Dark Stories: On This Day In True Crime History - Dark Stories True Crime Tours

1809: Thomas Dowlan Hanged in Sydney for Burglary at Hawkesbury

Thomas Doolan, described as an old offender who had been tried several times in the colony, was convicted of forcibly breaking into the house of John Styles at Hawkesbury. He had previously saved himself from execution by turning informant against his accomplices, some of whom were hanged on his testimony.

Doolan was hanged in Sydney on 26 August 1809. Court records from the same period reveal he had also been among those who burglariously broke into the dwelling of a settler named Thomas Harley, beating the occupants and ransacking the house, though he did not live to face that additional charge.

Motorway 1 bridge over Hawkesbury River near Sydney with traffic

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Australia Burglary Execution Hawkesbury NSW Prison Robbery Sydney

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2016: The Chinese Jack The Ripper Serial Killer Caught After 28 Years Through a Relative’s DNA

Gao Chengyong was arrested at his grocery store in Baiyin, Gansu, in August 2016 after a DNA test on his uncle flagged a close familial match to an unidentified serial killer. The breakthrough closed a case that had haunted investigators for nearly three decades. Gao confessed to all eleven murders, committed between 1988 and 2002 across Inner Mongolia.

Known in Chinese media as the ‘Chinese Jack the Ripper’, Gao had followed victims to their homes, typically striking in daylight hours. He mutilated their bodies in a pattern that drew comparisons to the 1888 Whitechapel killings. Sentenced to death and stripped of all assets, he was executed on 3 January 2019.

Chinese death character with skull texture 3D illustration

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Asia Baiyin Baotou China Cold Case Execution Gansu Inner Mongolia Murder Serial Killer

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1953: Serial Killer John Balaban Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for a String of Murders

John Balaban, a 29-year-old Rumanian industrial chemist living in Adelaide, admitted in the Criminal Court in July 1953 to murdering at least five people. His victims included Zora Kusic, a 29-year-old Yugoslav woman whose throat he cut at her tin-shed home in Torrensville; a French girl named Riva Kwas; his wife Thelma Joyce Balaban; his mother-in-law Susan Jane Ackland; and his young stepson.

He claimed a divine vision had told him to do whatever his conscience dictated. Balaban pleaded insanity, but the jury rejected the defence. He was convicted of the murder of Kusic and sentenced to death. On 26 August 1953, he was hanged at Adelaide Gaol, walking to the gallows with blackened eyes and a bruised nose after being subdued following a sudden outburst in his cell.

1953 Daily Telegraph article Alleged killer dead wife Trove image

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Adelaide Australia Execution Murder SA Serial Killer Torrensville Trial

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1803: Constable Joseph Luker: the First Police Officer Killed on Duty in Australia

Constable Joseph Luker, a British convict transported to New South Wales on the Third Fleet in 1791, served out his sentence and joined the Night Watch, the colony’s fledgling police force. On the night of 25 August 1803, he was called to investigate a robbery at Mary Breeze’s brothel on Back Row East in Sydney, telling Breeze he believed he knew who was responsible.

His body was found before dawn behind the establishment, bearing sixteen wounds to the head. The guard of his own cutlass had been driven into his skull, and nearby lay a bloodied barrow wheel and the stolen desk. Surgeon John Harris concluded at least four weapons had been used. Though some of his fellow constables were implicated, no one was ever convicted of his murder. Luker remains the first police officer killed in the line of duty in the history of Australia.

Policing in convict NSW

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Australia Cold Case Murder NSW Police Sydney Unsolved

1809: Thomas Dowlan Hanged in Sydney for Burglary at Hawkesbury

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2016: The Chinese Jack The Ripper Serial Killer Caught After 28 Years Through a Relative’s DNA

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1953: Serial Killer John Balaban Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for a String of Murders

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1803: Constable Joseph Luker: the First Police Officer Killed on Duty in Australia

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