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

1964: Great Train Robber Charlie Wilson Breaks Free from Winson Green Prison

In August 1963, fifteen masked men ambushed the Glasgow to London Royal Mail train near Buckinghamshire, making off with 120 bags of cash totalling a record 2.6 million pounds. Police traced the gang to Leatherslade Farm within days, and Charlie Wilson, then 32, was among those arrested. In April 1964 he was sentenced to 30 years.

Just four months into his sentence, on 12 August 1964, several men broke into the maximum-security Winson Green Prison in Birmingham and freed Wilson in a brazen outside job. He evaded capture for over three years before being recaptured in Canada on 24 January 1968, returned to England, and made to serve out his term. Wilson later moved to Spain, where he allegedly became involved in drug trafficking, and was shot dead on 23 April 1990.

Arm reaches through jail window to open door escape scene

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Canada Escape Europe Murder Organised Crime Prison Robbery UK

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1950: Ethel Rosenberg Arrested as the Atom Spy at the Heart of a Nuclear Secrets Scandal

Ethel Rosenberg, a 34-year-old mother of two, was arrested in New York on 11 August 1950 in connection with the Harry Gold and Klaus Fuchs atom spy case. She and her husband Julius, both lifelong Communist sympathisers with Russian-born parents, were accused of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. The trail had begun with the unravelling of a network stretching from British physicist Klaus Fuchs to the heart of the American nuclear program.

Convicted at trial in March 1951, both Rosenbergs were sentenced to death. On 19 June 1953, Julius was executed first at Sing Sing prison, followed by Ethel at 8.11 p.m. Five electric shocks were required before doctors pronounced her dead.

In her final letter to her lawyer Emanuel Bloch, Ethel wrote: ‘I am not alone, and I die with honor and dignity, knowing my husband and myself will be vindicated.’

Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg under escort after spy charge arrest

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Espionage Execution New York Political Crime Trial USA

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991: Ealdorman Byrhtnoth Killed as Vikings Crush the Saxons at Maldon

On 11 August 991, a Viking force under Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason met the Anglo-Saxon fyrd of Essex at Maldon, on the Essex coast. Ealdorman Byrhtnoth, around sixty years old and said to stand nearly seven feet tall with swan-white hair, commanded the Saxon defence. In a fateful act of chivalric pride, he permitted the Vikings to cross a tidal causeway to fight on open ground. The decision proved catastrophic: Byrhtnoth fell in the battle, reportedly taking three men to kill, one of them nearly severing his arm.

The defeat became one of the defining disasters of late Anglo-Saxon England, accelerating the payment of Danegeld to Viking raiders. Byrhtnoth was buried at Ely Abbey, a monastery he had richly endowed with villages and lands. His widow presented the abbey with an embroidered tapestry commemorating his deeds. The battle inspired a celebrated Old English poem, and when his remains were examined in 1781, his skeleton confirmed the legendary stature: 6 feet 9 inches in height.

The Statue of Byrhtnoth at the end of Maldon Promenade in Essex, England | ID 211153857 © Jonathanritchie1990 | Dreamstime.com

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Battle England Essex Europe Maldon Massacre Political Crime UK War Crime

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1930: Taxi Driver Shot Dead on a Lonely Road Outside Perth

On the evening of Monday 11 August 1930, taxi driver Charles David Cameron Patterson, 27, was shot dead in his own sedan on a lonely stretch of Hale Road, about ten miles from Perth, near Maida Vale. Patterson had been hired to drive a passenger from Victoria Park Post Office to a rural orchard property beyond the crime scene. He was found slumped behind the wheel, shot at close range inside the cab.

Within twelve hours, police arrested Clifford Wray, a 19-year-old English-born city clerk employed at Bairds Co. Ltd., who had been living with his father on a property near the scene. Wray allegedly made two statements to detectives: the first claimed Patterson was killed by the accidental discharge of a revolver Wray was handling while Patterson attended to a fault on the car. A second statement followed, after which Wray was charged with wilful murder. Police noted the case bore striking similarities to the earlier unsolved murder of another Perth taxi driver, John O’Neill.

Taxi driver Charles David Cameron Patterson

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1964: Great Train Robber Charlie Wilson Breaks Free from Winson Green Prison

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1950: Ethel Rosenberg Arrested as the Atom Spy at the Heart of a Nuclear Secrets Scandal

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991: Ealdorman Byrhtnoth Killed as Vikings Crush the Saxons at Maldon

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1930: Taxi Driver Shot Dead on a Lonely Road Outside Perth

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