1999: Melbourne Gangland War: Gerardo Mannella Gunned Down Fleeing His Brother's Killers

Gerardo Mannella, 31, tried to run when two gunmen came for him outside his brother's home in Melbourne, but they caught him in the street and shot him dead on this day in 1999.

The ambush was no isolated act. His brother Vince Mannella had already been murdered, and police believed the same killers were also responsible for shooting Dimitrios Belias, part of the string of tit for tat killings that became known as Melbourne's gangland war.

No one has ever been convicted over Gerardo's death, and it remains one of the unsolved murders from that bloody era.

Gangland: more than a dictionary definition in Melbourne, 1998–2010.
Gangland: more than a dictionary definition in Melbourne, 1998–2010.

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2003: Melbourne Gangland Victim Found Executed with His Partner in Their Own Home

Istvan 'Steve' Gulyas ran a dating agency out of Sunbury, on the outskirts of Melbourne, that police suspected was really a front for a brothel. He was also a friend of Nik Radev, a standover figure already gunned down in the city's escalating underworld war.

That connection made Gulyas a marked man. On 20 October 2003 he and his de facto wife were found shot dead inside their home, both killed in what police treated as a deliberate execution rather than a robbery gone wrong.

The case became one of several unsolved or unresolved killings tied to the broader Melbourne gangland conflict of the late 1990s and 2000s, with no one ever convicted over the double murder.

Gangland: more than a dictionary definition in Melbourne, 1998–2010.
Gangland: more than a dictionary definition in Melbourne, 1998–2010.

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1989: The Granny Killer Survivor Whose Broken Memory Sent Police the Wrong Way

John Wayne Glover, later known as the Granny Killer, followed 86-year-old Doris Cox along Spit Road in Sydney's Mosman to her retirement village in 1989, then dragged her into a secluded stairwell and smashed her face into a brick wall.

Cox survived, one of the few to live through an attack that would later be linked to a string of killings targeting elderly women. But she had Alzheimer's, and her account of the assault was so confused that detectives were steered toward hunting a much younger suspect, a misdirection that bought Glover more time before he was finally caught.

In memory note on paper held in wrinkled hands under dramatic light
In memory note on paper held in wrinkled hands under dramatic light

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2002: The Steamer Trunk in the Closet: Ira Einhorn Convicted of Murdering Holly Maddux

In 1979, Philadelphia police searching Ira Einhorn's apartment found a locked steamer trunk shoved into a closet; inside were the mummified remains of his former girlfriend, Holly Maddux, missing for more than a year. Einhorn, a charismatic countercultural figure known as the Unicorn Killer, fled the country before trial and spent nearly two decades hiding in Europe before he was finally captured in France.

Extradited to the United States, Einhorn stood trial in 2002 and took the stand in his own defense, insisting CIA agents had killed Maddux and framed him. The jury took just two hours to convict him of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced the following day to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Vintage steamer trunk with secrets locked up tight.
Vintage steamer trunk with secrets locked up tight.

⬅ See all events from 17 October

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On This Day in True Crime History
1858·The Rope Broke, So They Hanged Him Again: Samuel Gibbs Executed in Melbourne for the Murder of His Wife
1858·He Named Four Innocent Men as the Killers: Hanged in Melbourne for a Ballarat Murder
1929·She Asked for a Kiss, Then Bled to Death: Frederick Carr Hanged in Adelaide for Murdering His Wife
1963·The Royal Commission That Cleared Brisbane Police, Then Unravelled as a Cover-up
More Crime On This Day →

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