THE STAINED MAN
a crime, a scandal, and the making of a nation
The extraordinary tale — ‘A two-volume mystery!’ Mark Twain called it — of the solicitor who incited a campaign to free a man he knew was guilty of attempted murder, who lost his reputation and ability to practise, and who embarked on a decades-long political career to regain it all.
Sydney, 1895. Richard Meagher is a young and brilliant criminal defence solicitor with ambitions in politics. Into his life comes George Dean, a handsome, popular ferryman accused of attempting to poison his own wife. The evidence pointing to Dean’s guilt is damning but, in Dean’s protests of innocence and the clamour of public support, Meagher senses that a great opportunity is at hand.
Nine months later, everything is in ruins. Dean is in gaol, and Meagher has lost everything. Determined to recover his reputation and vindicate his actions, Meagher begins a twenty-five-year quest to rewrite the ‘Dean case’ and reclaim all he has lost. That quest will put him in the glare of public scrutiny, arouse enemies at every turn, propel him to high political office, and entwine his cause with the making of the Australian nation.
In a work of true crime with a twist, moving from sordid Sydney streets to the corridors of parliament, and spanning the critical years of Australia’s history in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, The Stained Man tells the riveting story of Australia’s most sensational scandal — and of how an indelible stain was eventually expunged.
REVIEWS
‘Patrick Mullins tells a stunning tale of attempted murder, secrets, politics, and lies. In this extraordinary story we can read the tea leaves of the century to come: the strong forces at work in scandal, the volatile power of celebrity, and the immense damage that reckless ambition can do. This book is a serious achievement.’
— Sean Kelly, author of The Game
‘Patrick Mullins is the most accomplished Australian biographer of his generation and among our most brilliant storytellers. His colourful tale of Richard Denis Meagher, one of the notorious “wild men of Sydney”, is a sparkling account of Australian society, politics, and the law in a critical period of national formation.’
— Frank Bongiorno, professor of history at the Australian National University, and author of Dreamers and Schemers and The Eighties
‘Meticulously researched and elegantly written, this is the story of poisoning, scandal, legal and political shenanigans, and the rise and fall and fall again of a deeply flawed pugilistic man and his long struggle for public vindication.’
— Judith Brett, emerita professor of politics at La Trobe University and author of The Enigmatic Mr Deakin and Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People
‘A remarkable story of moral failure, mob hysteria, misogyny, vanity, cruelty, and persistence. Beautifully written and fast paced, this rollicking tale still echoes in modern Australia.’
— Julianne Schultz, emerita professor of media and culture at Griffith University and author of The Idea of Australia
‘Patrick Mullins takes what could have been a forgotten historical footnote and turns it into a gripping tale of crime, politics, ambition and self-delusion in late 19th-century Sydney. I could hardly put it down.’
— Rob Harris, ‘Your favourite journalists’ favourite books from the first half of 2026′, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 June 2026
‘Vividly recreated and scrupulously researched […] a sweeping story.’
— ‘Non-fiction pick of the week’, Steven Carroll, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 June 2026
‘Tracing Meagher’s decades-long crusade to spin the narrative and un-cancel himself, Mullins gives us a ringside seat to the messy birth of Australian federation — and the nagging, uneasy feeling that Meagher would really smash it in 21st-century politics.’
— ‘Best Australian books out in May‘, Walter Marsh, Guardian Australia, 7 May 2026
MEDIA
Interview with David Marr, Late Night Live, ABC, 29 April 2026
‘Sway a crowd, wear a martyr’s crown: How one NSW politician went from scandal to political success — and wrote a playbook still used today‘, Guardian Australia, 18 May 2026
Launch speech, ‘Bombast of Botany Bay‘, by Frank Bongiorno, Inside Story, 30 April 2026
Patrick Mullins 