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

1884: James Hawthorn Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Shooting His Brother Dead

On the night of 21 March 1884, William Hawthorn, a market gardener near Brighton, was shot while sleeping in his house. He died nine days later from his wounds. His brother James was quickly implicated: native trackers Moses and Johnny found double tracks between the two brothers’ homes, footprints matching James’s boots exactly, and a recently discharged gun in his possession. The brothers had been locked in a bitter equity dispute, and James had openly threatened William’s life.

Acquitted by a coroner’s jury, James was nonetheless arraigned by the Crown and tried twice in the Supreme Court. The first jury deadlocked; the second convicted him on 26 July 1884. The Chief Justice sentenced him to death, and a bid for executive reprieve failed. He was hanged at Melbourne Gaol at 10 o’clock on the morning of 21 August 1884.

Brother vs Brother

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1894: Fred Jordan Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the Murder of Minnie Crabtree

Frederick Jordan, an American convicted of killing his girlfriend Minnie Crabtree at Port Melbourne, was executed at Melbourne Gaol on the morning of 20 August 1894. He had maintained a quiet, composed demeanour throughout his time in the condemned cell, receiving last rites from Rev. Dean M’Kenna after Father Walshe fell ill and could not attend.

Jordan walked to the gallows with a firm step, stood erect before the assembled witnesses. When asked if he had anything to say, Jordan replied: ‘I have nothing to say: it’s no use to say anything.’, and was executed without incident.

Fred Jordan

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1986: Patrick Sherrill Kills 14 at Oklahoma Post Office, Coining a Dark New Phrase

On August 20, 1986, part-time mail carrier Patrick Sherrill walked into the post office in Edmond, Oklahoma, and opened fire on his colleagues, shooting 20 people and killing 14 before turning the gun on himself. It was the first mass shooting by an individual in a US office workplace environment, and it sent shockwaves through American working life.

The massacre gave rise to the phrase ‘going postal’, a term for sudden, explosive workplace rage. Between 1970 and 1997, more than 40 people were killed by current or former postal employees in at least 20 separate incidents, cementing the phrase in the English vocabulary.

Going Postal

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1860: Edward Fenlow Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for a Prospecting Partner's Murder

Edward Fenlow, a small, mild-mannered man known also as Reynolds, stood trial at the Castlemaine Circuit Court in August 1860 for the murder of his prospecting mate George Plummer Gardner at Inglewood on 27 March that year. The two men had been working together when Fenlow persuaded Gardner to descend into a mining hole, then struck him on the head with a shovel. Gardner was found the next day with a hole in his skull the size of a crown-piece. Fenlow robbed the body and evaded capture for several weeks before witnesses, including a refreshment tent keeper who recognised him on sight, placed him with the victim in the days before the killing.

Convicted on the evidence of multiple witnesses, Fenlow was sentenced to death and hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 20 August 1860.

Gold prospector resting with grain texture vintage style