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

1977: The Last Blade Falls: the Final Guillotine Execution in France

Hamida Djandoubi went to the guillotine in France on this day in 1977, the last person ever executed by the device and the last person executed in France at all. He had been convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Elisabeth Bousquet, a crime that closed out nearly two centuries of the guillotine’s use as the instrument of French justice.

His execution marked a quiet historical hinge: within a few years France would abolish capital punishment altogether, in 1981, making Djandoubi’s death the final chapter of a punishment first adopted during the French Revolution.

Close-up of a guillotine in dark foggy setting execution concept

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Europe Execution France Murder Trial

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1851: Too Many Escapes: Maitland Gaoler Dismissed, Replaced by a Darlinghurst Turnkey

Just three years after Maitland Gaol had officially opened its gates in 1848, its first gaoler, James Cox, was sacked. So many prisoners had slipped out under his watch that on 10 September 1851 the authorities removed him from the post entirely.

His replacement was John Wallace, formerly principal turnkey at Darlinghurst Gaol in Sydney, who took over as gaoler at Maitland. His wife, Mrs Wallace, was installed alongside him as the gaol’s matron, a husband and wife team brought in to tighten a prison that had already earned a reputation for losing its inmates.

Warder guards wall after prisoner escape attempt at Maitland Gaol 1940

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Australia Corruption Darlinghurst Escape Maitland NSW Prison Scandal Sydney

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1897: The World’s First Drink-Driving Conviction, London 1897

Just before one in the morning on September 10, 1897, a taxi driver named George Smith lost control of his cab on New Bond Street, swerving across the road and crashing, smashing a water pipe and a front window. No one was hurt, cars of the era topped out at about 8mph, but Smith admitted to police that he had been drinking, and that confession was enough to convict him in what is recognised as the world’s first drink-driving case.

He was fined 20 shillings. There was no specific drunk-driving law to charge him under; the conviction rested entirely on his own admission, since officers otherwise had only their own snap judgement of a driver’s sobriety to go on. It would be almost a decade before any jurisdiction, enacted a dedicated drunk-driving law, and more than half a century before the breathalyser existed to test drivers objectively.

Humorous Vintage New Year Postcard: Policeman Discovers Man Asleep in Snow (circa 1900. A delightfully humorous and classic vintage postcard illustration from the early 20th century (circa 1900-1910s), perfectly capturing the aftermath of a lively New Year’s Eve celebration... The scene depicts a gentleman, dressed in a formal black suit with a white shirt, bow tie, and suspenders, comically sprawled out in a pristine snowdrift. His top hat is discarded nearby, his umbrella askew | ID 404164454 © Svetlana Gavrilyuk | Dreamstime.com — ID 404164454 © Svetlana Gavrilyuk | Dreamstime.com

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First of its Kind Legal History London Traffic Offence UK

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2005: The Granny Killer Found Hanging in His Cell

John Wayne Glover, 72, was found hanging from a shower rail in his cell at Lithgow prison in New South Wales. He had been serving life without parole for the murder of six elderly women on Sydney‘s North Shore between 1989 and 1990. The mayor of Mosman described his death as the end of a terrible era.

No evidence has ever surfaced that Glover killed before 1989, when he was 56 and had already been married for 20 years with children; his wife had no idea of the violence in his past. He only admitted to the murders once confronted with the police evidence against him.

Glover denied responsibility for other crimes in which he was a prime suspect. Years after his conviction, he admitted he never worried about who his victims were or why he killed them; he said he wanted to stop but could not, and simply returned to his normal life after each murder.

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Australia Death in Custody Lithgow Murder NSW Prison Serial Killer Sydney

1977: The Last Blade Falls: the Final Guillotine Execution in France

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1851: Too Many Escapes: Maitland Gaoler Dismissed, Replaced by a Darlinghurst Turnkey

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1897: The World’s First Drink-Driving Conviction, London 1897

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2005: The Granny Killer Found Hanging in His Cell

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