What Happened to Shirley Butler on Christmas Eve 1952?
Australian True Crime
Meshel Laurie
4.6 • 979 Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2025
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Shirley Butler, a 21 year old woman, was found dead just metres from her home in Waverton on Christmas Day 1952.
Detectives launched an intense hunt for answers and even staged a world first radio re enactment of her final tram ride, while the press hinted that police were holding back key details.
Nearly six months later, a dramatic arrest made headlines, but the revelations that followed proved even more astonishing.
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CREDITS:
Host: Meshel Laurie
Guest: Michael Adams
Executive Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before we begin today's episode of Australian true crime, I want to tell you about a new project |
| 0:04.5 | we've been working on behind the scenes. It's called She Matters. It's a new podcast from |
| 0:10.2 | award-winning journalist and femicide researcher Shirel Moody. Each week, Shirel speaks with |
| 0:15.3 | families of women and children killed in Australia, sharing who they were, the joy they brought, |
| 0:21.9 | and the love they left behind. She Matters isn't a true crime podcast. It's about lives lived, lives loved and lives |
| 0:28.7 | lost. She Matters is produced by Dashmade podcasts in association with bravecasting media. |
| 0:35.7 | She Matters is available wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:39.3 | Outside there is darkness and the spirit of evil. |
| 0:42.5 | Now Shirley Butler dies violently, cruelly. |
| 0:46.5 | Can you help us find her killer? |
| 0:53.8 | Michael Adams from Forgotten Australia is back with us on Australian True Crime to talk about a long-forgotten case. |
| 1:01.5 | We know that crime doesn't take a holiday at Christmas and in this episode we go all the way back to Christmas 1952 and a fascinating cast of characters. |
| 1:12.5 | We begin, though, with an overview of Australian society back then. |
| 1:17.4 | This is Australian true crime. |
| 1:19.5 | We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, |
| 1:24.0 | the Wurundri Woi Wurang people of the Kulin Nation. |
| 1:27.8 | And a warning, this episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence. |
| 1:38.6 | This is a really interesting time, Michelle. |
| 1:41.5 | It's sort of the in-between time. |
| 1:43.4 | It was the end of 1952. So we were, |
| 1:46.6 | you know, seven years out of the end of World War II, but it still felt like a sort of, |
| 1:51.6 | I guess, a wartime era. I mean, the Korean War had started. There was conservative |
... |
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