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

1868: John Hogan Hanged at Castlemaine for the Murder of His Tent-Mate at Bullock Creek

John Hogan, a 55-year-old man with a criminal past, met Martin Rooney at Duke’s Flat, Bullock Creek, and the two shared a tent. Rooney had recently arrived from New Zealand carrying deposit receipts worth around 200 pounds. While Rooney slept, Hogan beat him to death with a stonebreaker’s hammer and a tomahawk, fracturing his skull in several places. One of the receipts and Rooney’s purse were found on Hogan when he was arrested.

At the inquest, around 400 miners gathered outside and had to be warned against lynching by the coroner. Evidence placed Hogan selling his watch for tucker money just hours after the killing, while telling a storekeeper he had a mate with plenty of money he intended to rob. Hogan was tried, convicted, and hanged at Castlemaine on 14 August 1868.

Bullock Creek goldfields murder newspaper article image

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Australia Bullock Creek Castlemaine Execution Murder Robbery Trial VIC

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1751: The Poisoning of Francis Blandy by His Own Daughter

Francis Blandy, a lawyer and town clerk of Henley-on-Thames, died in August 1751 after his daughter Mary repeatedly dosed his food with arsenic. The powder had been supplied by her lover, Captain William Henry Cranstoun, a Scottish officer who was already secretly married. Cranstoun told Mary the powder would make her father more accepting of their betrothal. His death became one of the earliest criminal cases to feature scientific toxicological evidence.

Mary was arrested after servants and relatives raised suspicions. Tried at Oxford in February 1752, she was convicted of murder and hanged on 6 April 1752, protesting her innocence to the end. Cranstoun escaped justice in court but died of illness in December 1752.

Engraved portrait of Mary Blandy in period dress

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Europe Execution Murder Poisoning Trial UK

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1964: The Last Two Men Hanged in Britain, Executed Simultaneously 50 Kilometres Apart

At 8:00 a.m. on 13 August 1964, two gallows traps opened in unison across England. Peter Anthony Allen dropped at Walton Prison in Liverpool; Gwynne Owen Evans dropped at Strangeways Prison in Manchester. Both had been convicted of the capital murder of John Alan West, a 53-year-old laundry van driver from Workington, Cumbria, stabbed and beaten to death during a robbery at his home in the early hours of 7 April 1964.

Police traced the men within 48 hours through a medallion left at the scene, inscribed with Evans’ name. Tried together at Manchester Crown Court in June 1964, the jury found both equally guilty of capital murder committed in the course of theft. The judge, executioners Harry Allen and Robert Leslie Stewart, and the clock itself were all synchronised. When the traps fell, Britain’s era of capital punishment fell with them. No one has been executed in the United Kingdom since.

Silhouetted hangmans noose rope on orange backlit background

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Cumbria England Europe Execution Liverpool Manchester Murder Robbery Trial UK

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1915: Brides in the Bath Killer Hanged at Maidstone Prison

George Joseph Smith, operating under aliases including Henry Williams and John Lloyd, was convicted of drowning three women in their baths after marrying them bigamously and insuring their lives. His victims were Bessie Mundy, found dead at Herne Bay in 1912; Alice Burnham, drowned at Blackpool in December 1913; and Margaret Lofty, found dead in her bath at Highgate in December 1914. Each death was initially recorded as accidental, but Divisional Detective Inspector Neil and pathologist Dr Bernard Spilsbury determined that accidental drowning in any of those baths was effectively impossible.

Smith was tried in 1915, convicted of all three murders, and hanged at Maidstone Prison by executioner John Ellis on 13 August 1915.

Smith protested his innocence to the end.

George Joseph Smith Brides in the Bath murderer in the dock

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Blackpool England Europe Execution Fraud London Maidstone Murder Poisoning Serial Killer Trial UK

1868: John Hogan Hanged at Castlemaine for the Murder of His Tent-Mate at Bullock Creek

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1751: The Poisoning of Francis Blandy by His Own Daughter

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1964: The Last Two Men Hanged in Britain, Executed Simultaneously 50 Kilometres Apart

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1915: Brides in the Bath Killer Hanged at Maidstone Prison

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