Colin McLaren


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 has taken 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, the Mr Cruel child rapes and the murder of thirteen-year-old Karmein Chan, 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. 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'.
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.

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. 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. 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. 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 the fascinating case of the murder of Bob Chappell in Hobart Tasmania, where Susan Neill-Fraser was convicted of killing her de facto 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 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 telemovie series screened on Channel 9.
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 assassinations called Inside the Evidence which was headed by American anchorman Bill Kurtis. It aired on Reelz TV channel in the U.S. This was followed by a 90-minute documentary of his findings in JFK:The Smoking Gun. The documentary aired on Australian and American television. Directed by Malcolm McDonald, it features re-enactments, archival footage, and also new interviews with witnesses to the shooting. A one-hour abridged version of this documentary aired in the United Kingdom, entitled JFK's Secret Killer: The Evidence. In the television special, McLaren argues that the truth was covered-up to hide impropriety on the part of Secret Service agents.
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'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.
Through 2018 Colin McLaren - with English film director Tim Conrad - created a six-part TV series; "Mafia Killers with Colin McLaren" for Reelz TV. Each episode examines a notorious mobster who murdered his way to the top, to take control of a New York City Mafia family, before they themselves met death or lengthy jail terms. The six mafia bosses are: Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano, 'Teflon' John Gotti, Henry Hill, Vinnie 'The Chin' Gigante, Anthony 'Gaspipe' Casso and 'The Snake' Persico. During the shows Colin shares personal stories as an undercover agent in organized crime families, giving viewers firsthand accounts of his experiences.
McLaren followed this series by appearing in another six-part TV series 'Undercurrent', on Australia's Channel Seven network, aired in 2019. His role was as on-screen narrator and crime expert as the TV series followed him - identifying blunders by police in a murder investigation. During the series McLaren was adamant that the Tasmania police wrongly charged the victim's wife - Sue Neill-Fraser, concluding that the murder was the work of a gang of violent thieves stealing from yachts, who broke into the Four Winds yacht, only to disturb the owner who was sleeping. A violent fight occurred and the owner was murdered. McLaren secured admissions from one of the gang members as well as highlighting overwhelming forensic evidence; and discovered many new witnesses who were previously ignored. As a result, McLaren was called to give evidence at the Supreme Court. Subsequently, the judge allowed Sue Neill-Fraser to appeal her conviction.
Currently McLaren is in New York City working on a recurring podcast series with Endeavour Audio on famous deaths that have attracted global fascination. Thus far he has broadcast a 12 part series on the plane crash death of JFK Junior and also the tragic car crash death of Lady Diana.
In between his TV work McLaren remains strongly focused on writing his Italian Mafia book: a true crime history that has never been attempted before, due to the complexities of the subject matter. He has been given full access to the historical records on the mafia, housed in many of the state archives in Italy. The book is due out in 2021.

Publications