Scandal - Dark Stories True Crime Tours

1882: Ned Kelly’s Executioner Jailed for Indecent Exposure in Melbourne

Elijah Upjohn had hanged Ned Kelly at Melbourne Gaol in 1880, earning five pounds for the job. Two years later he was back in front of a City Court bench, this time as the accused: drunk in Carlton, he exposed himself in front of witnesses, to whom he tossed peppermints moments before.

Fined 10 pounds or three months, Upjohn refused to pay and was sent to Melbourne Gaol, the very institution he had served as executioner. While locked up he kept working, flogging inmates at Pentridge under sentence, and walked free at year’s end with wages still owed to him.

Elijah Upjohn: Executioner of Bushranger Ned Kelly

⬅ See all events from 29 September

Australia Carlton Execution Melbourne Prison Public Indecency Scandal VIC

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1978: The Vatican Cover-Up That Fuelled a Poisoning Legend: the Death of Pope John Paul I

Pope John Paul I was found dead in his bed after just 33 days in office, the shortest papacy since 1605, with a religious devotional still in his hands. The Vatican initially claimed a priest had discovered the body; in truth it was a nun, Sister Vincenza, who found him, and officials lied about it out of embarrassment that a woman had entered the private papal quarters.

No autopsy was performed and the body was embalmed with unusual speed, feeding decades of speculation that he had been poisoned to stop him exposing corruption at the Vatican Bank. One theory even produced a mobster who claimed to have helped administer the poison. Later research drawing on confidential Vatican archives instead found a simpler explanation: a history of heart trouble, chest pains the night before his death, and no doctor ever called.

Castel Gandolfo Lazio Italy. Portrait of Pope John Paul I, albino luciani in the museum of the pontifical villas 11 Sep 2022 Castel Gandolfo Italy | ID 259284583 © Maudanros | Dreamstime.com — ID 259284583 © Maudanros | Dreamstime.com

⬅ See all events from 28 September

Cold Case Conspiracy Theory Death Europe Italy Scandal Vatican City

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1985: France Finally Admits State-Sponsored Terrorism: the Bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland

On 10 July 1985, agents of the French secret service DGSE attached two bombs to the hull of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior as it lay moored in Auckland Harbour, sinking the vessel and killing Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira, who drowned trying to retrieve his camera equipment. The ship had been preparing to lead a protest flotilla against French nuclear testing in the Pacific.

Two French agents, Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur, were arrested in New Zealand travelling under false Swiss identities and later pleaded guilty to manslaughter, drawing widespread attention to the operation’s codename, Operation Satanique.

For weeks the French government denied any involvement, until on 22 September 1985 Prime Minister Laurent Fabius publicly admitted that French secret service agents had sunk the ship acting on orders, an extraordinary confession of state-directed sabotage carried out against an allied nation.

New Zealand: Matauri Bay Rainbow Warrior memorial. Matauri Bay, Northland, memorial to Rainbow Warrior sculpted by Chris Booth | ID 101374786 © Jill Shepherd | Dreamstime.com — ID 101374786 © Jill Shepherd | Dreamstime.com

⬅ See all events from 22 September

Auckland Bombing Espionage France New Zealand Pacific Political Crime Scandal Terrorism

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1889: Was Jack a Jill? Rumours of a Female Ripper Emerge in London

Jack the Ripper was a woman. That was the possibility London newspapers began to report: that the killer who had horrified the world for months was a woman disguised as a man, living and working unnoticed in Whitechapel. By the time the story spread, she had reportedly vanished. Police were confidently believed to be “at last on the track” of the murderer, and there was suddenly talk of “his or her crimes”.

Who, it was asked, could walk the streets at night without suspicion, possess the anatomical knowledge the mutilations suggested, and risk being found beside a body? One answer: a woman who was, or had been, a midwife. Discovered bending over a victim, she need only say she had been passing by and thought the woman required her medical attention. Though largely discounted, the Jill the Ripper theory has never completely gone away.

Victorian woman in London street with man in background

⬅ See all events from 21 September

Cold Case Europe London Murder Scandal Serial Killer UK Unsolved

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Subscribe to Dark Stories