganui Mayor's attempted murder of D'Arcy Cresswell - a former soldier who threatened to out the Mackay as homosexual if he didn't resign the mayoralty.

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For more than 50 years the name of Mayor Charles Mackay was all but forbidden in Whanganui. In 1920 Mackay shot a man through the chest after he threated to expose the mayor's homosexuality. RNZ's Black Sheep podcast investigates the downfall of Charles Mackay, and how his story is being reevaluated in modern New Zealand.

For 50 years the name Charles Mackay was all but forbidden in Whanganui. The former mayor's name was chiselled off public buildings, ripped off street signs and deliberately excluded from official histories. His official portrait was taken down and destroyed.

The reason? In 1920 Charles Mackay shot and nearly killed D'Arcy Cresswell, a 24-year-old returned soldier who had been threatening to out Mackay as homosexual.

Over the last few decades people have tried to drag Mackay's story back into the spotlight. In the 1980s, LGBTQ+ activists successfully campaigned to have his name re-inscribed on the foundation stone of the Sarjeant Gallery and in 2022 historian and author Paul Diamond released a long awaited book digging into Mackay's story.

But Mackay's story still has many unanswered questions.

Was D'Arcy Cresswell acting alone when he tried to blackmail the mayor? Was he solely motivated by homophobia, or was there something more complicated going on? In this two part episode of Black Sheep, host William Ray investigates the story of the former Mayor.

We look at Mackay's upbringing, and his meteoric rise to the mayoralty, which coincided with a meteoric rise for the town of Whanganui itself.

We investigate attitudes towards homosexuality in early 20th century New Zealand, and how Charles Mackay may have understood his attraction to other men.

And, we discuss the multiple scandals leading up to the Mayors arrest, including a catastrophic concert for a member of the royal family

Further reading:

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RNZ multi award-winning podcast Black Sheep returns on May 26th with a new cast of mysterious misfits, violent villains and controversial characters.

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When flamboyant orchestra conductor Eric Mareo was convicted of murder for a second time, the judge raised grave concerns about the verdict with the Attorney General. So, did 1930s prejudice and sensationalist media sentence an innocent man to death?

This is the second in a two part episode on the case of Eric Mario.

On June 17th, 1936 many New Zealanders celebrated when they heard Eric Mareo had been convicted of murder for a second time. But the judge in that trial wasn't one of them.

In an unprecedented move, he wrote to the Attorney General raising grave concerns about the verdict.

So was Eric Mareo wrongfully convicted? Black Sheep investigates.

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Kiwis rose to their feet and cheered when the flamboyant orchestra conductor Eric Mareo was found guilty of murdering his wife in 1936. But 85 years later, the verdict seems less certain. Was justice done? Or was Mareo an innocent man? RNZ's Black Sheep podcast investigates.

On June 17th, 1936 a single word appeared on the screens of movie theatres around Auckland.

"Guilty".

The audience were in a hush for a moment. Then they rose to their feet and cheered.

It was the end of a year-long saga, the case of 45 year-old orchestra conductor Eric Mareo. He was, not once, but twice convicted of murdering his wife, 29 year-old actress and singer, Thelma Mareo.

The Mareo trials had gripped New Zealand. People followed the news headline by headline. It had everything you could possibly want in a crime story: Sex, drugs, and lies.

Plus, the characters were all so interesting. Mareo was a flamboyant figure who walked up and down Queen Street in a tailcoat with a long cigarette holder. He conducted his orchestra using a giant tinsel-covered baton. His wife Thelma was a glamorous actress said to have been in a lesbian relationship with professional dancer, Freda Stark.

Stark would later become one of the most famous figures in the history New Zealand show-business.

At the time of Eric Mareo's conviction, most kiwis thought justice had been served. That's certainly what the newspapers said.

But looking back on this case 85 years later, the verdict seems less certain.

High Court Justice Rebecca Ellis and Victoria University social historian Dr Charles Ferrall re-examined the Mareo case in their book, The Trials of Eric Mareo.

" must have felt guilty about so many things," Dr Ferrall says. "But killing his wife was not one of them". Not because he was heartless but because, to Dr Ferrall's mind, he probably didn't do it.

As Justice Ellis and Dr Ferrall explain, the medical evidence used to convict Mareo was thin. What's more, a key prosecution witness had been in regular correspondence with the mother of the victim, and one-sided media coverage may have unduly influenced the jury.

In fact, the judge in Mareo's second trial was so concerned by the guilty verdict that he wrote to the Attorney General effectively saying the jury got it wrong.

"Which I have never heard of ever happening in any other case," Justice Ellis says.

So was Eric Mareo wrongly convicted? In this episode of Black Sheep, we re-examine the case.

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George Wilder is an accidental folk hero. He never sought the spotlight, but his three escapes from prison in the 1960s and his daring evasion of the authorities made him a national sensation. Black Sheep investigates his story.

George Wilder is an accidental folk hero. He never sought the spotlight, but his three escapes from prison in the 1960s made him a national sensation.

His first escape made his name and reputation, sparking headlines as he was on the run for 65 days without resorting to violence. But the most famous escape was his second, where he evaded police all over the North Island for more than six months: On foot, by car, by boat, by bicycle and even on horseback.

The stories from this escape are wild (and some are purely fictional). They were immortalised in part by The Howard Morrisson Quartet, which released a song about his exploits, The Wild(er) NZ Boy. It became massively popular despite being banned from public radio.

His third and final escape was a grimmer affair, involving a sawn-off shotgun and a kidnapping. When additional sentences for the escapes were added to his original offences, he ended up spending more than a decade behind bars.

When actor and playwright Tim Balme retold a fictionalised version of George Wilder in his play, The Ballad of Jimmy Costello, he found it hard to disentangle tall stories from truth.

"The folklore came out of things that actually happened," Mr Balme said. "There's one point where his shoes were falling apart, and he managed to steal the shoes off a searcher who was close by."

But hiding behind the folk hero is a darker story which saw a man who started off as a non-violent burglar end up with the longest finite jail sentence in New Zealand history.

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In 1863 half the population of a small Tongan island called 'Ata boarded a ship captained by Thomas McGrath. They were never seen again. Black Sheep investigates the story of a slave raid which destroyed a small civilisation.

In the first week of June 1863 half the population of a small Tongan island called 'Ata boarded a ship captained by Thomas McGrath. They were never seen again.

Aside from a handful of castaways, 'Ata has been abandoned ever since. In this episode of Black Sheep, William Ray investigates the story of a slave raid which destroyed a small civilisation.

Today, many of the survivors of the raid still suffer stigma. They are told their ancestors were weak or stupid for falling for McGrath's lies. Sometimes it's claimed one of the island's leaders sold his own people into slavery; a myth which still haunts his descendants.

The true story of 'Ata is much broader. It's a story of environmental destruction, resistance to imperialism, the global effort to abolish slavery, and most of all, a terrible and opportunistic crime.

William Ray speaks to Scott Hamilton, author of The Stolen Island: Searching for 'Ata about the story of McGrath and the 'Atan's.

We also interview Dr Damon Salesa, Dean of Pacific Studies at the Univeristy of Auckland about the wider story of slavery in the pacific.

Finally, we speak to Kenneth Tuai, a descendant of the survivors of 'Ata whose family still suffer from the stigma of McGrath's raid.

The full documentary about the Tongan boys who were castaway on 'Ata:

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In the second of Black Sheep's two part episode on Sir George Grey, Aotearoa is launched into the worst conflicts of the New Zealand Wars and George Grey will play a leading role.

This is the second in a two-part podcast on George Grey, the two-time governor of Aotearoa who led this country through most of the New Zealand Wars in the 1840s, 50s and 60s.

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Sir George Grey led Aotearoa into some of the worst conflicts of the New Zealand Wars. But at the beginning of his career many saw him as a defender of indigenous rights - including some Māori! So... What happened?

RNZ's Black Sheep Podcast presents a two-part episode on Sir George Grey, the colonial governor who led Aotearoa into many of the worst conflicts of the New Zealand Wars in the 1840s, 50s and 60s.

In this first episode, we look at how Grey gained a reputation with the British Colonial Office as an effective administrator with supposedly "progressive" attitudes towards indigenous people (at least by their standards). Some Māori also embrace Grey as a potential ally against the settlers' hunger for land and power. However, Grey's "progressive" reputation is undermined through unfair land deals and unjust wars in his first governorship.

In the second episode, Grey becomes governor of Cape Colony, South Africa, where his ruthless, authoritarian streak grows wider. By the time he returns for his second governorship of New Zealand he is a changed man who leads Aotearoa into the largest conflict of the New Zealand Wars, the Waikato War.

At 27 years old, George Grey was an ambitious young officer in the British Army who had survived two brushes with death in the past two years.

The first came when he was put in command of an expedition to explore Western Australia. He was seriously wounded in a skirmish with local aboriginal people (probably members of the Worrorra, part of the Wanjina Wunggurr cultural bloc).

Grey's expedition trespassed on sacred land and ignored multiple warnings to turn back. This ended with a violent confrontation where Grey was hit by two spears, one lodged deep in his hip and left him with a lifelong limp. He responded by shooting and killing an aboriginal leader.

The next year he led a second disastrous expedition. He and his men were marooned by a storm and forced to trek 700 kilometres overland to Perth. One man died in the process.

A lot of the failings of these expeditions should have fallen on Grey's shoulders. However, he managed to spin the story as a rip-roaring adventure rather than a chaotic disaster. He published his version of this story in what became a best-selling book.

" was compared to Robinson Crusoe!" says historian Edmund Bohan, author of To Be A Hero: A Biography of Sir George Grey. "That sort of set him off as the coming young man who was strong, physically brave and all the rest of it."

Grey's book took some heavy liberties with the truth, but it won him friends in high places. Its influence helped get him a job as Resident Magistrate of Albany, a town in southwestern Australia. …

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Black Sheep returns for a Sixth Season!

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Minnie Dean is the only woman to be judicially executed in New Zealand history. For years she was portrayed as a cold-blooded killer who murdered babies for cash. More recently, attitudes towards Minnie have shifted, but she's still a controversial and complex figure. Black Sheep dives into the story of the baby farmer of Winton.

Minnie Dean must rank as one of New Zealand's most infamous figures. The first and only woman to be judicially executed in our history.

For years she was portrayed as a cold-blooded killer who murdered babies for cash. More recently, attitudes towards Minnie have shifted, but she's still a controversial and complex figure.

Minnie arrived in Invercargill on a ship from Tasmania in the early 1860s. We don't know exactly which year or her age but she would have been in her late teens or early 20s.

She told people she was the widow of an Australian doctor and the daughter of a Presbyterian minister back home in Scotland. That story wasn't true.

But as historian Barbara Brookes explained, it was pretty common for new migrants to lie about their backgrounds. "That's one of the big attractions of migration. People could reinvent themselves."

And Minnie had more reasons than most to want to reinvent herself. She arrived in Invercargill with a young daughter and was pregnant with a second.

Lynley Hood, author of Minnie Dean: Her Life and Crimes, found Tasmanian birth records for Minnie's eldest daughter signed with her maiden name - Williamina McCulloch.

That suggests both Minnie's daughters, Ellen and Isabelle, were illegitimate.

"She was only 16 years old and she'd gone to Tasmania by herself," Lynley Hood said. "Maybe she was pregnant and had been sent off to the colonies because she was bringing the family to shame?"

Of course, illegitimacy wasn't uncommon in the 19th century, but it came with a heavy social sanction. Unwed mothers struggled to find jobs, or husbands or any kind of normal social life. Minnie's white lie about a dead husband let her dodge a lot of social baggage.

She probably had some help in pulling off this story. Minnie had a famous aunt in New Zealand. She's best known as Granny Kelly, a founding settler of Invercargill.

"Her aunt would have known the truth," said Lynley Hood. "It must have been who really put her arms around , and supported her, and helped spread the story that she was the widow of a doctor and the daughter of a clergyman."

So Minnie had a tricky start to life, but she spent the next eight years making the most of her second chance. …

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The case of the Bassett Road machinegun murders breaks wide open, two key witnesses come forward with critical information. But the most interesting part of the story is what happens after the conviction...

It's nearly Christmas, 1963. Detectives have identified John Gillies as their main suspect in the murders of Kevin Speight and George Walker. Both men were found riddled with .45 caliber bullets from a submachine gun inside their rented house in Bassett Road, Remuera.

The killings had all the hallmarks of a gang turf war. It was quickly proven that the two victims had been operating an illegal beerhouse at Bassett Road.

But witnesses had painted a confusing picture. They said Gillies got the gun to settle a feud with Barry Shaw. So why was Shaw alive while Speight and Walker were dead? And who was the mysterious second man Gillies says was in the room when the shots were fired?

The police didn't know it, but they already had the critical piece of evidence they need to break the case wide open: A love letter from Mary Rapira, the teenage girlfriend of 62-year-old Gerry Wilby - leader of a rival beerhouse in Anglesea Street, Ponsonby.

Archival audio courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision.

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It's 1963 and two bodies are found in a house at Bassett Road in Remuera. Detectives are shocked to discover they were killed by a submachine-gun. Newspaper headlines read "Chicago Comes to New Zealand". Black Sheep investigates a true crime story that scandalised New Zealand

Two bodies are found in a house at Bassett Road in Remuera. Detectives are shocked to discover they were killed in a hail of machine-gun bullets. Newspaper headlines read "Chicago Comes to New Zealand". Black Sheep investigates a true crime story that scandalised New Zealand in 1963.

It was Saturday Morning, December 7th 1963. Bassett Road, Remuera.

The weather had been sunny and hot all week. Kids were playing in their yards, men were washing their cars. Women were packing picnic hampers for trips to the beach.

Eric Lewis drove past them on his way to number 115.

He was there to collect the rent. His tenants had moved into the house about a week and a half ago, 26-year-old Kevin Speight and 34-year-old George Walker.

Eric walked past the letterbox. He noticed it was stuffed with a couple of days worth of newspapers.

He frowned and kept walking toward the door. Bottles of milk were sitting on the porch, they'd curdled in the summer sun. Had his tenants gone off on holiday and forgot to tell anyone?

Nobody answered the door. Eric shrugged and pulled out his key.

The smell hit him first. The whole place reeked. He got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

He walked inside, the smell got stronger as he neared the bedroom. He opened the door.

"What he found inside horrified him," said Scott Bainbridge, author of The Bassett Road Machine-Gun Murders

Both Eric's tenants were dead, they had clearly been shot multiple times.

Within a few hours, Bassett Road was swarming with police.

"A murder was a rarity," Scott Bainbridge explains. "A murder made the front page back then but a double murder in 1963 was something pretty big."

Even more shocking was how these men had died. They had both been shot multiple times at close range.

Police collected six bullets from the bedroom and handed them over to Dr Donald Nelson, a firearms expert at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Dr Nelson looked at those bullets, then called a meeting with the detectives. He announced those bullets had been fired from a .45 submachine gun.

"You could have heard a pin drop," Scott Bainbridge said.

That announcement immediately raised images of 1920s USA, when prohibition-era gangsters like Al Capone blasted away at each other with Tommy Guns. The Truth Newspaper printed the headline "Chicago Comes to New Zealand"…

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Flora MacKenzie is one of the most colourful characters in New Zealand history: A hard drinking, hard talking brothel owner from the 1960s and 70s who won the affection of sex workers, police and punters alike. In this episode of Black Sheep, we look at the legend of "Madam Flora".

Flora MacKenzie is one of the most colourful characters in New Zealand history: A hard drinking, hard talking brothel owner from the 1960s and 70s who won the affection of sex workers, police and punters alike.

There are all kinds of crazy stories about her: The time she threw a dead dog at her neighbour, her famous revolving bed, her close friendship with the head of the Auckland police vice squad.

In this episode of Black Sheep, we look at the legend of Madam Flora.

Elisabeth Easther is a playwright and actor - and also probably the closest thing to a Flora MacKenzie expert.

"It's very hard to get to the truth," Easther said. "You hear so many different versions of , and you have to cobble it together from hearsay and newspaper articles and letters people write to you."

Easther became fascinated by Flora MacKenzie after performing a monologue as her while at drama school. Later in Easther's career, she turned that monologue into a full play: Famous Flora - named after the brothel that MacKenzie ran for more than 30 years.

Easther said Flora was the daughter of Sir Hugh MacKenzie, a rich and well regarded businessman who ran a horse stud in Māngere and served as head of the Auckland Harbour Board.

"She was all horse races and debutante balls and being introduced to the Queen."

According to Easther's sources, MacKenzie caused a minor scandal during a royal visit to New Zealand because she crossed her legs at the knee, rather than the ankle, while the Queen was present.

"And I think she did it on purpose," Easther added.

Flora began training as a nurse but gave it up because she couldn't stand the strict discipline of the nurse matrons.

"She was determined to be her own person," explained historian Barbara Brookes, author of A History of New Zealand Women.

Instead, MacKenzie traveled to Australia in the 1920s, mixed with the bohemian crowd in Sydney and developed a fascination with fashion design which she brought back to Auckland when she returned home.

By 1927, she was the sole owner of Ninette Gowns, a high-end fashion shop on Queen Street.

"And she's got a particular market that she knows how to cater to," Brookes said. "She took meticulous care ... some of the beautiful gowns are now in museum collections."…

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In the 1960s Stewart Smith began a one-man crusade, releasing thousands of invasive fish into New Zealand's rivers, lakes and streams. Why? Well it had something to do with communism and a lot to do with childhood nostalgia.

Between the 1960s and late 2000s Stewart Smith went on a one-man crusade, releasing thousands of invasive fish into New Zealand's rivers, lakes and streams.

One kind of fish he introduced is now so widespread it's been declared an "acclimatised species", meaning the authorities have basically acknowledged it is impossible to remove it from the wild.

"The amount of damage he did was incalculable," says science journalist Charlie Mitchell, who wrote a feature on Smith for Stuff.co.nz.

"He could be positioned alongside the people who released stoats and weasels and ferrets in New Zealand," says Bryan Winters, who wrote an authorised biography of Smith entitled That Pommie Bastard.

So who was Stewart Smith?

He was a devout communist with a stubborn streak a mile wide, a conspiracy theorist who spent years locked up in a conscientious objectors camp, and an environmental imperialist dedicated to the cause of "improving" recreational fishing in New Zealand.

Stewart Smith helped infest the Waikato river with koi carp, which are now a major pest species in the river.

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In part two of Black Sheep's series on Edward Gibbon Wakefield we see theories of "systematic" and "humanitarian" colonisation run into bitter realities. The result is conflict, death and disaster. For Wakefield and for Māori.

In the first episode of this two part series about Edward Gibbon Wakefield we talked about the origins of the man once described as a 'Founding Father of New Zealand'.

In this episode we see how his plans to colonise Aotearoa ran into some bitter realities.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield believed Aotearoa was the perfect place to put his theories of "Systematic Colonisation" into practise.

Working with rich and influential allies he set up the New Zealand Company to promote his plans. He wrote thousands of books and pamphlets promoting colonisation.

Dr Phillip Temple, author of A Sort of Conscience, said much of Wakefield's writing painted New Zealand as a "vision of paradise".

Take this example:

"Great valleys occupied with the most beautiful rivers, their feet washed by the ceaseless south-sea swell, their flanks clothed with the grandest of primeval forests ... The fertility of its soil, the amenity and salubrity of its climate, the peculiar adaptation of the country for the residence of a great commercial and manufacturing people."

Wakefeild was a master of propaganda. The New Zealand Company even arranged to ship a Māori man called Te Waiti to London so he could promote the planned colonies with statements like this:

"I like it. I do not know what my countrymen would like. I think they would like it too, because they like even the bad people now. I think they would like the gentlemen."

It's hard to know if Te Waiti (also known as "Nayti") really did think colonisation would be good for Māori, or if he was just saying what the New Zealand Company wanted him to say.

Wakefield himself waved away concerns about the effects of colonisation on indigenous people. He claimed "the common effect ... of mere colonisation has been to exterminate the aboriginal race. This, however, is not a plan of mere colonisation: It has for its object to civilize as well as to colonise."

He said the settlers would "adopt" and "instruct" Māori. He argued the colonists would be "civilising a barbarous people," who could "scarcely cultivate the earth".

Part of the reason Wakefield felt he needed to paint his colonisation plans as a positive for Māori was to combat a powerful indigenous rights lobby group in Britain…

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Edward Gibbon Wakefield used to be known as "The Father of New Zealand." But modern historians have pointed to the disastrous impact of his colonial policies on indigenous people, his misleading propaganda and, (not least) his abduction and marriage of a teenage girl.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield used to be known as 'The Founding Father of New Zealand.'

He was described as a humanitarian visionary, the driving force behind the colonisation of New Zealand and - according to some - the entire British Commonwealth.

But Wakefield makes for a problematic kind of parent.

Modern historians have pointed to the disastrous impact of his colonial policies on indigenous people, his misleading propaganda and, not least, his abduction of and marriage to a teenage girl.

In this two-part episode of Black Sheep, William Ray investigates Wakefield's life and legacy.

Troublemaker

Edward Gibbon Wakefield came from a middle class home in Cumbria. He was born in 1796, to a family known for their involvement in banking and enthusiasm for humanitarian reform.

But his early life was chaotic.

As Dr Philip Temple explained, "Edward Gibbon's grandfather lost his money. So they had the status but not the cash."

Dr Temple is author of A Sort of Conscience, a biography of the wider Wakefield family.

He said it was a troubled family. Wakefield's mother suffered from recurring bouts of malaria and his father was often absent; "Either philandering with other women or occupied by his own pet reform projects."

In that context it's unsurprising Wakefield had trouble at school. Dr Temple said he was expelled from two and refused to attend the final one.

"He was clearly one of those children who are disruptive because they can't work within the status quo, but it's often those people who turn out to be leaders or innovators in society. He also clearly, from an early age, had the gift of the gab and was a damn good writer. "

Wakefield used those communication skills to land his first job: a messenger in the British Diplomatic service.

He dreamed of becoming a Member of Parliament, but to do that he needed a LOT of money. In his day it was all but impossible to become an MP unless you were the equivalent of a multi-millionaire.

Luckily, Wakefield had a solution to his money problems. When he turned 20 he eloped with 16-year-old Eliza Pattle, heir to a gigantic family fortune.

But this marriage wasn't just about money. "It was clearly a love match," Dr Temple said. …

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Felix von Luckner was a child aristocrat who ran away to sea, he captained the last square-rigged sailing ship ever to serve in combat, he sailed 3,000 kilometers across the Pacific in a lifeboat. He also led the most embarrassing jailbreak in NZ history.

Felix Von Luckner led a very interesting life.

He was a child of aristocracy who ran away to sea.

He fought in the biggest naval battle of the First World War.

He captained the last square rigged sailing ship ever to be used in combat.

He sailed three thousand kilometers across the Pacific in a lifeboat.

He single-handedly saved his hometown from destruction during WWII.

And he punched a member of the Gestapo straight in the face.

He was also responsible for what probably ranks as the most embarrassing prison break in New Zealand history. Oh Felix ... where to even begin?

THE RUNAWAY ARISTOCRAT

Felix Von Luckner was born in June 1881 to a family of German military aristocrats but didn't really seem to enjoy his childhood in the lap of luxury. At 13 years old, he ran away from home and jumped on a Russian sailing ship.

According to his autobiography he spent the next few years getting into adventures all over the world.

Some of these stories are obviously made up - but others are probably true. Life aboard a sailing ship in the late 1800s was often dramatic and dangerous .

"It was the final fling of tall ships as a commercial entity, so they were often undermanned. Very hard work, very dangerous work. People did die quite regularly." explains Sam Jefferson, author of The Sea Devil, a biography of Von Luckner.

Von Luckner himself was seriously injured in a fall from the rigging on the high seas (by then he was about 17). He ended up stranded in Jamaica with a broken leg and no money. But when he was begging for food on the beach he saw something on the horizon which changed his life - a beautiful white ship. It was SMS Panther - a brand-new warship of the German Imperial Navy.

Some friendly sailors from the ship helped him get back on his feet, he travelled back to Germany and enlisted with the Navy.

Eight years had passed since he had left home and when he returned to his parents it was as Naval Lieutenant Felix Von Luckner.

THE SEEADLER

Von Luckner's most famous exploits came in World War One as captain of SMS Seeadler, the last square-rigged sailing ship ever to be used in combat. …

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In this special episode of Black Sheep, William Ray looks at the history and controversy of historical statues in New Zealand.

Statues have become a focus of global protests following the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States.

In New Zealand statues of Captain Cook and Governor George Grey have been targeted for graffiti, while a statue of Captain John Hamilton was completely removed.

In this episode of Black Sheep, William Ray uncovers the stories behind some of these problematic monuments - and looks at different ideas of what should happen to them next.

When I was little, I used to play in the fountain next to Centre Place mall in Hamilton.

So when I saw the news that a statue of Captain Hamilton was being removed from that spot, I was confused. I couldn't remember that statue standing there when I was younger.

It turned out, I was right to be confused - the statue was actually only erected in 2013. An action which Tom Roa (Ngāti Maniapoto) says "defies belief".

My hometown was named after Captain John Hamilton. It was built on the site of the Ngāti Wairere Pā, Kirikiriroa after that settlement and much of the surrounding area was unjustly confiscated by the Crown under the New Zealand Settlements Act.

Captain Hamilton never got anywhere near Kirikiriroa; he died at the Battle of Gate Pā in Tauranga in 1864.

As historian Vincent O'Malley's report on street names and statues in Hamilton makes clear, Captain Hamilton was an obscure figure who only spent a few months in Aotearoa before he was killed. It was a reasonably heroic kind of death (he was shot while leading a column of men to relieve the troops who had been trapped in the Pā) but he certainly wasn't a significant player in the wars.

The same can't be said for other statues that have been a focus of protest in Aotearoa. Men like Colonel Marmaduke Nixon, who led a raid on the peaceful village of Rangiaowhia, and Governor George Grey who played a major part in instigating the Waikato Wars.

Interestingly, Governor Grey also instigated the building of a lot of the statues which are now the focus of so much anger and grief.

"Grey himself was a great enthusiast for statues and memorials," said historian Jock Phillips, author of To The Memory: New Zealand's War Memorials.

"He believed we were a 'new' country. All we had was Māori culture, and that didn't count ... So a new society needed to get to work and start to put up a few heroic figures to develop a new tradition and a sense of colonial pride."…

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The story of New Zealand and its people, from its geological origins to modern day. Hosted by William Ray and Leigh-Marama McLachlan, with animation by Chris Maguren. Made possible by the RNZ/NZ On Air Innovation Fund.

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In this special episode of Black Sheep, produced in the aftermath of the 2019 Christchurch Mosque Shootings, William Ray looks at the history of white supremacy in NZ.

Since the attack in Christchurch, many people have called for New Zealand to examine its history of white supremacy.

In this special episode of Black Sheep, William Ray looks at the origins of this ideology, how it warped and changed over time, and how people have fought against it.

By William Ray

I missed the Christchurch shooting.

My girlfriend and I were out walking the Routeburn Track that weekend. Swimming in Lake Mackenzie, watching kea stalk unattended backpacks, listening to tourists gush about how beautiful and lucky and peaceful this country is.

On the Saturday afternoon we were picked up by a bus on the Milford/Te Anau Highway. The driver knew we'd all been out contact with the outside world, so she made an announcement over the intercom.

"I've got some really bad news for everyone."

I don't remember exactly what she said after that.

As soon as we got back into cellphone range my girlfriend loaded up a Reddit thread about the shooting which I read over her shoulder. There was one post which really stuck out at me:

"This is not what New Zealand is. New Zealand is a land of peace where all, regardless of race and religion are welcome. Violence, racism, and discrimination are not welcome and do not define who or what New Zealand is."

I get what that person was trying to say but for the past three years on Black Sheep I've been looking at violent, racist, discriminatory New Zealanders.

John Bryce, the racist Native Affairs Minister. James Prendergast, the Supreme Court Justice who said the Treaty of Waitangi was a "simple nullity". Roy Courlander, the New Zealand soldier who literally joined Nazi Germany's Waffen SS. And many, many, more.

These people don't define New Zealand, but they do represent a significant force in New Zealand history.

White supremacy.

In this special episode of Black Sheep, we look at the history of New Zealand through the lens of white supremacy. We look at how the ideology influenced the voyages of Tasman and Cook, how it was used to justify the worst atrocities of the New Zealand Wars, and how it found new targets in New Zealand's non-British migrant communities.

We also look at how some Pākeha fought to oppose this ideology and ask some tricky questions about what that dissent means for how we think about racist New Zealanders of the past. …

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The story of Horatio Robley continues... How did a man once dubbed a "predator of culture" for his collection of preserved Māori heads become better known as a "friend of the Māori"?

In Part 1 of this story, we heard how Horatio Robley came to New Zealand as a young officer in the British Army and witnessed the devastating British defeat at Gate Pā. In Part 2, we hear how the Tauranga War ended, and how Robley became famous as a collector of Mokomokai, preserved Māori heads.

A few months after Gate Pā, Māori and British came to blows again at Battle of Te Ranga. This time the British caught Tauranga Māori before they could finish building their Pā, and the half-dug trenches became a mass grave for 108 warriors.

Within weeks a peace was negotiated, but Robley and his fellow soldiers stayed on in Tauranga for several more months. In those months, Robley had a chance to become much more intimately involved in Māori culture ...and with one Māori woman in particular.

Horatio Te Ropere

With the spectre of war lifted, Robley doubled down on his artwork. He painted spectacular watercolours of Tauranga landscapes and took portraits of prominent Māori in the region, including some leaders of the Ngāi Te Rangi tribe who had participated in the Battle for Gate Pā.

Tauranga Māori clearly respected Robley's skill as an artist and eventually they allowed him to sketch some incredibly intimate and sacred moments.

"There was a gradual building of rapport," explains Tim Walker, pointing out a painting Robley did at a tangi (Māori funeral rite). "Astonishing for a Pākeha to be sitting in that context."

Somewhere in the middle of this, Robley formed a relationship with a Māori woman - and not just any woman: Herete Mauao, daughter of one of the highest ranking chiefs in the entire Bay of Plenty region.

"Some kaumātua have told me she was presented to Robley as an act of respect for his mana," Walker says. "It seems hard to understand in one way because he was only an itinerant soldier who's part of a colonising force."

However it began, Robley and Herete's relationship became serious very quickly. Herete gave birth to a son, named Hamiora Tu Ropere after his father.

But Robley didn't stay with his family for long. After just 20 months, the 68th regiment were redeployed away from New Zealand. Robley would never see Herete or Hamiora ever again.

However, he maintained a deep and sometimes deeply problematic connection with Aotearoa for the rest of his life.

Headhunter…

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Horatio Robley witnessed the most famous battle of the New Zealand Wars, he fathered a child with the daughter of a sworn enemy, his sketching helped end a war, his book helped save the art of Maori tattooing... But mostly he's famous for his grotesque collection of nearly 40 human heads.

Horatio Robley witnessed the most famous battle of the New Zealand Wars, he fathered a child with the daughter of a sworn enemy, his sketching helped end a war and his book helped save the art of Māori tattooing.

But mostly he's famous for his grotesque collection of nearly 40 human heads.

A Wall of Heads

If you type Horatio Robley's name into a search engine you'll find a seriously disturbing image (a censored version appears above).

In the foreground is Robley, dressed in a fancy suit and sporting an enormous handlebar moustache. In one hand he holds a mere (Māori club) and behind him... 35 mokomokai - preserved Māori heads.

The heads are in various states. Some are well preserved; you can still clearly make out their facial features and the beautiful curved lines of their tā moko (facial tattoos). Others are harder to look at; the lips are drawn back from the teeth, mummified skin clings to the shape of the skull.

Most disturbingly, one head in the bottom right corner of the photo clearly belongs to a very young child, maybe even a baby.

For the better part of a century this image has defined Horatio Robley. It's hard to look at a white guy sitting in front of a wall of Māori heads and see anything other than a monster.

"When were younger he was described as a macabre predator of culture," says Haami Piripi, a senior member of the mokomokai repatriation team for Te Papa museum.

But there's a twist in this story.

"Over time, as we've got to know him more and understand his motivation, we see that he really became a friend of the Māori."

So how do we go from a headhunting "predator of culture" to a "friend of the Māori"? That's a fascinating story in of itself. It's mostly been driven by the research of Tim Walker, a former curator at Te Papa who wrote his thesis on Robley in the 1980s.

"That's the image that people have of him," says Walker, gesturing to the gruesome black and white photo of Robley posing with his collection. "I think what we see generally is people's projections of their own sense of what was going on onto that image."

In Walker's words, Robley was a man "out of time". His motives were often misunderstood in his own day and are even more difficult to decipher from the perspective of 21st century Aotearoa.

Disaster at Gate Pā…

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The death penalty has started wars, won elections, outraged the population and ruined lives. Join William Ray for this live podcast recording at the Bread and Circus Festival in Christchurch with guests Dame Fiona Kidman, Vincent O'Malley and Mark Derby as they unpick the history of executions in New Zealand.

The death penalty has started wars, won elections, outraged the population and ruined lives. Join William Ray for this live podcast recording at the Bread and Circus World Buskers Festival in Christchurch with guests Dame Fiona Kidman, Vincent O'Malley and Mark Derby as they unpick the history of executions in New Zealand.

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Bully Hayes is famous as a charismatic "pirate" of the South Pacific. But most stories gloss over his more heinous crimes: Slavery, sexual assault and the brutal abuse of his crew.

Bully Hayes is a man who made his mark on the Pacific. His image today is as a swashbuckling rogue who swindled his way from China to California, from Apia to Akaroa.

Bully could leap from the floor of a ballroom and kick the ceiling, he captured the notorious corsair Eli Boggs, he was the ringmaster of a circus on the Australian goldfields.

It's a life story that's inspired several books and even one Hollywood movie starring Tommy Lee Jones. But those stories usually skip over the nastier side of Bully Hayes: His brutal treatment of his crew, his career as a slaver, the multiple accusations of rape and paedophilia.

"He had this reputation of being a scoundrel from birth," says maritime historian Joan Druett, author of The Notorious Captain Hayes. "But in those days you could print anything you like, and if it was sensational enough and popular enough - all the other papers would copy it!"

Bully Hayes (real name: William Henry Hayes) was an international criminal celebrity. Through the 1860s and 70s his name appeared in newspapers as far afield as Hawaii and Singapore. Virtually every paper referred to him as "The Notorious Captain Hayes".

Some of the stories printed in the papers were true. For example his astounding capture of the American pirate Eli Boggs - beating him into submission as the pair grappled in the ocean, surrounded by the burning wreckage of Eli's ship. This despite Eli being armed to the teeth - literally! (he'd jumped overboard with a cutlass clamped in his jaws).

Other stories are more dubious and some seem to have been made up by Bully himself. "He liked having this spectacular reputation, and he added to it," Joan Druett explains.

According to one origin story (almost certainly invented by Bully) he was a US Navy Captain on the China station who was Court Martialed after hanging 25 Chinese pirates without a trial.

"But according to what records there are he 18 or 19 years old at the time. Which makes it a bit unlikely he was in charge of a US gunboat," says Joan.

A more credible story is that Bully learned to sale as a merchant on the Great Lakes near his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.

He is then said to have got a job with the Chinese Navy, but it didn't take long for this position to turn into a criminal enterprise with the aid of another American captain, Ben Pease.

Bully and Pease sailed all around China extorting merchants for "protection" from pirates. "They had a protection racket. They were mobsters," Joan explains…

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In the second of Black Sheep's two part series, we find out how the Prussian mercenary Gustavus von Tempsky went from a relatively famous soldier to an uber-hero of New Zealand's colonial mythology.

One who followed glory's beacon from his boyhood till he fell,

Dying like a valiant soldier, after fighting long and well.

Brief the record, yet it seems like some wild legend or romance;

This is a stanza from "How Von Tempsky Died" an insanely romantic ballad penned by Thomas Bracken nearly 20 years after Major Gustavus von Tempsky was shot dead at the Battle of Te Ngutu o te Manu.

In Bracken's day Von Temspky's fame was only reaching new heights. He had become the great hero of the New Zealand wars who wielded his bowie knife with the same skill as his paintbrush; whose troops worshiped him and whose enemies feared him.

This narrative held sway in New Zealand for nearly a hundred years, the darker side to his story was mostly ignored. In the last 40 years that's started to change.

"He's been called just a bloodthirsty mercenary, a glory hunter and a terrorist," says Andrew Moffat, writer and researcher at Puke Ariki Museum in New Plymouth.

Von Temspky was a deeply contradictory figure, even in his own time. His troops may have loved him but some of his fellow officers despised his self-promotion and political ambition. He may have written critical accounts of atrocities at Ōrākau and Rangiaowhia but he also praised "scorched earth" raids against Māori in Taranaki - and he participated in those raids personally.

For further reading on von Tempsky: G.F. von Tempsky, artist & adventurer / Rose Young; with Heather Curnow and Michael King. 1981

Publisher: Martinborough, N.Z: Alister Taylor, 1981

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He was larger than life, a warrior, artist and musician whose legend has only grown since his death during the New Zealand Wars in 1868.... but Gustavus von Tempsky had a dark side.

Gustavus von Tempsky is the star of a hundred songs and stories. The mercenary and adventurer whose Māori enemies called him Manu-rau - "a hundred birds". He was beloved by his troops, the famous Forest Rangers, who refused to fight under any other man after he died.

And it's not all guts and glory, von Tempsky was a talented artist, singer, musician and author whose romantic, heroic image made him the most popular man in the colony back in the 1860s.

His death at the Battle of Te Ngutu o Te Manu only heightened his legend. Thomas Bracken (author of NZ's national anthem) composed a ballad praising his legacy in the most overblown terms imaginable. Newspapers described his death as an "irreparable loss". Generations of New Zealanders have grown up with an image of von Tempsky as the uber hero of our colonial history.

But the real Gustavus von Tempsky was a deeply contradictory figure even in his own time.

His troops may have hero worshiped him but some fellow officers thought he was a self-aggrandising braggart who played on his public image to curry favour with politicians and further his career.

His writings may have criticised the British army's mistreatment of Māori wounded and civilians, but those writings also praised indiscriminate scorched earth tactics against "rebel" and "loyalist" Māori alike.

Von Tempsky had a dark side, and until relatively recently that side of his story was mostly ignored...

For further reading on von Tempsky: G.F. von Tempsky, artist & adventurer / Rose Young; with Heather Curnow and Michael King. 1981

Publisher: Martinborough, N.Z: Alister Taylor, 1981

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In 1877 Chief Justice James Prendergast ruled the Treaty of Waitangi was "a simple nullity", in part because it was signed by "simple barbarians" and "savages". Those words have seen him condemned as an arch-villain of NZ history, but was he really?

He really is as close as we have to a legal villain

"A simple nullity" - three words which damned the man who uttered them to become the most reviled judge in New Zealand history.

The quote referred to the Treaty of Waitangi and were part of a ruling which helped justify the separation of Māori from their lands for more than a century. Other words in that ruling include "simple barbarians" and "savages".

James Prendergast arrived in New Zealand during the Otago gold-rush in 1862.

The son of a judge, he trained as a lawyer at Cambridge University and rose rapidly through the ranks of the New Zealand legal profession. He was appointed Attorney General just three years after arriving in the country.

"That is just a classic colonial ," says Grant Morris, Victoria University legal historian and author of Prendergast: Legal Villain? "They just don't have the people with enough experience to fill these roles, or at least they only have a few so there is not a lot of competition."

In the role of Attorney General, Prendergast provided legal justification for horrific acts of the New Zealand Wars, including the use of 'dead or alive' bounties for Māori leaders.

In one legal opinion he wrote that "the revolt has now been carried out in defiance of all the laws of nature, and there can be no doubt that all who have taken part in it have forfeited all claim for mercy."

He also dismissed the legitimacy of Māori grievances against the Crown saying:

"The Māoris now in arms have put forward no grievance for which they seek redress. Their objective, so far as can be collected from their acts, is murder, cannibalism and rape. They form themselves into bands and roam the country seeking prey"

- James Prendergast

"There were definitely people in the colony at the time who saw his opinions as being overly harsh," says Grant Morris. "Some would have seen them as not even abiding by the law of the time."

Prendergast served as Attorney General until 1875 when he was appointed Chief Justice.

In that role, alongside a fellow judge - William Richmond, he presided over the Wi Parata case. As part of his ruling he declared the Treaty of Waitangi was a "simple nullity" insofar as it purported to cede sovereignty to the Crown because the Crown's sovereignty came from 'discovery and occupation' rather than the Treaty…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Meet the New Zealand author of a book beloved by Neo-Nazi's, Satanists and White Supremacists. Bizarrely Arthur Desmond started off as a hard-core labour activist and supporter of Maori rights, but he then went "so far to the left that dropped off the edge."

Arthur Desmond is possibly the most widely read and influential political writer New Zealand has ever produced.

Unfortunately, the book he's best known for is - in the words of one reviewer on Goodreads.com - "sexist, racist, classist and more violent than any Tarantino movie". And the people his book is influencing these days are mostly neo-Nazis, white supremacists and misogynists.

But in his early days as a farm worker in Hawke's Bay, Desmond was a champion of workers' rights and the rights of Māori. So, what happened?

In the words of one historian, he went "so far to the left that dropped off the edge."

"It's a very disturbing, very unpleasant political philosophy, but it led to the rise of Hitler and Mussolini"

Arthur Desmond has mysterious origins. Nobody knows where he was born or who his parents were.

"I'm not certain Arthur Desmond is his real given name. It probably isn't," says historian Mark Derby, who's recently written a book titled Ragnar Redbeard: the Antipodean Origins of Radical Fabulist Arthur Desmond.

The first time Desmond appears in the historical record is in 1883. He was about 25 years old and running to become the Member of Parliament for Hawke's Bay. Desmond ran a populist campaign, rallying crowds of fellow farm workers who were fed up with the rich sheep barons who dominated the political establishment of the time.

One of his political speeches read like this:

"I have seen men living in a hut where no fire was allowed. Going to bed on a wet, cold day to keep themselves warm. I have seen the wind and the rain coming in through the cracked roof - and the winter storm whistling through the rafters, as it does through the rigging of a ship. And I have also known of the owners of these colonial gallivanting in some London ballroom upon the profits of these slaves' labour."

Desmond split the vote with another left-wing candidate on his first run for parliament and performed even better during his second run in 1887 - but failed to win a seat.

However, he alienated the settler community with his support for the former Māori guerrilla leader and founder of the Ringatu church, Te Kooti. When public meetings were held to protest a planned trip by Te Kooti to Gisborne, Desmond was the only Pākehā who raised his voice in support…

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Pākehā settlers in Taranaki knew John Bryce as "Honest John" but Taranaki Māori called him "Bryce Kōhuru" - Bryce the Murderer. Black Sheep investigates the life of the infamous Native Affairs Minister who led the assault on Parihaka.

Pākehā settlers in Taranaki knew John Bryce as "Honest John" but Taranaki Māori had another nickname. They called him "Bryce Kōhuru" - Bryce the Murderer. In this episode of Black Sheep William Ray investigates the life of the infamous Native Affairs Minister.

John Bryce has gone down in history as an arrogant sometimes brutal man, with harsh attitudes towards Māori, even for his time.

But nobody is born racist, so where did it come from? The earliest hint comes when Bryce was just six years old, living in Glasgow in 1839.

John Bryce's mother had recently died from tuberculosis and his father decided to take the family from their home in Scotland to New Zealand. While they were waiting to depart on their ship this poem by Poet Laureate, Robert Southey was read:

On Zealand's hills, where tigers steal along,

And the dread Indian chants a dismal song,

Where human fiends on midnight errands walk,

And bathe in brains the murderous tomahawk.

Along with that slightly bloodcurdling poem, six-year old John Bryce would have heard the passengers and crew telling stories of the Boyd massacre, where around 60 Europeans were killed and eaten by Māori at Whangaroa.

Bryce and his fellow passengers were among the very first colonists to settle in the Wellington region at Pito-one (now called Petone) under the protection of a local rangatira, Puakawa. But, just three weeks after the settlers arrived in Petone, Puakawa was killed in a raid by followers of Te Rauparaha from the Kapiti Coast.

When he turned 13 John Bryce had another foundation experience of Māori. 1846 saw the outbreak of the Hutt War, between Māori and Pākehā in the Wellington region.

50 years later John Bryce related the story of Bugler William Allen a young man who, according to popular legend, spotted a raid and continued to sound the alarm despite axe wounds to both arms. The story goes that he held the bugle between his knees and kept blowing until he was struck in the head and killed.

This incident "made a lasting impression on Bryce," says historian Moyra Cooke, who researched John Bryce for her masters thesis.

A few years after the end of the Hutt War John and his older brother went to Australia to become diggers in the Victorian gold rush. They must have struck a good lode because when they returned they were rich enough to buy land for farming at Brunswick, near Whanganui…

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Roy Courlander was a New Zealand soldier who joined Nazi Germany's infamous SS during WWII. He participated in propaganda efforts trying to turn more allied soldiers to the Nazi cause. So why did he decide to turn traitor?

On ANZAC day New Zealanders remember the heroism and sacrifice of those killed in war, but not all soldiers have legacies worth celebrating. Case in point: Roy Courlander, a NZ Army Private who volunteered to join Nazi Germany's infamous Waffen SS.

Roy Courlander's early years are hard to trace. He was born in London in 1914 and was raised by his mother, Edith Carter and his stepfather, Leonard Courlander. He never knew his biological father.

In his late teens Courlander went to work on his stepfather's plantations in Vanuatu. He then came to New Zealand in 1938 and got a job with the Inland Revenue Department.

"Then in mid-1939 he's in trouble because in Napier he's arrested after a burglary," says New Zealand Defence Force Historian John Crawford.

This burglary was quite a serious incident. A young woman came home to find three men, including Courlander, inside her house. They assaulted her but she screamed and neighbours came to her rescue. The men were all caught and prosecuted.

"Courlander and two other men were eventually caught and prosecuted for their parts in this crime," John says.

Roy Courlander was still on probation for the robbery on September 3rd, 1939 when war was declared by Britain and by extension New Zealand, on Nazi Germany.

He signed up with the Second NZ Expeditionary Force and was assigned to 18th Infantry Battalion. He was deployed to Egypt where he volunteered to serve with battalion intelligence and began teaching himself German.

In 1941 Roy Courlander was one of thousands of British and Commonwealth troops swept up in the disastrous Greek campaign.

He was separated from his unit and eventually captured in Kalamata. When on a train bound for a prisoner of war camp in Yugoslavia, he and a fellow soldier saw a chance for escape. After the war ended he wrote this account of what happened:

"On the night of June 1941, I and Private Kedsell succeeded in escaping through the window of the cattle truck that was taking us to Germany. The train stopped and the Germans started firing at us as we ran amongst the bushes along the railway track. Private Kedsell was hit and I was recaptured early the next morning. I received a beating up, was trussed up with barbed wire and taken to Germany." - Roy Courlander

This account is backed up by witnesses and is generally considered reliable. But John Crawford doubts Courlander really was "trussed up with barbed wire"…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

"The most vile criminal ever to be tried in New Zealand" Thomas Hall's crimes scandalised New Zealand when it was revealed he had attempted to murder his wife in order to steal her family fortune.

"You have achieved in the annals of crime the position of being the vilest criminal ever tried in New Zealand."

That's what the judge said to Thomas Hall as he sentenced him to life in prison in 1886.

Tom Hall was part of a rich and influential family in Timaru. His uncle, Sir John Hall, was a former Premier of New Zealand. You can imagine the scandal when news broke that a member of that family had attempted to poison his wife in an effort to steal her family fortune.

But while the initial reaction was a sort of morbid glee, it quickly turned to horror when the full extent of Tom's crimes were revealed.

The son of a rich sheep farmer, Tom Hall was born during a gigantic wool boom in the 20 years from 1850 to 1870. That boom saw Timaru grow from a few shacks on the beach to one of the wealthiest places in the country.

Tom initially went into the family business working a sheep run in the Mackenzie Country but quickly abandoned that line of work, due to harsh conditions as revealed in his diary.

"July 20: stayed a night with Parkerson on the way up. Lots of snow and severe frost. My horse had icicles three inches long on his nostrils. Twenty inches of snow fallen. Twelve inches still lying."

Instead, Tom Hall became a businessman... and a con-artist.

"People thought he was good at what he did," says Peter Graham, author of Vile Crimes: the Timaru Poisonings. "No one had any reason to suspect there was anything wrong with company."

Tom's business was in finance, property and insurance, which he used as a cover to steal clients' money and forge documents to get loans from banks.

"He was shuffling money around left, right and centre," Peter Graham says. "He was trying to stave off the day when he was going to be exposed."

A worldwide credit crisis in the 1880s proved disastrous for Tom's scam. With credit drying up he was forced to look elsewhere for money.

"His way out was to marry a wife with money," Peter says. "He picked upon Kitty Cain. She was one of two stepdaughters of Captain Cain really a founding father of Timaru."

But it wasn't enough to simply marry a rich woman, Tom wanted Kitty's money all to himself. Even before they were wed, he was planning on killing her.

"Tom Hall travelled to Christchurch to get legal advice before he married Kitty," says Peter…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Nazi "assassins", mischievous con-artists and power hungry spies... Black Sheep investigates how a pair of hoaxers convinced the government that New Zealand had been infiltrated by Nazi agents.

In 1942 the head of New Zealand's first spy agency, the Security Intelligence Bureau (SIB), sent a shocking letter to the Prime Minister.

Major Kenneth Folkes told Peter Fraser that Nazi agents had infiltrated New Zealand. He said the Germans had established a network of saboteurs and were planning on blowing up critical infrastructure and assassinating top level politicians.

But... the Nazi conspiracy was a hoax, and some historians think Major Folkes deliberately expanded that hoax in an effort to get more power for the SIB.

The hoax was dreamed up by two criminals Alfred Remmers and Sydney Ross, who were serving time together in Waikeria prison.

"Remmers was a policeman," says Sherwood Young, a retired police historian. "He was dismissed because he committed a crime - burgling houses while he was on the beat."

Young says Remmers was the mastermind of the hoax but needed a partner in crime to pull it off. " was a man who is sadly dying. Within a very short time he's dead of leukemia and he's in need of some conman to do the legwork."

That conman was Sydney Ross, a fraudster and safebreaker.

"He saw himself as a clever guy who could get away with things," says Beverly Price, who helped her late husband Hugh Price write a book on the Syd Ross hoax, The Plot to Subvert Wartime New Zealand.

After being released from prison in March 1942, Ross rang the Minister for Public Works and told him he'd been approached by Nazi conspirators who wanted to use his experience in safebreaking to blow up critical infrastructure to weaken New Zealand ahead of a German invasion.

"Ross started off with utter honesty," says Beverly Price. "His way of handling his hoax all along was a mixture of what was true and verifiable; and the fantasy - that there were conspirators trying to get in touch with him."

The government might have dismissed his story if not for a remarkable coincidence. The Prime Minister had just been told that a plot very similar to the fake conspiracy Ross was describing had just been uncovered in Australia.

Just days after Ross came forward, the headline of the Evening Post looked like this:

It turned out a proto-fascist group called "Australia First" (no relation to the current Australia First political party) were planning on blowing up infrastructure and distributing propaganda to smooth the way for a Japanese invasion…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Why do some historians think an NZ-born traitor was "instrumental" in the Japanese victory in Singapore during WWII? And why is there such a mystery surrounding the Reefton boy who seemingly spied for the Japanese?

Why do some historians think an NZ-born traitor was "instrumental" to the Japanese victory in Singapore during WWII?

In part 1 we heard how Patrick Heenan, a NZ-born captain in the British Army, came to despise his comrades and eventually decided to act as a spy for the Japanese. In this episode Black Sheep uncovers the mystery surrounding that treason, allegations of a cover-up, and the "watery grave" which ends Patrick Heenan's story.

The Spy

Once he arrived in Malaya Patrick Heenan got a job as an intelligence officer, working as a liaison between the Army and the Air Force

Almost from the moment that transfer was approved, he began to act suspiciously. His commanding officer, Major France, wrote a memoir outlining some of his dodgy behaviour.

"I had discovered that during my absence had done two outrageous things:

Firstly he had taken a party of my troops on ground exercises and on these he had taken photographs of all the junctions and crossroads into Thailand, whilst the signposts were still in position. These would of course have been removed in event of a war.

Secondly, whilst I was away he had gone to the Station Commander and persuaded him that he had my permission to see my documents - highly secret and kept in my Command safe." - Major France, Odd Man Out: The Story Of The Singapore Traitor

Actually, Major France said Heenan tried to get into his safe and access those secret documents not once, but twice.

Professor Brian Farrell says that's totally astonishing. "You do this and you're some sort of fast-talking charmer who has the gift of the gab and you maybe get away with it once ... but twice? You have to ask what was going on here."

"Why didn't as a measure of sheer prudence have this guy behind bars right away? You're not in a position to take chances, you're in the middle of a war which is going very badly!"

To give Major France some credit, he did try to get to the bottom of Captain Heenan's suspicious behaviour by searching his room…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Arthur Worthington was a con artist who travelled the USA, marrying rich women then abandoning them and stealing all their money. With private detectives hot on his tail, he jumped on a ship bound for Christchurch where he set up his own religion and his own church.

Arthur Worthington was a con artist who travelled the USA, marrying rich women then abandoning them and stealing all their money.

With private detectives hot on his tail in 1890, he jumped on a ship bound for Christchurch where he set up his own religion and his own church, the famous Temple of Truth.

But when his history in the United States caught up with him Worthington had to face the music in an angry confrontation.

It got so out of hand that for the first time ever time in New Zealand the Riot Act had to be read to disperse the crowds.

In a new Black Sheep podcast, William Ray speaks to religious history professor Peter Lineham, who asks why Worthington did it. Was he a common crook? Was he psychopathic? Was he a true believer?

"He's taken the Christian beliefs and turned them into abstract principals that are intended to elevate humanity to the point where they don't need traditional and conventional forms of religion"

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In 1916 John Cullen led a small army of police deep into the forests of Te Urewera to arrest the Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana - his crime? Preaching that his followers shouldn't sign up to fight in the First World War. But the raid is a complete disaster. Cullen oversees the shooting of two men in cold blood and the whole case against Rua unravels due to a huge legal blunder.

In 1916 John Cullen led a small army of police deep into the misty forests of Te Urewera to arrest the Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana - his crime? Preaching that his followers shouldn't sign up to fight in the First World War.

But the raid is a complete disaster. Cullen oversees the shooting of two men in cold blood and the whole case against Rua unravels due to a huge legal blunder.

Historian Mark Derby explains how the son of an Irish turnip farmer rose to the very top of the New Zealand police - and how he didn't pay too much attention to whose neck he stepped on along the way.

Music:

Artist: Survival

Song: Rua Kenana

Composer: Survival

Album: Tribal Stomp

Label: Tangata 790613

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

"Four shots, and then another one" - that's how the story of Alice Parkinson begins as the 25 year old waitress gunned down her fiancé, Bert West, in the middle of a street in Napier. So why did thousands of New Zealanders sign a petition demanding her release?

"Four shots, and then another one." That's how the story of Alice Parkinson begins, as the 25 year old waitress guns down her fiancé, Bert West, in the middle of Nelson Street in Napier in 1915.

The first four shots hit Bert in the face, head, neck and chest. The final shot is fired point blank into Alice's own temple.

She had planned it this way, a murder-suicide to get vengeance on the man who promised to marry her when she got pregnant and then deserted her when that child was stillborn.

But Alice doesn't die, and when she's locked in prison for manslaughter, something even stranger happens...

Historian Carol Markwell tells the story of Alice Parkinson - the killer who a hundred thousand New Zealanders said should be set free.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

What drove a boy from Reefton to turn against his comrades in World War Two? How was a former boxing and swimming champion recruited as an agent of Imperial Japan? It's a story still shrouded in mystery more than 70 years later.

What drove a boy from Reefton to turn against his comrades in World War Two? How was a former boxing and swimming champion recruited as an agent of Imperial Japan? Did the British military conceal the true extent of the damage he did to the Allied war effort? And how did he meet his end in what a mysterious postcard described as a "watery grave"?

These questions, and many more, surround the murky mystery of Captain Patrick Heenan, one of the least understood traitors of the Second World War.

The Reefton Bastard

When Heenan was born, Reefton was a dilapidated place. It was 1910 and the gold rush days were over. Patrick was illegitimate, nobody knows who his real father was. He was named after an Irish Catholic called George Heenan who his mother, Annie, married shortly after his birth.

The family emigrated to Burma (Myanmar) in 1912 and shortly after arriving, George died. Annie was left to raise Patrick alone for the next ten years.

Maybe it was in these years that Heenan first started to develop a hatred for the British Empire. Colonial Burma was a deeply racist and repressive place, the famous author George Orwell worked as a policeman in Burma at the same time Heenan lived there and drew on that experience for one of his books.

"You hear your Oriental friends called 'greasy little babus', and you admit, dutifully, that they are greasy little babus. You see louts fresh from school kicking grey-haired servants. The time comes when you burn with hatred of your own countrymen, when you long for a native rising to drown their Empire in blood." - George Orwell, Burmese Days

When Heenan turned 12 he and his mother relocated to England where Annie paid for her son to attend the prestigious Cheltenham College.

Heenan's school years were deeply unhappy. Old school-mates said he was both a bully himself and a victim of bullying.

" didn't want to fall down that socio-economic ladder," explains Brian Farrell, a military historian at Singapore National University. "So there was some scrimping and saving to send him to schools that she really couldn't afford. As a result he was always the kid with the oldest, tattiest, most out of date shoes and clothes. got teased about it a lot."

Racism In The Ranks

Heenan's social isolation continued after he left school and joined the British Indian Army as a junior office…

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Amy Bock was a criminal "supreme in her cleverness". Her most famous con saw her pose as a man for 15 weeks and marry the daughter of her landlord. Nobody has ever been able to explain what motivated her lifetime of fraud and scams.

Detective Henry Hunt knocks on the door of Percy Redwood, a wealthy sheep farmer on an extended holiday at Nugget Point on the Catlins Coast.

Over the last few months, Percy had made a lot of friends in town, in fact, he just recently married a local woman called Agnes Ottaway.

The door opens. Percy, a very short man, told his friends he used to be a jockey in his younger days. But that was a lie, pretty much everything Percy told his friends was a lie.

"The game is up, Amy," said Detective Hunt.

Percy's shoulders slump. "I see you know it all," he said... or rather, she said.

Percy was not really a wealthy sheep farmer and former jockey. He was a persona invented by Amy Bock, the most prolific con-artist in New Zealand history.

"A Woman Bridegroom, Exploits Of An Adventuress, An Extraordinary Story"

"In Man's Attire, A Woman's Escapade"

"A Marvellous Masquerade, A Woman Dressed As A Man Marries A Port Molyneax Girl."

"The Champion Crook of the Century"

This is just a small sample of the scandalised headlines which filled the national newspapers after Amy's scam was revealed. The papers delved into her old court records, they interviewed her childhood friends and trawled through older newspaper clippings.

What they uncover is a lifetime of scams, frauds and lies going all the way back to Amy's childhood in the rural Australian town of Sale, a few hundred kilometres east of Melbourne.

"It's In My Blood"

Amy came from a respectable family in Sale, her father ran a successful photography business which helped him make connections with the movers and shakers in town.

But there was a tragedy at the heart of the Bock family. Amy's mother suffered from a serious mental illness.

" would have very manic episodes and then episodes of melancholia. So probably what we would think of now as manic-depressive ," said Dr Jenny Coleman, author of Mad or Bad: the life and exploits of Amy Bock.

When Amy was ten years old her mother was locked up in a lunatic asylum. Amy never saw her again. She died three years later.

It was around this point people started to have concerns about Amy's mental health. She began telling stories and acting out in bizarre ways. One time she bought a load of books under her father's name and just gave them away to random people in town…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Kimble Bent was one of a tiny handful of Europeans who switched sides during the New Zealand Wars, who deserted the British army to join Māori "rebels" in Taranaki and reportedly witnessed a famous incident of kai tangata (cannibalism) in the wake of a battle against colonial forces.

It's reasonably common knowledge that large numbers of Māori fought on the side of the government during the New Zealand Wars. We even have a name for them, kūpapa Māori.

A less well-known story is the handful of Europeans who went in the other direction - Pākehā soldiers who deserted the British army and joined the cause of Māori "rebels".

Most of these people are poorly documented, but there is one exception: Kimble Bent.

June, 1865. A Ngāti Ruanui chief, Tito Hanataua, was riding his horse along a track near the bank of the Tangahoe river. He was there to scout a nearby British army fort.

To his astonishment he came face-to-face with a soldier wearing a dripping wet scarlet uniform. That soldier was a 25-year-old American, Kimble Bent.

Decades later, Bent recalled the conversation that followed to historian James Cowan, who published it in a book, The Adventures of Kimble Bent.

Tito Hanataua: "Here you Pākehā! Go back quick! Haere atu, haere atu! Go away back to the soldiers. I shoot you suppose you no go! Hoki atu!

Kimble Bent: Shoot away, I won't go back. I'm running away from the soldiers. I want to go to the Māoris. Take me with you!

Tito Hanataua: You tangata kuware! You Pākehā fool, go back! The Māori kill you, my word! You look out!

Kimble Bent: I don't care if they do, I tell you I want to live with the hauhaus.

Tito Hanataua: E pai ana (it is well). All right, you come along. But you look out for my tribe - they kill you.

- The Adventures of Kimble Bent

The events which led Kimble Bent to that life-changing meeting with Tito Hanataua began five years earlier, when he travelled from his home in Eastport, Maine, to the United Kingdom.

He quickly burned through the money which had been given to him by his father for the trip, and was left stranded with no way to return to the United States.

While he was drowning his sorrows at a pub, Bent's eye was drawn to the smart uniform of a British Army recruiting sergeant. Bent had formerly served in the United States Navy as a teen, and he decided to sign up.

It was the worst decision of his life.

"The discipline and parade ground drilling was a far cry from the rather more relaxed US Navy way of doing things. Floggings were common," said Chris Grosz, who wrote a graphic novel on Bent's story: Kimble Bent Malcontent…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A cottage burns down, three mutilated bodies are found inside and there are fears the whole city of Auckland could be at risk. In this episode of Black Sheep, William Ray investigates the story of the first European to be judicially executed in New Zealand history.

October 10th, 1847. The brutal murder of a Devonport family leaves Auckland fearing an invasion of vengeful Māori. But when that threat fails to materialise the police are left trying to solve New Zealand's first ever whodunnit...

It began just after midnight, when lookouts on the HMS Dido spot flames rising from the house of Lieutenant Robert Snow.

The sailors rush ashore and extinguish the blaze but after, find the badly mutilated bodies of Lt. Robert Snow, his wife Hannah and their four year old daughter, Mary.

Pieces of flesh had been cut from all three bodies. The sailors know what that means... Cannibalism.

The New Zealander (one of Aotearoa's very first newspapers) is quick to lay blame for the murder of the Snow family:

"There can be no doubt that the natives were perpetrators of this foul deed. Our native police pronounced the wounds to be Maori handiwork at once. The mutilation of the bodies, from all three of which large pieces of flesh had been cut by knives, and the parts from whence they were cut, is conclusive evidence."

The only controversy is whether the Māori killers were motivated by personal revenge against Snow, or if this is a precursor to a wider attack on Auckland itself.

As The New Zealander put it: "If the matter be political, this act, according to Maori custom, is a declaration of war."

Most of the prominent Māori chiefs who live near Auckland are equally convinced the murders were committed by Māori and are even more anxious than the European colonists to find the perpetrators.

"Chief Patuone over on the North Shore was very friendly towards Pakeha and chief Te Whero Whero in the Northern Waikato was also" says Terry Carson, author of The Axeman's Accomplice - a book about the Snow family murders. "They were quite keen that nothing interfere with the relationship" he explains.

Māori leaders assure the colonists that they will track down the person responsible and at first they have some success. A few weeks after the murders a group of prominent chiefs from Ngāti Maru and Waikato-Tainui arrive in Auckland with a prisoner; a man called Mamuku, who they say killed the Snows.

Mamuku is publicly interrogated on the veranda of Government House, but the questioning quickly reveals he knows nothing about the murders.

Police and Māori are stumped. But then, a break; the killers give themselves away…

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In 1981 Dunedin teenager Chris Lewis tried to shoot Queen Elizabeth. Then, at least according to some, authorities tried to cover it up. In this collaboration with Stuff.co.nz journalist Hamish McNeilly, Black Sheep looks into Chris Lewis's bizarre life story.

On October 14th, 1981 Dunedin teenager Chris Lewis tried to shoot Queen Elizabeth. Then (at least according to some) the authorities tried to cover it up. In this collaboration with Stuff.co.nz journalist Hamish McNeilly, RNZ's Black Sheep podcast looks into Lewis's bizarre life story.

For more on Chris Lewis you can read Hamish McNeilly's series The Snowman and the Queen.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

It's 1871 and the city of Auckland is being terrorised by a string of major fires. Fears are raised that a gang of anarchist fanatics could be responsible but the real culprit turns out to be a well known businessman with an axe to grind against Auckland high society.

Cyrus Haley burned down several of the most famous buildings in 19th century Auckland and tried to kill the family of a prominent businessman. To this day we still don't know why...

Music in this episode courtesy of Chris Priestly.

THE CHASE

January 27th, 1872. Auckland's chief of police, Inspector Broham, is hot on the trail of a fugitive who'd been terrorising the city.

Over the previous year, this mysterious figure had burned down five major buildings and sent threatening letters to newspapers. He claimed to be the leader of a group that had vowed to "destroy £100,000 worth of property and to take 5 of the lives of the most obnoxious persons."

Things got even more serious on January 22nd, 1872. The mystery man fired eight shots into the home of New Zealand's most prominent businessman, Thomas Russell (who featured in a previous Black Sheep episode).

But then the criminal slipped up. Returning to Russell's home a few days after the shooting, he set two haystacks on fire. The police were quickly alerted and Inspector Broham spotted a man trying to leave the scene.

The New Zealand Herald described the chase:

"In the pursuit Mr. Broham had to leap a massive stone wall, cross through an orchard, and again over an hawthorn fence, following up the chase over some very rough ground, across ditches, and through thick scrub. The man was still considerably ahead, as he also proved a swift runner: yet the pace of Mr. Broham told at last, and every minute the distance between the two lessened."

Finally, the shadowy figure realised there was no escaping Inspector Broham who the Herald described as "remarkably swift of foot".

The man turned on Inspector Broham, raised a gun, and pointed it directly at the police chief.

"But before he can fire he trips and falls," says historian Mark Derby. " subdues the man... and by the moonlight he recognises him."

To everyone's shock the man who'd been terrorising the city was a well known figure in Auckland's commercial scene - an investor and engineer called Cyrus Haley.

BAD BEGINNINGS

Cyrus Haley was 28 when he arrived in New Zealand in 1870 with his wife Emily and their two children.

The couple came from relatively wealthy backgrounds and were determined to rise in Auckland's elite social circles. At first, they tried to make a splash in the art scene…

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Charlotte Badger was one of the first European women to live in New Zealand. She was also a pirate... or at least that's the traditional story. This special episode of Black Sheep, recorded live at Charlotte's Kitchen restaurant in Paihia, investigates Charlotte's pirate mystery.

Charlotte Badger was one of the very first European women to live in New Zealand. She was also a pirate... or at least that's the traditional story.

In a special episode of Black Sheep recorded live at Charlotte's Kitchen restaurant in Paihia, William Ray and his guests, historians Jennifer Ashton and Kate Martin, investigate Charlotte's pirate mystery.

Charlotte Badger was born in 1778 in Bromsgrove, a small village outside Worcester in England. Her father was a labourer and the family probably struggled to make ends meet. In desperation, 18 year old Charlotte committed what would be considered a fairly minor crime today - she stole a number of small items, including a silver coin, from her employer.

In 17th century England however, housebreaking was a hanging offence and Charlotte was sentenced to death. Luckily, her sentence was commuted and she was instead given seven years transportation to the New South Wales penal colony at Port Dalrymple, now known as Sydney.

"She arrived in Sydney in 1801 and then she disappears until 1806," says Jennifer Ashton, a historian who's been investigating the supposed pirate's story.

Charlotte's reappearance came in the form of a wanted notice posted in the Sydney Gazette in 1806:

"The persons under-mentioned and described did, on the 16th day of June 1806, by force of arms and violently and piratically take away from His Majesty's settlement of Port Dalrymple, a Colonial Brig or Vessel called the Venus."

The notice went on to name and describe about a dozen mutineers. Last on the list were two women:

"Catherine Hagerty, convict. Middle sized, fresh complexion. Much inclined to smile. Hoarse voice.

Charlotte Badger, convict. Very corpulent, full face, thick lips, infant child."

Later, the Gazette published official depositions from people who witnessed the mutiny, including the ship's captain who said the leaders of the mutiny were the first mate, the pilot of the ship and a soldier. The two women convicts are hardly discussed at all aside from a mention that Catherine Hagerty was "cohabiting" with the first mate, Benjamin Kelly, and had thrown some papers overboard.

It seems strange that the captain didn't say much about the two women given that a 1895 newspaper article depicts both Catherine Hagerty and Charlotte Badger taking an active part in the mutiny, armed with swords and pistols…

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Richard Burgess may be New Zealand's most prolific serial killer. In the 1860s he and his outlaw gang roved the West Coast, robbing and murdering dozens of people. The full number of victims is still unknown.

"Potentially he was New Zealand's worst serial killer..."

Richard Burgess may be the most prolific murderer New Zealand has ever seen.

It's estimated the death toll his gang of outlaws inflicted while roving the goldfields of the South Island in the 1860s ranged anywhere up to 35 people.

The Burgess gang are best known for the so-called Maungatapu murders, crimes which saw all but one of the gang hanged. The lone survivor was Joseph Sullivan, who turned traitor to save his own skin.

Burgess' story has inspired several books and magazine features. Currently, a play about his gang's exploits is touring the Marlborough Region.

He sealed his place in New Zealand history with a 46-page confession described as "without peer in the literature of murder" by the famous American author Mark Twain.

"It certainly does make for amazing reading," says Wayne Martin, author of Murder on the Maungatapu. "Right the way through he's quoting anecdotes from classic texts and scripture."

Burgess had a love of literature instilled by his mother while growing up in London's Hatton Garden in the 1840s. But although she passed this interest on to her son, she wasn't able to curb his violent, criminal streak .

"He followed your classic Victorian street criminal way of life," says Wayne Martin. " from pick-pocketing to crimes of violence eventually caught up with him and saw him transported to Australia."

Martin describes Burgess as "hopelessly addicted to crime". And with more than 80 percent of the police force having resigned to seek their fortune in the gold rush in the 1850s, Australia wasn't the best place to kick a criminal addiction.

From his late teens and into his twenties Burgess roved the goldfields of Melbourne as part of a gang, robbing miners. Eventually those crimes caught up with him and he was introduced to the horrifically brutal colonial justice system - in particular, the floating prison hulks anchored off the coast of Melbourne where he spent eight years of his sentence.

Wayne Martin believes the brutality of those prison ships is what turned Burgess from a relatively normal criminal into a monster.

"The prisoners on those hulks swore that if they got out they were not coming back to a place like this. They were not going to leave witnesses to testify against them," he says. "That was the seed of the monster he became and also this policy of killing not to leave witnesses."…

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Annie Aves was a famous abortionist from the 1930s. She was tried four times but each time the jury failed to reach a verdict. Her career finally came to an end when she was shot and killed by the boyfriend of a woman who'd sought her services.

Content Warning: This podcast deals with abortion and infanticide. Some may find it distressing.

On October 3, 1938 the city of Napier was in an uproar. That night, a 51 year old woman in the upmarket suburb of Westshore had been gunned down in her front doorway after she opened the door to a stranger.

The funeral for the woman drew a big crowd. It followed the hearse through the street and covered her coffin in flowers, but when the man who shot this woman was sentenced the judge all but said the victim had brought her death on herself.

That's because Chief Justice Sir Michael Myers knew this woman very well - she was Annie Aves, the famous abortionist who had been tried four times for "using an instrument with intent to procure a miscarriage".

All four juries failed to reach a verdict.

Annie was orphaned at an early age. Her father committed suicide while she was still in the womb and her mother died when she was three years old.

After school she went into domestic service and married Hawke's Bay grape grower, John Craike. The pair had two children but separated after 12 years of marriage. After John's death in 1931 Annie remarried. This time to a music teacher called Charles Aves.

Otago University historian Barbara Brookes says it was probably around this time that Annie began her illegal trade in abortion. It was the middle of the Great Depression - Annie would have needed the money and women needed her services.

"Many women said they just couldn't afford another mouth to feed," Barbara says. "Young women were often very vulnerable. If you were a domestic servant in a house and you got pregnant you lose your job."

So-called 'back-street' abortionists could make a lot of money as long as they weren't caught. Annie's records suggest that over an 18 month period she dealt with 183 clients and what would have translated into more than $200 thousand.

She used a method called the "sea tangle tent" where a stick of seaweed is inserted into the mouth of the uterus to induce a miscarriage. It was a relatively safe technique which is still sometimes used today by obstetricians to help bring on labour.

But the law caught up with Annie Aves in June 1936. "There is a tip-off to the police and the police raid her premises. They find 22 sets of foetal remains," Barbara says…

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Can you imagine if 20 per cent of the people you know suddenly died? How would you feel if the people in charge blocked doctors from helping them? For Samoans in 1918 this wasn't a hypothetical question.

Imagine if one fifth of all the people you know suddenly died.

Let's say you closely know about 200 people. Friends, coworkers, family - maybe a few local shopkeepers. Within a few weeks 40 of them are dead. Imagine how you would feel burying 40 people who were close to you.

Now, how would you feel if the people in charge stopped doctors from trying to save your loved ones?

For Samoans living in the early 20th century this wasn't a hypothetical question.

On 7 November 1918 a ship called the Talune brought a virulent strain influenza to Samoa from New Zealand. Over the next few months at least 8500 people died.

In most countries the death toll from that disease, often called Spanish Flu, was around 2-5 percent. In Samoa the death rate was more than 20 percent.

"We can barely understand what that does to a society", says Damon Salesa, Associate Professor of Pacific Studies at Auckland University. "There are not enough people to bury the dead. There are not enough people to feed and care for the living."

The suffering of the Samoans was exacerbated by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Logan, the 51-year-old military administrator who was in charge of Samoa at the time of the outbreak.

"He seemed completely lost in how to cope with this sort of thing," says Mike Field, author of Black Saturday: NZ's Tragic Blunders in Samoa. "The New Zealand medical officer and his wife tried to set up aid stations and Logan insisted they be closed down."

There was no cure for the 1918 influenza so it's debatable if medical help would actually have prevented many deaths, but Damon Salesa says Robert Logan's response to the outbreak still deeply affected Samoans.

"It would have made an enormous difference to how Samoans saw New Zealanders... what they saw from Logan was simply that he appeared not to care."

Logan was even hostile toward Samoans suffering from the disease. He's reported to have said this to a school principal after being asked to deliver food to sick children at the boarding school.

"Send them food! I would rather see them burning in hell! There is a dead horse at your gate, let them eat that. Great fat, lazy loafing creatures." - Robert Logan

Mike Field thinks Logan's actions hardened Samoan opposition to New Zealand rule.

"They petitioned London to say 'these New Zealanders don't seem to know what they're doing'... they asked for direct rule from London," he says…

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In the 1880s Austrian naturalist and ethnographer Andreas Reischek stole four mummified Māori corpses and smuggled them out of the country so they could be displayed at a museum in Vienna. He also shot hundreds of native New Zealand birds to preserve them "for science".

In the 1880s Andreas Reischek stole four mummified corpses from an urupa near Kawhia so he could sell them to a museum in his native Austria.

The bodies made up just a fraction of a gigantic collection of preserved birds, lizards and Māori artifacts which Andreas collected while travelling around New Zealand.

Unsurprisingly the theft of the bodies has seen Reischek branded an arch-villain of history, but researcher and translator Dr Sascha Nolden has uncovered new information about Reischek which, while not excusing his actions, does shed some light on his motivations.

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The worst kind of villain in New Zealand history was... an Auckland property speculator.

In this week's episode, we learn about the worst kind of villain in New Zealand history... an Auckland property speculator.

Historian and author Vincent O'Malley tells the story of Thomas Russell and his victims, both Māori and Pakeha.

Today these baby boomer 'bastards' are accused of driving house prices through the roof but in the past they helped start and push along the Waikato War, one of the most unjust conflicts in our history.

Chief among this cabal was Russell, the founder of BNZ and many other important Auckland businesses.

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Did you know that after WWI New Zealand established an official eugenics board? We tend to think of eugenics as being something the Nazis invented but really it was embraced all around the world in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In this episode of Black Sheep historian and disability researcher Hilary Stace traces the history of New Zealand's eugenicists.

CORRECTION: The elderly Chinese man murdered by Lionel Terry was named Joe Kum Yung. He was killed in Haining Street, Wellington, on 24 September 1905, not in Auckland in 1907 as stated in this podcast.

Did you know that after the First World War New Zealand established an official eugenics board? We tend to think of eugenics as being something the Nazis invented but really it was embraced all around the world in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

It was particularly popular among the intellectual classes. Some of our most progressive institutions, the National Council of Women, Federated Farmers and the Plunket Society all either promoted some form of eugenics or had members who did.

In this episode of Black Sheep historian and disability researcher Hilary Stace traces the history of New Zealand's eugenicists.

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Hongi Hika is a man with a difficult legacy. He's one of the greatest figures in New Zealand history, but he's also often held responsible for starting the Musket Wars.

Hongi Hika is a man with a difficult legacy. He's one of the greatest figures in New Zealand history, but he's also often held responsible for starting the Musket Wars - an outpouring of inter-tribal violence which may have claimed the lives of as many as 20,000 Maori.

History Professor Paul Moon tells how Hongi's skill as a political, economic and military leader allowed him to accomplish things no other chief ever has.

We also get Ngapuhi's perspective on Hongi Hika's legacy from one of his descendants, Haami Piripi.

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