1. Police career

2. Writing career

3. TV series and episodes

4. Publications

5. See also

6. References

Colin McLaren is an Australian documentary film maker, crime writer and former police detective sergeant and task force team leader. A feature length telemovie about his life by Underbelly Productions, starring Sullivan Stapleton in the title role, aired in 2011 in Australia and other territories. His writing and documentary career as an investigative journalist take him around the world.

Police career

The major phase of McLaren's real life police career took place during the 1980s and 1990s. McLaren rose through the police ranks rapidly and when asked to join an elite covert surveillance unit, he began spying on drug importers and the ringleaders of organised crime, before going undercover and organising covert stings. As a member of some of the most high-profile task forces in Australia, McLaren, as a suit and tie detective, worked on the Walsh Street murders of police constables Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre,^[1] the Mr Cruel child rapes and the murder of thirteen-year-old Karmein Chan,^[2] and the bombing of the Adelaide NCA police headquarters where he was task force leader. McLaren then went undercover, where for two years he infiltrated Australia's mafia in the guise of a money laundering art dealer, in what is still the largest undercover sting in Australian history. Eleven Mafia bosses received sentences of up to 13 years each for major drug trafficking and racketeering.^[2] He also went undercover for another year to gain evidence on the Mafia responsible for the NCA bombing. Six mafia were jailed. He ended his police career as a permanent lecturer at the detective training school, his subject was 'crime scene management' and 'field investigations'. {{Citation needed|date=February 2015}}

After leaving police work, he developed his interest in Italian style gourmet food and wine, designing the Italian villa 'Villa Gusto' in the countryside in north-east Victoria, Australia.^[3]

Writing career

It was during 2005 that Colin discovered that he could write. He commenced on his first book straight away, a best seller. He has now penned six books to date. McLaren's first book, Infiltration, is the true story of his efforts as a suit and tie detective and the undercover agent who infiltrated the Mafia.^[4] McLaren followed this up with On the Run, a novel that details the exploits of Cole Goodwin, McLaren's real-life Mafia alias, which has been adapted to a screenplay. The story picks up with the Mafia sending a hit-man after Cole and his undercover girlfriend, Jude. Cole escapes a hit and goes 'on the run' with the assassin in pursuit; through South America, New York and eventually throughout Italy. The plot follows a massive drug importation as well and culminates with a face-off between the assassin and Cole, in the Mafia-controlled mountains of southern Italy.

McLaren's third book, Sunflower, is a historical work graphically depicting the real life experiences of his own grandfather, one of Australia's longest-serving foot soldiers from the First World War.^[5][6]{{failed verification|date=May 2015}} McLaren co-wrote the fourth Underbelly book with famous Australian authors Andrew Rule and John Silvester. He then published his fifth book, JFK: The Smoking Gun, concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy, in November 2013. McLaren decided to approach the assassination of Kennedy as a cold case investigation.^[7] After more than four years of work, made far quicker and easier by the availability of documents such as the Warren Commission report and testimony as searchable files, McLaren found lost testimonies of dozens of witnesses, which told a different story to the Warren Commission outcome. He published his book both in USA and Australia. The book is in print and also available for kindle.

From 2016 to 2018, along with psychologist and documentary maker Eve Ash, McLaren researched a fascinating case of murder in Hobart Tasmania, where Sue Neill-Fraser was convicted of killing her defacto husband, on their yacht. For two years McLaren spoke to hundreds of people, witnesses and police and produced a book called Southern Justice, to be released in 2019. It details an alternative view into the murder and shows that other persons may have been involved and that Sue Neill-Fraser may well be innocent. His theory has seen him called to give evidence at the Supreme Court, in early 2019.

McLaren's current writing project is about the Sicilian mafia. He has been based in Italy since early 2018 and his book is expected to be published in 2020.

TV series and episodes

McLaren's police career has been the focus of various television documentaries, and the Infiltration telemovie series screened on Channel 9.^[8]{{failed verification|date=May 2015}}

McLaren is a technical advisor for many TV series and films in the crime genre, among them the Screentime Films trilogy of Tell them Lucifer was Here, The Man that Got Away and Infiltration. Also the TV series Squizzy about Squizzy Taylor, a gangster from the 1920s, for which McLaren wrote storyline material. McLaren also contributed to Killing Time, the television mini-series based on once corrupt lawyer Andrew Fraser's life, produced by FremantleMedia, TV1 and Film Victoria. McLaren has narrated episodes on Crimes That Shocked Australia and many other one hour TV episodes about crime families, gangs and his knowledge of them.

He also was a key expert on a US television show on assassination called Inside the Evidence which was headed by America's most known anchorman Bill Kurtis. It aired on Reelz TV channel across USA. This was followed by a 90 minute docuemtary of his findngs in JFK:The Smoking Gun The documentary aired on Australian and American television.^[9][10][11] Directed by Malcolm McDonald,^[12] it features re-enactments, archival footage, and also new interviews with witnesses to the shooting. {{anchor|JFK's Secret Killer}} A one-hour abridged version of this documentary aired in the United Kingdom, entitled JFK's Secret Killer: The Evidence.^[13] In the television special, McLaren argues that the truth was covered-up to hide impropriety on the part of Secret Service agents.^[14]

Throughout 2016 McLaren, in conjunction with Bedlam Productions of London, produced the 2-hour documentary Princess Diana's Death - Mystery Solved. The documentary aired globally on 10 July 2016. The documentary relies on forensic evidence gathered by McLaren when he visited the original crime scene in Paris on 31 August 1997. (McLaren had previously been a lecturer at the Australian-based Detective Training School specializing in Crime Scene management and procedures. He used these skills during the Diana special.) McLaren's documentary indicates that both the French and English investigations into the death of Diana were flawed. McLaren interviews many of those involved in the investigation, French Police and Paparazzi included, as well as crucial witnesses, and concludes that a cover-up existed.{{cn|date=April 2017}}

Due to the fascination of his involvement in the Sue Neill-Fraser conviction for murder, McLaren did on screen comments on a 6 part TV series in 2017 - about the Hobart murder - called Undercurrent, for Eve Ash of Seven Dimensions, to be shown on Channel Seven network through 2019. The series and his book 'Southern Justice' has drawn the attention of the national media.

Publications

• (2009) Infiltration, Victory Books {{ISBN|978-0-522-85679-8}}
• (2010) On the Run, Victory Books {{ISBN|978-0-522-85703-0}}
• (2010) Sunflower, Victory Books {{ISBN|978-0-522-85762-7}}
• (2013) JFK: The Smoking Gun {{ISBN|978-0-733-63641-7}}
• (2019) Southern Justice

See also

• Mortal Error,original book with similar theory to JFK: The Smoking Gun

References

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