Cuckoo: The True Story of Mr Stinky
Australian History Biography Non-Fiction True Crime Criminology Adult Education Investigative Journalism
Cuckoo: The True Story of Mr Stinky is the 1988 true-crime classic that first exposed Melbourne’s most reviled serial predator, the “Madill-Heywood sex killer,” to a national audience. Written by Walkley-winning journalist Andrew Rule—later co-creator of the Underbelly phenomenon—this vintage 239-page paperback delivers the forensic detail, court transcripts and victim-impact testimony that courts and newspapers of the day only hinted at. Illustrated with rare crime-scene and prison photographs, the book maps the twisted psychology of a man whose crimes were so foul that detectives simply called him “Mr Stinky.”
What makes this copy collectible is its first-edition status from the small 1988 print run, long out of print and rarely found in tidy, unmarked condition. The pages are tight, un-creased and free of notes, dog-ears or ex-libris stamps; only light shelf scuffing to the cover betrays its 35+ years. For true-crime completists, Australian-history buffs or criminology students, it is a primary-source document that predates the sanitised re-tellings of later bestsellers.
Beyond the gore, Rule’s narrative is a master-class in investigative technique, charting how a single-minded reporter stitched together suppressed evidence, reluctant witnesses and police leaks to build a case journal that prosecutors called “a second brief of evidence.” The result is a compulsive, courtroom-paced read that still fuels university syllabi on homicide investigation and media ethics. Owning this original 1988 edition places the reader at the genesis of Australia’s modern true-crime boom—before podcasts, before television dramatisations—when the story was raw, the facts fresh and the name “Mr Stinky” first sent shivers through suburban Melbourne.
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