Lawrence Cummins once rode as a bushranger across New South Wales, but by the time disease caught up with him he had spent decades as someone else entirely. Living quietly under the assumed name James Long, he settled far from his old haunts and let the past disappear.

He died at Wodonga, Victoria, aged 66, of hepatitis, cirrhosis and Bright’s disease, and was buried in the local cemetery under the name his neighbours knew. Few, if any, of them ever learned they had been living alongside a man with a bushranging past.

Bushranger Larry Cummins
Bushranger Larry Cummins

⬅ See all events from 18 October

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Nineteen-year-old Yolanda Washington was last seen getting into a car near a Los Angeles intersection one October evening in 1977. The next morning her body was found on a hillside near the Ventura Freeway, the first known victim of the killers soon dubbed the Hillside Stranglers.

Her killers were cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, who had lured her with the promise of a ride before attacking and strangling her. Washington, who worked as a waitress and sometimes turned to sex work, was the opening victim in a killing spree that would terrorise the city for months before the cousins were finally caught.

Aerial view of rush hour traffic on the 101 Ventura Freeway
Hillside Strangler: Aerial view of rush hour traffic on the 101 Ventura Freeway

⬅ See all events from 18 October

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

John Wayne Glover, later known as the Granny Killer, followed 86-year-old Doris Cox along Spit Road in Sydney‘s Mosman to her retirement village in 1989, then dragged her into a secluded stairwell and smashed her face into a brick wall.

Cox survived, one of the few to live through an attack that would later be linked to a string of killings targeting elderly women. But she had Alzheimer’s, and her account of the assault was so confused that detectives were steered toward hunting a much younger suspect, a misdirection that bought Glover more time before he was finally caught.

In memory note on paper held in wrinkled hands under dramatic light
In memory note on paper held in wrinkled hands under dramatic light

⬅ See all events from 18 October

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

In 1979, Philadelphia police searching Ira Einhorn’s apartment found a locked steamer trunk shoved into a closet; inside were the mummified remains of his former girlfriend, Holly Maddux, missing for more than a year. Einhorn, a charismatic countercultural figure known as the Unicorn Killer, fled the country before trial and spent nearly two decades hiding in Europe before he was finally captured in France.

Extradited to the United States, Einhorn stood trial in 2002 and took the stand in his own defense, insisting CIA agents had killed Maddux and framed him. The jury took just two hours to convict him of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced the following day to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Vintage steamer trunk with secrets locked up tight.
Vintage steamer trunk with secrets locked up tight.

⬅ See all events from 17 October

Spread the word on your favourite platform!
On This Day in True Crime History

Subscribe to Dark Stories

True crime stories, dark history and tour news, straight to your inbox.