1998: The Trunk Murderess Dies on the Exact Anniversary of Her Own Surrender

Winnie Ruth Judd earned the tabloid name the Trunk Murderess after she shot two friends in Phoenix, Arizona, then packed their bodies into steamer trunks and shipped them by rail to Los Angeles in 1931. When the trunks began to leak, she walked into a Los Angeles police station and gave herself up.

Convicted of murder in 1932, she was declared insane and spent much of the next four decades confined to an Arizona mental institution, escaping it several times before finally being paroled in 1971. She died in Phoenix on this day in 1998, aged 93, exactly 67 years to the day after she had first surrendered to police.

Portrait of Winnie Ruth Judd convicted of murdering two nurses 1932
Portrait of Winnie Ruth Judd convicted of murdering two nurses 1932

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1976: Rejected From a Model Plane Club, He Opened Fire on the Streets of Spring Hill in Brisbane

On 22 September 1976, 36-year-old William Robert Wilson opened fire on Boundary Street in Spring Hill, a suburb of Brisbane. Armed with a .22-calibre rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition, he killed two teenage girls and wounded four other people. He had reportedly been upset after being rejected for membership by a model plane club.

Wilson then fled to a house in nearby Kelvin Grove and took five student teachers hostage. After around two hours of negotiations, one hostage escaped by pretending she needed the bathroom. Police stormed the house around 4pm, exchanging gunfire with Wilson before overpowering him and freeing the remaining captives.

Wilson spent three years in Hospital before being considered fit to plead. On 23 June 1980, he pleaded guilty to two murders and four attempted murders, receiving two life sentences and concurrent ten-year prison terms.

Old Windmill Brisbane, built by convicts at Moreton Bay penal settlement
Old Windmill Brisbane, built by convicts at Moreton Bay penal settlement

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On This Day in True Crime History
1816·He Blamed His Mate for the Shot, But It Was His Own Gun That Fired: Triple Hanging in Sydney
1895·"Look, Jimmy": The Chilling Instant Before a Fatal Tomahawk Attack Near Mount Morgan, Hanged in Brisbane.
1895·"A Feeling of Relief": Hanged in Melbourne for Drowning a Family Member
1993·11-04 | 1993 Two More Victims Discovered: The Backpacker Murders in the Forest South-West of Sydney
More Crime On This Day →

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