Thanks to my Audible subscription, I have acquired a lot of short stories and podcasts. Blood Territory: The Death of Jimmy O’Connell by Mark Whittaker is an investigative podcast where the author seeks to find the truth of who killed Jimmy. The murder occurred in the Australian Northern Territory during the hottest season of the year. Jimmy’s body was discovered in a creek bed, mummified, with his genitals removed. Phillip Mather, Jimmy’s best friend, was convicted of the crime and served 11 years in prison.

Mark Whittaker learned of this story and quickly decided to perform his own investigation. He sought to find out if Phillip truly killed Jimmy and if he didn’t, who did? Whittaker interviews Jimmy’s family, Phillip, people in the community who were close to men, potential suspects, and a detective. Jimmy’s parents don’t believe that Philip murdered their son and are anxious to clear Philip’s reputation.

As a fan of true crime, I enjoyed listening to this story and following along as Mark interviewed people and started drawing his own conclusions as to who killed Jimmy. I was quite surprised by his findings. As an Audible Original, the audiobook is superbly produced with various actors and sound effects to make the listening experience unique.

I have photos and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog ( )

All in all, a pretty disappointing listen. I don't feel enriched by the experience at all. I mean, I spent nearly four hours learning about a case and nothing was resolved at the end of the listen. Between the non-resolution or uncovering of anything new of note by Whittaker's investigation and the repetitiveness of information and sound bites, I can't recommend this one to anyone.

At least I'm only out the time and not any money since it was free on Audible. ( )

Blood Territory, The Death of Jimmy O’Connell, by Mark Whittaker (audio book). Published 2019. If ever there were a list of books that did not need to be written, this would be on that list. It’s the story of a murder, over a decade after the conviction of the supposed murderer and his release from prison, written by an investigative reporter who thought the wrong person might have been convicted. The murder took place in the Northern Territories of Australia, and involved aboriginal people, some of whom, including the victim’s family, thought the wrong man has been convicted, possibly because of racism. This book is the story of the crime (as much as could be inferred from evidence), circumstances leading up to the death, possible suspects who were not pursued by police, alibi stories, the trial and conviction, and the life of everyone during and after the murderer’s incarceration. The result, to me, was anticlimactic and raised the question of why did this book get published. C’est la vie. ( )

I enjoyed the narrators voice and cadence. I just thought there was a lot about the story itself left to desire. The investigative audios I'm used to do just that, investigate. This just felt like a regurgitation of the facts with audio clips peppered throughout.

I almost feel like this would have been done better as a Casefile episode. ( )

Australian audible origianal ( )