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

1952: Jan Novotny Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the Murder of a Darwin Taxi Driver

In April 1952, Czech migrants John Novotny, 19, and Jerry Koci, 20, hailed a taxi in Darwin driven by George Thomas Grantham, one of the town’s best-known cab owners. Ten miles out of town, Novotny shot Grantham in the face with a rifle he had purchased just days earlier, dragged the body into scrub 13 miles from Darwin, and fled south in the stolen taxi. The pair were intercepted on a Queensland road near Duchess, nearly 1,000 miles away, two days later.

At the Supreme Court, Novotny confessed in broken English: ‘I buy rifle in Darwin. Me and my friend get driver take us along road. Ten miles out I shoot driver with rifle, drag driver out of car.’ Both men were convicted of murder before Judge Kriewaldt. Novotny was hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol on 7 August 1952.

Suspects Jonas Nopotry and Jerr Koci leaving Mt Isa Police Court 1952

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Australia Darwin Execution Murder NT Trial

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1867: George Searle Hanged at Ballarat for the Piggoreet Murder

Thomas Ulick Burke, manager of the Bank of Australasia at Smythesdale, was ambushed and shot dead on 10 May 1867 while travelling alone by buggy after buying gold along the road toward Bulldog. His body was found the following day in the bush near the Coach and Horses Hotel, slumped in the buggy with his valise emptied of all gold and notes. Evidence placed George Searle and his associate Joseph Ballan near the scene that afternoon, with a witness confirming Ballan had been scouting goldfield yields in the days before the murder.

At the Ballarat Circuit Court, before Judge Barry, both men were tried for wilful murder. Searle, keeper of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, and Ballan, a lodger there, had been seen together at key locations along the murder route on the day of the killing. Horseshoe markings provided further physical evidence linking the pair to the crime. Searle was convicted and hanged at Ballarat on 7 August 1867.

Murder of Mr Burke native trackers finding the pistols

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Australia Ballarat Execution Goldfields Murder Robbery Trial VIC

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1985: Jeremy Bamber Kills Five Family Members at White House Farm

At 3:26am on 7 August 1985, Jeremy Bamber called Essex Police claiming his adoptive sister Sheila had gone berserk with a rifle at the family farm in Tolleshunt D’Arcy. Officers arrived to find a scene staged to look like a murder-suicide: Bamber’s adoptive father Neville shot multiple times in the kitchen, mother June dead in her bedroom, and Sheila’s six-year-old twins shot in their beds. Sheila herself lay dead, clutching a rifle and a bible, shot through the throat.

The scene appeared so convincing that police initially accepted the murder-suicide theory and even helped Bamber burn bloodstained carpets and bedding. It was Bamber’s former girlfriend who broke the case, telling police he had confessed the killings to her. Forensic evidence, including a silencer found at the farm bearing traces of Sheila’s blood inside the barrel, proved she could not have shot herself with it attached. Bamber was convicted in 1986 and sentenced to five concurrent life terms, later made whole life, meaning he will never be released.

Jeremy Bamber Kills Five Family Members at White House Farm

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Essex Europe Family Crime Murder Trial UK

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1888: Martha Tabram Slain in Whitechapel, Possibly Jack the Ripper’s First Victim

In the early hours of 7 August 1888, Martha Tabram was found dead in George Yard Buildings, Whitechapel, stabbed 39 times. The 39-year-old had spent the previous evening drinking with a companion and two soldiers before separating in the early hours, never to be seen alive again. Though not among the canonical five Ripper victims, she is widely regarded as the most likely additional candidate.

Born Martha White in Southwark in 1849, she had lived a troubled life marked by a failed marriage, heavy drinking, and poverty. By 1888, separated from her long-term partner Henry Turner and evicted from their Commercial Road lodgings, she had been forced into street prostitution. Her killer was never identified.

Portrait of Martha Tabram victim of a Victorian era murder case

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Cold Case London Murder Serial Killer UK Unsolved Whitechapel

1952: Jan Novotny Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the Murder of a Darwin Taxi Driver

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1867: George Searle Hanged at Ballarat for the Piggoreet Murder

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1985: Jeremy Bamber Kills Five Family Members at White House Farm

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1888: Martha Tabram Slain in Whitechapel, Possibly Jack the Ripper’s First Victim

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