1984: The Milperra Massacre: Seven Dead in Father’s Day Bikie War at Sydney Tavern

On Father’s Day, 2 September 1984, a heavily armed convoy of Comanchero motorcycle club members descended on the Viking Tavern car park in Milperra, a south-western suburb of Sydney.

The Comancheros had been at war with the newly formed Bandidos, a breakaway chapter, whose split from the Comancheros founder had curdled into open conflict. When both clubs converged on a swap meet that day, gunfire erupted in the car park. Seven people died, including a 14-year-old girl caught in the crossfire, and twenty-eight others were wounded.

The Milperra Massacre became the bloodiest single clash in the history of Australian outlaw motorcycle clubs.

Biker
Biker

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1909: Long Bay Gaol Opens on the Shores of Botany Bay

Sydney‘s Long Bay Gaol opened in 1909 on the shores of Botany Bay, and over the following century it would become one of the most storied prisons in the country. Its walls held razor gang queens Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, escape artist Darcy Dugan, and gangsters Chow Hayes and Neddy Smith.

Long Bay also housed some of the darkest figures in modern Australian criminal history, including corrupt former detective Roger Rogerson and serial killer Ivan Milat, who died there in 2019. Russell ‘Mad Dog’ Cox staged a daring breakout from the prison’s maximum-security unit, cementing the gaol’s reputation as a place where Australia’s most dangerous and notorious converged.

Historic prison buildings at Long Bay Gaol in Australia
Historic prison buildings at Long Bay Gaol in Australia

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1865: John Wesley Hardin Gunned Down in an El Paso Saloon

John Wesley Hardin was one of the most feared gunfighters of the American Old West. Born in Texas in 1853 to a Methodist preacher, he killed his first man at 15 and spent the following decade evading lawmen across the South. Sentenced to 24 years for murder in 1877, Hardin claimed to have killed 42 men, though historians estimate the true figure exceeded 20. He studied law in prison and wrote a self-aggrandising autobiography, widely noted for its exaggerations.

Within a year of his 1894 release, Hardin was shot dead by constable John Selman in the Acme Saloon in El Paso. Hardin had been gambling, rolling dice at the bar, and his last words were reportedly “Four sixes to beat.” Moments later, Selman walked up behind him and shot him in the head. Hardin was 42 years old.

Portrait of outlaw John Wesley Hardin
Portrait of outlaw John Wesley Hardin

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1896: Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch Rob the Montpelier Bank

On August 13, 1896, Butch Cassidy rode into Montpelier, Idaho, with Elzy Lay and Bob Meeks, stopping at a saloon before walking into the state’s number one chartered bank. Cassidy and Lay forced teller A. N. Mackintosh to hand over gold, silver, and currency worth between $5,000 and $15,000, then ordered everyone to wait ten minutes before leaving. The local sheriff gave chase on a bicycle. Cassidy and his crew escaped easily on horseback.

It was one of the first robberies carried out by the newly formed Wild Bunch gang. Cassidy may have needed the money to cover court and attorney fees for former associate Matt Warner, convicted of killing two men in a gunfight. Kid Curry Logan also rode with the gang. The Montpelier bank has since been converted into a museum dedicated to the robbery.

Wanted Robert Leroy Parker known as Cassidy, was an American train, bank robber, and leader of the Wild Bunch Gang in the American Old West. On april 24 2014 in Tucson AZ | ID 176287673 © Meunierd | Dreamstime.com
ID 176287673 © Meunierd | Dreamstime.com

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On This Day in True Crime History
1841·First Blood on the Gallows: Two Men Hanged at the New Darlinghurst Gaol
1857·Newly Freed, Then Shot by His Employer: A Convict Hanged in Perth for Attempted Murder
1880·Ned Kelly Sentenced to Hang in Melbourne
1907·He Knew Where She Kept Her Money, But Killed Her Instead: Hanged in Sydney for the Murder of a Widow
1927·Squizzy Taylor Buried in Melbourne as a Morbid Crowd Forces Police to Intervene
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