1793: The Queen Who Apologised to Her Executioner: the Execution of Marie Antoinette
Nine months after her husband Louis XVI went to the guillotine, Marie Antoinette followed him, tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal for treason against the new French Republic. Read more →
1794: The First Free Settler Murdered in the Colony: Hanged at Sydney for a Parramatta Stabbing
John Hill, a butcher, had spent the day drinking with Simon Burn at Parramatta on 5 October 1794 when he turned on the woman he lived with, beating her until Burn stepped in to stop him. Read more →
1826: The Gun That Misfired Twice: Three Bushrangers Hanged Outside Sydney
At a settler’s hut near Burwood, outside Sydney, bushranger Thomas Mustin levelled a loaded musket point-blank at a visiting neighbour, and pulled the trigger. Read more →
1826: Sullivan Gang Bushrangers Hanged Near Parramatta, One Sobbing to the Last
Matthew Craven and Thomas Cavanagh rode with a bushranging gang led by Patrick Sullivan that terrorised stations around Bathurst for half a year, robbing homesteads, stealing horses and holding settlers at gunpoint. Read more →
1873: A Tearful Confession in Custody Cracked the Case: Two Men Hanged at Perth Gaol for Eating their Victim
Young Edward Dunn vanished near his family’s farm at Port Gregory, north of Champion Bay in Western Australia in October 1865. Read more →
1889: He Called It an Accident. The Jury Called It Murder: Robert Landells Hanged at Melbourne Gaol
When civil engineer Peter Sherlock vanished in July 1889, his landlord Robert Landells claimed he had gone up country looking for work. Read more →
1907: A Doctor Fooled Twice: Martha Rendell and the Second Child to Die of Diphtheria
Seven year old Olive Morris died on this day in East Perth, her throat swabbed raw, just as her older sister Annie had died months before. Read more →
1965: Saddleworth Moor Gives Up a Victim of the Moors Murders
Lesley Ann Downey had been missing since Boxing Day 1964, taken from a Manchester fairground and killed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, who recorded her final minutes on tape. Read more →
2002: Shot Dead in His Own Bed: A Melbourne Gangland Killing Blamed on a Friend
Paul Kallipolitis, 31, became another name on the ledger of Melbourne‘s gangland war when he was found shot dead in his bed at Sunshine West in 2002, a single bullet to the head. Read more →
