murder - Dark Stories True Crime Tours

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.

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Australia Ballarat Historical Event Melbourne Murder Riot Trial VIC

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1965: The Bread Van Disguise That Unmasked Moors Murderer Ian Brady

One October night in 1965, Ian Brady and his lover Myra Hindley brought a seventeen-year-old back to their home near Manchester, where Brady killed him with an axe in front of Hindley’s brother-in-law, David Smith, whom they had wrongly taken for a kindIan Brady and Myra Hindley brought 17-year-old Edward Evans back to their home near Manchester after Brady had approached him at Manchester Central station. Brady attacked Evans with a hatchet in front of Hindley’s brother-in-law, David Smith, whom Brady apparently believed could be drawn into his criminal world, before strangling Evans with electrical flex.

Smith was horrified and notified police the next morning. Police Superintendent Bob Talbot arrived at the house wearing a bread deliveryman’s overall over his uniform. Inside, Brady was lying on a divan writing to his employer about his injured ankle. Talbot said he was investigating “an act of violence involving guns”, and Hindley denied that any violence had occurred.

When officers asked for the key to a locked spare bedroom, Hindley claimed it was at work. Police offered to take her there to retrieve it, at which point Brady told her to hand it over. Inside the room, they found Evans’s body, and Brady was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Classic Vehicle. Vintage Citroen Bread delivery van | ID 57067159 © Johnbaguley100 | Dreamstime.com — ID 57067159 © Johnbaguley100 | Dreamstime.com

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Arrest England Greater Manchester Murder Police Serial Killer UK

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2005: WA Serial Killer Found Dead in a Perth Prison Cell

David Birnie and his partner Catherine abducted and murdered four women around Perth in 1986, in what became known as the Moorhouse murders. Their victims included 22-year-old Mary Neilson. Both pleaded guilty and received life sentences, with the trial judge declaring that Birnie should never be released. On 7 October 2005, nineteen years and one day after their first murder, Birnie was found dead in his cell at Casuarina Prison, hours before he was due in court over an alleged assault on another inmate. An inquest later heard that his antidepressant medication had been withdrawn and his computer confiscated in the weeks before his death.

Empty prison cell corridor with a row of rooms

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Armadale Australia Death in Custody Murder Perth Prison Serial Killer Suicide WA

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1983: The Body Was in the Backyard the Whole Time: a Melbourne Wife Murder Hidden in a Barrel for Two Decades

When Edwina Boyle vanished from her home on this day in Carrum Downs, in Melbourne‘s southeast, in 1983, her husband Frederick Boyle produced a note saying she had run off with a truck driver. His mistress moved in two days later, and neighbours pitied him for raising two daughters alone. All the while Edwina’s body sat metres away, sealed in a green metal barrel in the backyard where the family held parties and guests leaned against it without ever knowing.

The secret held for 23 years, until Boyle’s future son-in-law grew suspicious of his odd anxiety about the drum and cut it open, finding clothing, then later a hessian bag of human bones including a skull. Boyle was convicted of murder in 2008 and sentenced to 21 years, having shot his wife in the head.

He initially claimed he found her dead and panicked, but later admitted he strangled and shot her, telling the court, “my wife died in a terrible way and I was not going to let her remains be thrown down the tip like garbage”.

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Australia Carrum Downs Cold Case Domestic Violence Melbourne Murder Trial VIC

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