John Silvester: Sly of the Underworld

Lex Lasry (0:03)

Welcome to Law the Podcast. I'm Lex Lasry.

Greg Barns (0:05)

I'm Greg Barns.

Lex Lasry (0:06)

And Greg, today, you'd have to say Australian True Crime royalty. I know Meshel Laurie is in that category as well, but we really do have someone who stands out, and as a podcaster stands out as a true crime podcaster.

Greg Barns (0:20)

Not only that, he said that I said very sensible things once in his column.

Lex Lasry (0:26)

Yes.

Greg Barns (0:27)

And people wanted to know whether I'd fed him that line. And I said, I hadn't.

Lex Lasry (0:31)

Or paid him, even?

John Silvester (0:33)

No money.

Lex Lasry (0:35)

John Silvester, welcome to the podcast.

Greg Barns (0:37)

Thank you.

John Silvester (0:38)

Well, Greg, I understand I really sort of shortened your friendship group when I actually gave you a rap.

Greg Barns (0:43)

I said, well, why are you in Silvester's column? I think it was petty jealousy on the part of some barristers.

Lex Lasry (0:51)

Yeah. Well, that's a funny thing. You know, you wouldn't think that would happen in a barrister. John, I think you've said in the past that you are legitimately famous when you're known by one name. And I think at the time you were referring to Carl Williams.

But Sly, is that you? Are you famous by being known by one name?

John Silvester (1:08)

Yeah, I'm called Sly of the Underworld. And that was because a legendary copper, Kim West.

Lex Lasry (1:15)

Oh yes, Northcote CIB.

John Silvester (1:16)

Would refer to me because of the name Sly Silvesters, Silvesters-Stellone.

On Triple R, there was a program called Lawyers, Guns and Money. I remember it. In those days, lawyers weren't allowed to use their real names because it was seen as advertising. And Ross Campbell, who was a lawyer, became Ross Stevenson. And his partner, Dennis Connell, became Dennis Donahue.

Lex Lasry (1:38)

Yes.

John Silvester (1:38)

From Donahue and-

Lex Lasry (1:39)

From the famous-

Greg Barns (1:40)

From Donahue and Stevenson.

John Silvester (1:41)

So when he asked me to become a regular on his breakfast program, he wanted everybody to have a nickname. So I just took the one that Kim had given me.

Lex Lasry (1:50)

Thirty books you've written. Would that be right?

John Silvester (1:55)

Around about that. Some of them are crimes against literature.

The Chopper Reed series was considered the most shoplifted. Yes.

Lex Lasry (2:06)

We'll come to Chopper Reed.

John Silvester (2:09)

We did a book called Tough 101 Gangsters before Wikipedia.

In the back were the serious notes of which page, references and so on of the 101 gangsters. People thought we were taking ourselves seriously, but we knew every one of those gangsters, if they saw their name, would buy or steal 10 copies. As a result, it paid for the print run.

Lex Lasry (2:32)

Looking at your background and how it all started for you, it reminded me of how it all started for me. I think you would say you fell into journalism to a degree. You were doing a double degree at La Tribune and looking for something easy to do, and then suddenly found yourself heading towards journalism in some form or another, and ended up, I think, police rounds at Russell Street. Was that how it turned out?

John Silvester (2:51)

Well, the double degree was in drinking beer and sleeping in. Yes. And it was actually-

Greg Barns (2:58)

You wouldn't be, that would have been a big class, John.

John Silvester (3:01)

I was getting on us.

And it was Beverly Miller, Mick Miller's wife. Mick was to become chief commissioner. And she said to me, what are you going to do with your life? And I said, I don't know. And she said, you should be a journalist because you've got an opinion on everything. So I put it, I thought, this is great because this is a job I won't get, but it will keep my old man off my back.

Lex Lasry (3:29)

And that was Fred, then Victorian policeman, I think in the police force in England originally.

John Silvester (3:35)

Yeah. And so I baked my way through the first interview. And then in the second interview, there was a particular question which was actually about demonstrations. And the guy in the middle, I remember in those days they could smoke, there were three senior men or steermen. The guy in the middle kept saying to me, there's a cop named Keith Plattfuss, he's really good at demonstrations. But virtually, don't you agree? And there was a bit of pressure for me to say yes, but I'd actually fluked reading Uni Magazine, which actually said he'd led a baton charge into peaceful demonstrators. And the next day he said, they've got baton today and they'll get baton tomorrow. So I repeated that story. And the guy in the middle looked down onto his blotter and said, what the exact quote is?