Australia’s Most Infamous Jail

‘Pentridge was a place of murder and mayhem. A bluestone hell. The worst prison Australia has ever seen.’ Andrew Kirby, former inmate

Welcome to Pentridge, Australia’s most infamous prison.

In the long-awaited return to his bestselling true crime series on life behind bars, James Phelps has finally turned his attention to HM Prison Pentridge—the bluestone behemoth that was home to Victoria’s worst criminals for more than a century.

Beginning with a gang of guards and a handful of convicts, for more than 145 years Pentridge housed a who’s who of Australian criminals and Melbourne’s underworld including Ned Kelly and Mark ‘Chopper’ Read.

From solving the mystery of Ned Kelly’s missing skull to the shocking truth about who really cut off Chopper’s ears—Australia’s Most Infamous Jail includes true and uncensored accounts of inmates (including a convicted serial killer, a mass murderer and the real Romper Stomper), guards, archaeologists and even a former governor-general. This is gritty true crime storytelling, on steroids—about what life was really like behind the bluestone walls of Pentridge.