Ratten: The Web of Circumstance
Australian History Biography True Crime 1970s Nostalgia Collectible Australiana Organised Crime Legal Memoir
Ratten: The Web of Circumstance is a scarce 1979 Australian true-crime biography that collectors and scholars actively hunt in any condition. Written by barrister-journalist Tom Molomby, it dissects the sensational “Mr. Big” heroin-importation trial of Murray Riley and the web of police, political and under-world figures who became entangled in the case. Because the book was rushed out while many of its subjects were still alive, it vanished quickly; today it is regarded as the definitive contemporary account of Australia’s first great drug-cartel exposé and a key text for anyone studying 1970s organised-crime history.
What makes this copy extra desirable is the personal inscription on the fly-leaf—an anonymous gift note that places the book in the hands of one of the original barristers involved, giving provenance and a hint of courtroom intrigue. The 279-page Outback Press paperback is complete, square and tightly bound; the pages are age-yellowed but un-dog-eared, and the only marks are light pen edits in the Q&A section—evidence that a real participant used the book as a working file. These minor flaws are typical of a vintage Australian paperback that has actually been read rather than warehoused, and they add character without obscuring text.
For collectors, the title sits at the crossroads of true-crime, legal memoir and modern Australian history; for students, it is a primary source on the birth of the Federal Narcotics Bureau and the Royal Commission that followed. Young-adult and adult readers who devour today’s narco-documentaries will recognise every twist—corrupt cops, suitcase millions, yacht chases on the NSW coast—yet here it is laid out by the lawyer who watched it unfold from the bar table. A copy that is both inscribed and affordable is increasingly hard to find, making this battered survivor a practical entry-point into one of Australia’s most fascinating criminal sagas.
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