nsw - Dark Stories True Crime Tours

1993: A Firewood Hunt Led to Two More Bodies in Belanglo Forest

In October 1993, a local man out gathering firewood stumbled on human remains in a remote corner of Belanglo State Forest. The bones belonged to Deborah Everist and James Gibson, a Melbourne couple missing since 1989.

What unsettled investigators was that Gibson’s camera and backpack had already turned up years earlier, dumped by the roadside at Galston Gorge, more than 120 kilometres from where his body finally lay. Within weeks, a wider search of the forest uncovered four more young backpackers buried nearby, confirming Belanglo as the burial ground of a serial killer.

⬅ See all events from 5 October

Australia Belanglo State Forest Cold Case Melbourne Missing Persons Murder NSW Serial Killer Victoria

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1960: Breathing for Seven Hours: The Forensic Test That Disproved a Kidnappers Alibi in the Graeme Thorne Murder

In July 1960, nine-year-old Graeme Thorne was snatched from a street in Sydney‘s Bondi, Australia’s first known kidnap for ransom case, and murdered within a day. His body turned up six weeks later at Seaforth, wrapped in a picnic blanket that would ultimately betray his killer.

Forensic scientists traced the rare blanket through its manufacturer, dyed Pekingese hairs, two uncommon tree species and flecks of pink mortar to a house at Clontarf owned by Hungarian immigrant Stephen Bradley. By the time police called on 3 October, Bradley had already sailed for England; he was arrested when his ship reached Ceylon and extradited to stand trial. He claimed the boy had simply suffocated in his car boot, a story investigators demolished by rigging a breathing mask to the same boot and drawing air from it for seven hours straight.

Bradley pleaded not guilty to murder but admitted the kidnapping and had earlier signed a confession he later retracted. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in custody seven years later.

Sydney Opera House under construction in 1963.

⬅ See all events from 3 October

Australia England Extradition Forensic Science Kidnapping Murder NSW Sri Lanka Sydney Trial

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1863: The Mob Wanted to Lynch Him on the Spot: A Bushranger Hanged at Maitland for Murdering a Brave Drover

On Warland’s Range near Murrurundi in April 1863, a masked rider named Henry Wilson held up a party of drovers and stripped young Peter Clarke of his watch and chain. When Clarke lunged at him, Wilson shot him three times; Clarke was dead within minutes. So furious was the crowd that gathered at the scene that police had to physically stop them from hanging Wilson on the nearest tree.

He was tried instead at Maitland Circuit Court, where his counsel argued the fatal shot had gone off accidentally in the struggle. The jury took ten minutes to convict him, and he was hanged at East Maitland Gaol on 2 October 1863. Clarke’s bravery was later honoured with a public monument erected on the spot where he fell.

Wilson admitted firing the shots but denied meaning to kill, blaming drink and panic in the scuffle; still, he told his priest he accepted the justice of his sentence and deserved to die.

Peter Clarke monument, Warland’s Range, near Blandford, NSW. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, At Work and Play - 05492. — Peter Clarke monument, Warland’s Range, near Blandford, NSW. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, At Work and Play – 05492.

⬅ See all events from 2 October

Australia Bushranging Execution Maitland Murder Murrurundi NSW Robbery Trial

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1866: The Sussex Street Mystery: Sydney’s Inquest Returns a Verdict of Wilful Murder

In September 1866 a boy’s dog began scratching at a rubbish heap near Sussex Street in Sydney, and uncovered a charred, half-roasted human head. Further searching turned up the dismembered chest of a woman, but no other remains were ever found, and no one in the city had reported her missing.

At the inquest a young doctor testified that the head wounds had killed her almost instantly, and that her body had been carefully dissected and burned afterwards, evidently by someone with real anatomical skill, in an apparent effort to destroy any means of identifying her. The jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against a person or persons unknown, and the government posted a reward of two hundred pounds, offering a pardon to any accomplice willing to name the killer.

Close to the scene of the crime: Barker & Co. Mills, corner of Sussex and Bathurst Streets, Sydney, before June 1872. Possibly photographed by Charles Pickering. State Library of New South Wales, SPF/484.

⬅ See all events from 2 October

Australia Inquest Murder Mystery NSW Sydney Unsolved

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Subscribe to Dark Stories