Escape - Dark Stories True Crime Tours

1830: A Daring Escape and a Public Hanging in Colonial New South Wales

In February 1829, a man from the Shoalhaven region of New South Wales killed English sawyer John Rivett in the Kangaroo Valley, claiming self-defence after a dispute over a trade and a personal grievance. He and his accomplice evaded capture for months, using their knowledge of the densely forested hilly terrain to outrun colonial authorities.

Arrested in May 1829, the accused made a bold escape aboard a ship bound for Sydney, stealing the keys to his chains from a sleeping guard before jumping overboard with his companion. Recaptured and tried, he was found guilty of wilful murder and publicly executed by infamous hangman Alexander Green on 30 August 1830.

White bark gumtrees by Shoalhaven River under storm clouds

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Australia Colonial History Escape Execution Kangaroo Valley Murder NSW Shoalhaven Sydney

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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

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Australia Corruption Escape Gang Murder NSW Organised Crime Prison Serial Killer Sydney

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1900: The Last Escape of Moondyne Joe, Western Australia's Most Famous Bushranger

Joseph Bolitho Johns, born in Wales around 1826 and transported to Fremantle in 1853 as convict 1790, became the most celebrated escape artist in Western Australian history. Known as Moondyne Joe, the Cornish-Welsh convict turned bushranger broke out of custody so many times that his repeated escapes became legend.

He made his final escape on 13 August 1900, dying at the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum after years of confinement and declining health. He was buried two days later in a pauper’s grave at Fremantle Cemetery.

moondyne joe — Moondyne Joe – Perennial Escapee

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Australia Bushranger Convict History Escape Fremantle Prison WA

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1964: Great Train Robber Charlie Wilson Breaks Free from Winson Green Prison

In August 1963, fifteen masked men ambushed the Glasgow to London Royal Mail train near Buckinghamshire, making off with 120 bags of cash totalling a record 2.6 million pounds. Police traced the gang to Leatherslade Farm within days, and Charlie Wilson, then 32, was among those arrested. In April 1964 he was sentenced to 30 years.

Just four months into his sentence, on 12 August 1964, several men broke into the maximum-security Winson Green Prison in Birmingham and freed Wilson in a brazen outside job. He evaded capture for over three years before being recaptured in Canada on 24 January 1968, returned to England, and made to serve out his term. Wilson later moved to Spain, where he allegedly became involved in drug trafficking, and was shot dead on 23 April 1990.

Arm reaches through jail window to open door escape scene

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Canada Escape Europe Murder Organised Crime Prison Robbery UK

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