Political Crime - Dark Stories True Crime Tours

1975: Gerald Ford Survives Assassination Attempt in Sacramento

On 5 September 1975, President Gerald Ford was leaving a meeting at the Senator Hotel in Sacramento, California, when Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, pointed a loaded .45-calibre pistol at him from close range. A Secret Service agent grabbed the weapon before it could be fired, and Ford was unharmed.

Fromme was arrested on the spot. She was later tried and convicted of attempted assassination of the President, receiving a life sentence. It was the first of two attempts on Ford's life within a single month, the second coming just 17 days later in San Francisco.

Gerald Ford portrait in the Michigan State Capitol at 100 N Capitol Avenue in Lansing, Michigan | ID 103716497 © Glenn Nagel | Dreamstime.com — ID 103716497 © Glenn Nagel | Dreamstime.com

⬅ See all events from 5 September

Assassination California Political Crime Sacramento Trial USA

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1994: NSW Politician John Newman Shot Dead Outside His Cabramatta Home

At 9:30 pm on 5 September 1994, Labor MP John Newman was shot twice and killed instantly in the car park of his Woods Avenue home in Cabramatta, in the western suburbs of Sydney.

His fiancee, Lucy Wang, was present but saw little due to the speed of the attack; she reported a hooded man in an army-style jacket who fired four shots and fled in a waiting car. Newman had represented Cabramatta in the NSW Legislative Assembly since 1986 and had campaigned aggressively against organised crime and drug trafficking in the area. Newman was later given a state funeral. He was 47 years old.

Grey car parked in front of a garage at night

⬅ See all events from 5 September

Assassination Australia Cabramatta Gang Murder NSW Organised Crime Political Crime Sydney

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1666: The Great Fire of London Begins on Pudding Lane

In the early hours of 2 September 1666, a fire broke out at the Pudding Lane bakery of Thomas Farriner in the City of London. Driven by strong winds, the blaze consumed around 80 percent of the old city before it was brought under control on 6 September. Though attributed to an accident at the bakery, the disaster ignited a desperate search for culprits.

Robert Hubert, a French watchmaker from Rouen, confessed to starting the fire. His confession was riddled with impossibilities: he had not arrived in England until two days after the fire broke out, and he described throwing a fire grenade through a window at the Farriner bakery, which had no windows. With nationalism inflamed by the Second Anglo-Dutch War, a scapegoat was needed, and Hubert, a foreigner in a hostile city, was hanged for a crime he almost certainly did not commit.

⬅ See all events from 2 September

Arson Disaster Europe Execution London Political Crime UK Wrongful Conviction

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1792: The September Massacres begin in Paris

During the September Massacres of 1792, revolutionary crowds swept through Paris prisons and religious institutions, killing prisoners and others regarded as enemies of the Revolution.

At the Carmelite Convent, Roman Catholic clergy imprisoned for refusing to swear allegiance to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy were brought out and killed, among them several bishops.

The violence formed part of a broader wave of extrajudicial executions that engulfed Paris over several days, as fears of counter-revolution and foreign invasion fed a climate of panic and vengeance.

Those killed at the convent were later recognised by the Catholic Church as the Martyrs of September and were beatified in 1926.

Engraving showing the massacre of Princess de Lamballe

⬅ See all events from 2 September

Europe Execution France Massacre Paris Political Crime Religion

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