Inside the Gay Prison Experiment is a Free Audible Podcast Original from Australia. This 5 hour podcast free and downloadable all at once on parent company Amazon’s site. We are through just the first chapter and we are hooked. Listen with us.
“Tucked away amongst snow-covered mountains is a tiny Australian town with a dark secret. Journalist Patrick Abboud hears whispers that it was once home to the world’s only ‘gay prison’. A prison that specifically incarcerated gay men. His investigation into what happened inside reveals the full story for the first time. This queer true-crime journey takes you from underground nightclubs to hidden sex haunts, to remote parts of New Zealand and England. You’ll find yourself entangled in a police cover up, a case of wrongful conviction and a human experiment that didn’t go to plan. At the centre of it all was a covert government operation to eradicate ‘the greatest menace to society’: homosexuality. “
FROM INTRO
ABBOUD: By the night of my work Christmas party, I really just wanted to switch off.
But a few drinks in a colleague came up to me and said he needed to talk.
About a story tip.
ABBOUD: “In a quiet corner. He told me what he heard from a friend.
Who’d heard it from an acquaintance.
That Australia used to be home. To a gay prison.
Supposedly a prison was built in the 50s specifically to incarcerate gay men… some sort of experiment. And that was it no more detail.
SUBJECT: “I didn’t know it was the only place in the world doing this. It’s a f****** scandal.”
ABBOUD: “When I started looking into the story of a gay prison, I had no idea what I’d stumbled into, revealing…”
SUBJECT: “…what the system didn’t want to be reviewed.
ANOTHER SUBJECT: “You have to expect that There’s a jail full of homosexuals”
ABBOUD: …and I had no idea that it would set me off on an investigation. That would take over years of my life.
SUBJECT : It’s a mystery.
ABBOUD: No, but nobody can find anything. If I keep digging and find this report…
SUBJECT: “I’ll kiss you.”
ANOTHER SUBJECT: At some point it was clearly buried.
ABBOUD: Hey, Mom.
MOM: Still Are you looking for?
ABBOUD: The report’s like it’s like the Holy Grail, Mum.
MOM: I don’t think it’s a bad thing to find out if you can hear(?) it.
ABBOUD: Trying to unlock the story of the gay prison would find me entangled in a police cover up. So you were placed in the public toilets as an undercover operative to catch these gay men out?
SUBJECT: “Yes”
ABBOUD: …with case of wrongful conviction.
SUBJECT: I just decided that if I stayed in Australia, I’d spend the rest of my life in jail or I’d be dead…
ABBOUD: …and a human experiment that didn’t go to plan
SUBJECT: …treating people like rats in a lab. You had to take your pants off and then push your penis through the rubber thing. The worst part was waiting for the shock.
ANOTHER SUBJECT: His treatment of patients was criminal. Bizarre. Indiscriminate. Careless.
ABBOUD: …at the center of this story, a secretive government operation, to eradicate a menace.
ABBOUD: This was something. Nasty. It was something dirty. This was the covid-19 of those years and epidemic oof homosexuality. cruelty. No difference.
And it all happened in a tiny Australian town … with a big secret.
SUBJECT: It seems like it’s something I’m watching on it. Netflix series. Not something that’s happened in my town.
This is The Greatest Menace, an audible original by Simon Punik and me Patrick Abboud
Audible Australia has made this 5 hour podcast free and downloadable all at once on parent company Amazon’s site. We are through just the first chapter and we are hooked. Listen with us.
Note: While we do make a very small commission on purchases using our links to Amazon, as do most sites, they pay zero commission on this one. We never take these pennies into account in recommendations. But in this case there aren’t even the pennies so base your thoughts on our recommendation on the quality of it.
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