The Cliff at North Head: The Scott Johnson Murder & The Newport Naval Sex Scandal of 1919

For this special Pride Month episode of Murder, Not Murdering, we examine two chilling stories connected by prejudice, power, and the long fight for justice.

First, Autumn tells the story of Scott Johnson, an American mathematician whose body was discovered at the base of a cliff near Sydney, Australia in 1988. Authorities quickly ruled his death a suicide, but his family refused to accept the conclusion. What followed was a decades-long quest for answers that uncovered a pattern of anti-gay violence, institutional failures, and a shocking truth. We also discuss the latest developments in the case through May 2026.

Then Erin takes us back to 1919 and one of the strangest scandals in U.S. history: the Newport Naval Sex Scandal. Under the direction of Navy officials during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s tenure as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, young sailors were ordered to go undercover and entrap suspected homosexual men. The investigation spiraled into a national controversy, congressional hearings, and accusations that the government had gone dangerously too far.

From a suspicious death on the cliffs of Sydney to a government-sanctioned moral panic in Newport, this episode explores how fear and discrimination have shaped lives, investigations, and history itself.

Some stories are about murder. Others are about the systems that allow injustice to flourish. This episode is both.

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