1988: The Melbourne Police Killings: Acquitted, Then Named Guilty by His Own Wife

In the early hours of 12 October 1988, two young constables, Steven Tynan, 22, and Damian Eyre, 20, stopped to check an abandoned car on Walsh Street in South Yarra, Melbourne. Within minutes both were dead, gunned down in what police believed was a professional ambush by an armed robbery gang taking revenge for a suspect shot dead by detectives hours earlier.

Four men, among them Victor Peirce, stood trial in 1991 after one of the largest investigations Victoria Police had ever run. All were acquitted, and the case has never been officially solved.

In 2005, Peirce’s own wife Wendy, who had once given him a false alibi and was later convicted of perjury for it, broke her silence and told the press that her husband had planned and carried out the killings himself.

Melbourne laneway after rain with wet paving and blurred lights
Melbourne laneway after rain with wet paving and blurred lights

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1891: The Mace, the Madam, and a Melbourne Scandal That Never Died

In the early hours of 9 October 1891, the ceremonial mace vanished from Parliament House in Melbourne, the silver-plated symbol of the speaker’s authority gone from a locked case. A parliamentary engineer was seen that same day running from the building with a parcel the right size and shape to be the mace; he told police it was firewood, and with no proof against him the investigation stalled.

Thirteen months later newspapers claimed the mace had turned up in the parlour of a notorious madam who catered to visiting members of parliament, a story so delicious it triggered a formal Board of Inquiry. The board cleared the brothel but settled nothing else, and popular rumour simply shifted the blame onto the new Speaker, Thomas Bent, despite his having taken office only after the theft. The mace was never seen again, and whether it was a burglary or a parliamentary prank gone wrong remains Melbourne’s favourite unsolved mystery.

Parliamentry Mace Stolen: Credit: Public Record Office Victoria, VPRS 14517/P0001/39, O884.
Parliamentry Mace Stolen: Credit: Public Record Office Victoria, VPRS 14517/P0001/39, O884.

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1923: Squizzy Taylor Walked Free While a Man Who Never Fired a Shot Hanged for a Melbourne Bank Murder

Thomas Berriman, manager of the Hawthorn branch of the Commercial Bank, was shot outside Glenferrie Station in Melbourne on this date while carrying £1,851 in bank funds to the head office. He died from the wound two weeks later.

Angus Murray was hanged for the killing, convicted as a principal even though it was his companion who actually pulled the trigger. Underworld figure Squizzy Taylor, swept up as the robbery’s alleged organiser, escaped a murder charge, convicted only of occupying a house frequented by thieves and serving six months.

The actual gunman, Richard Buckley, vanished for almost seven years before detectives traced him, bearded and living quietly, to a house in Moonee Ponds. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and in 1946, dying and in his eighties, he was released to spend his final days at home.

Commercial Bank branch where manager T R V Berriman was shot: 1923
Commercial Bank branch where manager T R V Berriman was shot: 1923

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1854: The Suspicious Acquittal That Set a Ballarat Pub Ablaze and Lit the Fuse for the Eureka Stockade

James Scobie, a Scottish gold miner, was killed outside Bentley’s Hotel at Ballarat on this date after he and a companion found the pub shut and tried to get in. A hand smashed through a window to strike him, the publican’s wife accused him of breaking it, and as he fled a group of men caught up with him; one blow, delivered with something Peter Martin, the only witness, described as resembling a battle-axe, killed him on the spot.

At the inquest that same afternoon, hotelkeeper James Bentley and his staff denied any involvement, and despite a strong case against them the magistrate let the matter drop. Miners furious at the whitewash burned Bentley’s Hotel to the ground, and only after public outcry was a fresh trial held at Melbourne‘s Supreme Court, where Bentley and two others were convicted of manslaughter. The anger over Scobie’s death and its botched cover-up became one of the sparks that lit the Eureka Rebellion weeks later.

Swearing allegiance to the Southern Cross flag.
Swearing allegiance to the Southern Cross flag.

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On This Day in True Crime History
1794·The First Free Settler Murdered in the Colony: Hanged at Sydney for a Parramatta Stabbing
1826·The Gun That Misfired Twice: Three Bushrangers Hanged Outside Sydney
1873·A Tearful Confession in Custody Cracked the Case: Two Men Hanged at Perth Gaol for Eating their Victim
1889·He Called It an Accident. The Jury Called It Murder: Robert Landells Hanged at Melbourne Gaol
1907·A Doctor Fooled Twice: Martha Rendell and the Second Child to Die of Diphtheria
2002·Shot Dead in His Own Bed: A Melbourne Gangland Killing Blamed on a Friend
More Crime On This Day →

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