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

1927: John Robinson Hanged for the Charing Cross Trunk Murder

In May 1927, a large black trunk deposited at Charing Cross railway station in London began to emit a foul smell. When police opened it on 10 May, they found the dismembered body of a woman, her limbs individually wrapped in brown paper. A laundry tag traced the victim to Minnie Alice Bonati, a domestic servant who supplemented her income through prostitution. She had gone to the Rochester Row office of estate agent John Robinson, 35, and died there following an argument over money.

Robinson claimed Bonati had attacked him, that he pushed her away and she fell and struck her head. Forensic pathologist Bernard Spilsbury contradicted this at trial, testifying she had been knocked unconscious and deliberately asphyxiated. Tried at the Old Bailey, Robinson was convicted on Spilsbury’s evidence and hanged on 12 August 1927.

Trunk in which Mrs Bonati body was found at Charing Cross station

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Execution London Murder Trial UK

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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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1873: Oscar Wallace Hanged at Ballarat for Armed Assault at Mount Beckworth

Oscar Wallace, known also by the aliases James and Hasker, had only been free for six weeks when he committed a brutal armed assault on Mary Cook at her isolated farmhouse near Mount Beckworth, outside Clunes, on 4 August 1873. Her husband was away, and Wallace, disguised with a bran bag over his head and a sack about his body, entered the property, seized a double-barrelled gun, locked the children in an adjoining room, and attacked the homeowner at knifepoint. He then fled through the district, robbing several men, firing at a Mr Prentice near Beaufort, and reportedly heading toward a hotel to settle an old score. He had served two years in Pentridge for larceny and had openly threatened the life of a witness from that trial.

Senior Constable Woods disguised himself as a digger and tracked Wallace to a store near Beaufort, where he overpowered him before Wallace could use the butcher’s knife he still carried. Wallace was tried, convicted, and hanged at Ballarat on 11 August 1873. He reportedly showed complete indifference to his fate from the moment of his capture.

James Wallace (tried as Oscar Wallace), prisoner no. 8775. PROV, VPRS 515/P0000, Volume 13, p. 167

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Australia Ballarat Beaufort Clunes Execution Mount Beckworth Murder Prison Robbery Trial VIC

1927: John Robinson Hanged for the Charing Cross Trunk Murder

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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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1873: Oscar Wallace Hanged at Ballarat for Armed Assault at Mount Beckworth

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