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

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

⬅ See all events from 16 September

Australia Colonial Crime Execution Murder NSW Parramatta Trial

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

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

⬅ See all events from 16 September

Australia Ballarat Carlton Execution Melbourne Murder Trial VIC

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

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

⬅ See all events from 16 September

Celebrity Crime Kidnapping Las Vegas Nevada Robbery Trial USA

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

2002: The Monster Butler Archibald Hall Dies in Prison as the Oldest Whole-Life Inmate in Britain

Archibald Hall began as a teenage thief in Glasgow before reinventing himself behind bars, studying antiques and taking elocution lessons to erase his Scottish accent. He adopted the alias Roy Fontaine, borrowed from actress Joan Fontaine, and used the new identity to work as a butler to British aristocracy.

The disguise concealed a killer. In 1977, Hall shot a gamekeeper during a staged rabbit hunt after the man threatened to expose his criminal past, then buried him beside a stream. Later, while working for a former Labour MP and his wife, Hall and an accomplice suffocated the wife after she caught them plotting to rob the couple. They drugged her husband and drove him to Scotland, where they buried her body before strangling him and beating him with a shovel. The couple’s housekeeper was also murdered during the spree.

Convicted of four murders, Hall was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He died behind bars in Portsmouth, England, with the Monster Butler persona outliving the man who had built it.

⬅ See all events from 16 September

England Murder Prison Robbery Scotland Serial Killer UK

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

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

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

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

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

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

2002: The Monster Butler Archibald Hall Dies in Prison as the Oldest Whole-Life Inmate in Britain

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Subscribe to Dark Stories