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

Dennis Nilsen’s trial opened on this day in 1983, more than a year after police finally traced human remains blocking the drains outside his London home. He had preyed on homeless and vulnerable men he met in pubs, luring them back to his flat before killing them, and once arrested he confessed with chilling thoroughness, filling fifty notebooks with the details of his crimes.

Charged with killing 15 men, Nilsen entered a plea of not guilty by reason of diminished responsibility as proceedings began, arguing that a disturbed mental state, not deliberate will, lay behind the killings.

Dennis Nilsen Wax Figure at Madame Tussauds London. LONDON, UK - JANUARY 28, 2025: A chilling wax figure of Dennis Nilsen, the infamous British serial killer, displayed at Madame Tussauds London in a prison themed setting with eerie lighting | ID 397256916 © Sergii Figurnyi | Dreamstime.com — ID 397256916 © Sergii Figurnyi | Dreamstime.com

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London Murder Serial Killer Trial UK

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Charles Gleeson was cook at a shelling station on Prince of Wales Island in the Torres Strait, and Patrick McKiernan, by his own later account, was the only man there he actually liked. That did not stop him shooting McKiernan dead with a stolen shotgun one Wednesday morning that May, then wandering the bush armed until Water Police talked him into surrendering, backed by a settler on horseback who held him at gunpoint.

Gleeson was quiet and composed when brought before a magistrate, offering no reason for the killing. He was convicted and hanged in Brisbane on 24 October 1892, sharing the scaffold with William Moncado, condemned separately for the murder of a ship’s boy at Thursday Island; witnesses said Gleeson twitched convulsively for ten minutes before he died.

“Poor Paddy, the only man on the station that I liked, and now I have shot him,” he said when shown the body, the closest thing to an explanation he ever gave.

Charles Gleeson in custody: Queensland State Archives, Item ID ITM2947

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Australia Brisbane Execution Murder QLD Thursday Island Torres Strait Trial

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George Dean, captain of a Sydney harbour ferry celebrated for pulling drowning passengers from the water, was sentenced to death in 1895 for poisoning his wife, Mary, with arsenic and strychnine hidden in lemon syrup and tea. No one could prove he had ever bought the poison, and a public outcry over the verdict forced a Royal Commission, which found the evidence wanting; Dean walked free with a pardon that June.

The relief did not last. His own lawyer admitted to a former Chief Justice that Dean had privately confessed his guilt, and a North Shore chemist came forward swearing he had sold Dean the poison himself, with no entry ever made in the sale book. Dean was arrested again and confessed in writing.

On 24 October 1895 he was convicted of making a false declaration and sentenced to five years. The following day a second conviction, for perjury committed to procure his own acquittal on the capital charge, added fourteen years, the terms to run concurrently.

George Dean lemon syrup case. Prison photograph. Credit: Museums of History NSW, State Archives Collection.

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Attempted Murder Australia NSW Pardon Perjury Poisoning Scandal Sydney Trial

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William O’Brien lost his Lancefield farm when the Commercial Bank foreclosed on his mortgage, and he swore to shoot whoever dared buy it next. Two years later, farmer Peter McAinsh took up the land anyway. On 24 July 1884, McAinsh left a local hotel for the walk home and was found dead on a dark road, shot in the head and groin, a bottle of gin still cradled under his arm.

Suspicion fell on O’Brien at once. Aboriginal trackers brought in from Queensland followed boot prints from the murder scene straight to his hut and back again, while a recently fired gun and matching shot were found inside. After a five-day trial, he was convicted and sentenced to death.

O’Brien was hanged in Melbourne on this day in 1884. The night before, he thanked the gaol staff for their kindness, warning he might be nervous on the drop; on the scaffold, asked if he had anything to say, he answered only “nothing” and bowed his head before the bolt was drawn.

Unidentified country road rural Australia early 1900s photograph

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Australia Execution Lancefield Melbourne Murder Trial VIC

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