murder - Dark Stories True Crime Tours

1985: Night Stalker Richard Ramirez Captured by an Angry Mob in East Los Angeles

For months in 1985, Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, terrorised California, breaking into homes while families slept to assault, mutilate, and murder. His reign of terror ended not with a police operation but with a newspaper front page: once his mugshot was published across California media, his anonymity was gone.

On 31 August 1985, Ramirez attempted to carjack vehicles in the Boyle Heights neighbourhood of East Los Angeles. Residents recognised him, chased him down the sreet, and beat him to the ground before police arrived to take him into custody. Facing the mob, Ramirez reportedly confessed to officers, preferring arrest to the alternative.

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Boyle Heights California Capture East Los Angeles Los Angeles Murder Organised Crime Serial Killer Trial USA

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1825: John Riddel Hanged at Hobart for Murder, Confessing Two More Killings

A dispute over the butchering of a pig turned fatal in Hobart in 1825. John Read Riddel, a carpenter, had hired a butcher to cut up a slaughtered pig. Dissatisfied with the work, the two men came to blows, and Riddel drove a knife into the man during the struggle.

Standing on the gallows for his crime, on 31 August 1825, Riddel confessed to the gathered crowd to smothering two of his wives while they slept in a drunken stupor, to forging a letter with an English postmark to deceive a clergyman into marrying him, and to a failed attempt on the life of his Captain, where he had snatched a concealed sword and was about to strike when a bystander intervened.

Riddel himself requested that the full weight of his crimes be made public, before being launched into eternity.

Piggy bank hanging from a hangmans noose on a golden rope

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Australia Confession Execution Fraud Hobart Murder TAS Trial

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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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1870: James Cusack Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Murder at Woods Point

James Cusack was tried before Justice Barry at the Victorian Criminal Sessions in August 1870 for the wilful murder of his wife, Ann Cusack, at Gooley’s Creek on the Upper Goulburn River.

A neighbour, Patrick Malone, testified to a history of brutal domestic abuse: over eighteen months he had repeatedly witnessed Cusack beating, kicking, and dragging Ann by the hair. On the night of 28 June 1870, Malone watched Cusack knock her down with his fist over a hidden bottle of gin. The violence that followed proved fatal.

Cusack was convicted and hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 30 August 1870, leaving behind four children, the eldest just six years old and the youngest twelve months.

Woods Point, Charles William Dale, State Library Victoria, H36372.

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Australia Domestic Violence Execution Goulburn River Melbourne Murder Trial VIC Woods Point

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