Inside the Whiskey Au Go Go Case with Author Geoff Plunkett

Episode 125

After eight episodes unraveling the Whiskey Au Go Go fire, we're joined by Australian author and historian Geoff Plunkett, whose decades of research have helped uncover the complicated—and often contradictory—story behind one of Australia's deadliest fires.

Geoff takes us behind the investigation, the people at the center of the case, and the evidence that has fueled questions about what really happened at the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub on March 8, 1973. We talk about the challenges of separating fact from decades of rumor, what the historical record can—and can't—tell us, and some of the details that surprised us most while researching the series.

It's a chance to go beyond the case files with someone who has spent years digging into the story—and to revisit the Whiskey Au Go Go with a few questions we still weren't quite ready to put to rest.

Books by Geoff Plunkett

• The Burning Desire: The True Stories of Australia's Deadliest Serial Arsonists
• Death Row at Truro: The Shocking True Story of Australia's Deadliest Sex Killers
• Chemical Munitions Sea Dumping Off Australia
• The Whiskey Au Go Go Massacre: Murder, Arson and the Crime of the Century
• Let the Bums Burn: Australia's Deadliest Building Fire and the Salvation Army Tragedies
• Death by Mustard Gas: How Military Secrecy and Lost Weapons Can Kill
• Chemical Warfare in Australia: Australia's Involvement in Chemical Warfare 1914–Today
• Chemical Warfare Agent Sea Dumping Off Australia
• Scuttled and Abandoned Ships in Australian Waters — with Ronald Parsons