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

2007: From Acquittal to Arrest: O.J. Simpson Held Over an Armed Raid on His Own Memorabilia in Las Vegas

On September 16, 2007, O.J. Simpson led a group of armed men into a room at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, seizing sports memorabilia he insisted had been stolen from him. He was arrested and charged with multiple felonies, including armed robbery and kidnapping, though he denied that anyone in his group had carried a weapon.

The case drew intense attention largely because of who Simpson was: the former football star had been famously acquitted in 1995 of the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, one of the most watched criminal trials in American history. More than a decade later, he found himself back in handcuffs, this time over a hotel room confrontation staged to reclaim items he believed were rightfully his.

Assorted vintage sports equipment including helmet and gloves

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Celebrity Crime Kidnapping Las Vegas Nevada Robbery Trial USA

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1811: A Last-Minute Recantation at the Gallows Delays the Execution of John Dunn at Parramatta

John Dunn, Thomas Welch and Ann Wilson were charged before the Court of Criminal Jurisdiction at Parramatta with the murder of Mary Rowe. After a lengthy hearing, the court convicted Dunn of the murder largely on the evidence of an accomplice, John Welch, a boy of about sixteen.

Dunn was ordered hanged the following Monday, between eight and twelve. But as the execution was about to proceed, the teenage witness suddenly retracted his sworn testimony in front of the assembled spectators, declaring that Dunn was innocent and that he and his father, Thomas Welch, were the true killers. The Acting Provost Marshal, with no precedent to guide him, respited the hanging, which did not take place until the following Wednesday, under far gloomier circumstances than before.

Despite the boy’s dramatic gallows reversal accusing himself and his father of the killing, the original verdict against Dunn stood and his execution went ahead two days later than planned.

Lady Justice Themis statue on gallows with scales and sword

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Australia Colonial Crime Execution Murder NSW Parramatta Trial

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1889: He Gave Away His Victim’s Wedding Ring: Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the Carlton Murder

Annie Thornton, was murdered in her home at Carlton, a suburb of Melbourne, on the night of 10 July 1889. Piercing screams were heard coming from the house that night, but no neighbour intervened and nothing was reported to police until the inquest weeks later.

The man committed for trial, Filipe Castillo, showed almost total indifference to his fate. On the very night of the killing he was seen with another woman and showed her a bloodstained waistcoat, claiming it came from a cut to his arm. He then handed out jewellery stolen from the dead woman to several other women, including the wedding ring he had taken from her finger.

The murdered woman’s husband, Henry Thornton, had been living apart from his wife and was working in Ballarat at the time. On hearing of the killing he walked into the Ballarat watch-house himself, gave a detailed account of his movements and produced letters proving he had not seen his wife since parting from her on good terms months earlier; he was cleared of any involvement.

At the inquest a verdict of wilful murder was returned, and the accused was described as remarkably unconcerned throughout the proceedings. He was tried, convicted and hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 16 September 1889 for one of the most brutal and cold-blooded murders Melbourne had seen.

Bag of jewels spilled open with gems falling out

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Australia Ballarat Carlton Execution Melbourne Murder Trial VIC

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1866: The Sussex Street Mystery: A Dog Walk Leads to a Severed Head in Sydney

Eleven-year-old James Kirkpatrick was walking his dog behind Sussex Street in Sydney in September 1866 when he stumbled on a woman’s severed head half buried in a rubbish heap near Ebsworth’s tweed factory and Barker’s flour mills. Nearby lay her torso, its chest cavity completely emptied and the lower ribs charred. Despite police turning the rubbish heap over three times and combing the neighbourhood, no other body parts were ever recovered.

The case became known as the Sussex Street Mystery and gripped the colony as police pieced together the killing. It ended with the conviction and execution of a butcher, William Henry Scott, for the murder, making it one of colonial Australia’s most sensational and gruesome murder cases.

William Henry Scott under sentence of death 1867

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Australia Cold Case Execution Murder NSW Sydney Trial

2007: From Acquittal to Arrest: O.J. Simpson Held Over an Armed Raid on His Own Memorabilia in Las Vegas

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1811: A Last-Minute Recantation at the Gallows Delays the Execution of John Dunn at Parramatta

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1889: He Gave Away His Victim’s Wedding Ring: Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the Carlton Murder

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1866: The Sussex Street Mystery: A Dog Walk Leads to a Severed Head in Sydney

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