On This Day in True Crime History – 2 October

1629: The Batavia Massacre: First European Executions on Australian Soil

When the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia wrecked on a reef off Western Australia in 1629, disgraced merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz seized control of the survivors stranded on the barren Houtman Abrolhos islands. Read more →

1863: The Mob Wanted to Lynch Him on the Spot: A Bushranger Hanged at Maitland for Murdering a Brave Drover

On Warland’s Range near Murrurundi in April 1863, a masked rider named Henry Wilson held up a party of drovers and stripped young Peter Clarke of his watch and chain. Read more →

1974: Vanished in Utah: the Teenager Ted Bundy Later Confessed to Killing

Sixteen-year-old Nancy Wilcox vanished from Holladay, Utah in 1974, one of a string of young women who disappeared across the state that year without a trace. Read more →

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