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

1987: Donald Harvey Sentenced to Triple Life Terms for Poisoning 24 Patients

Donald Harvey, an Ohio hospital orderly who described himself as an ‘angel of death’, was sentenced to triple life terms after pleading guilty to poisoning 24 patients. Harvey claimed to have begun killing in 1970 to ease the suffering of the terminally ill, smothering his first victim, 88-year-old Logan Evans, with a pillow at Marymount Hospital in London, Kentucky. His methods expanded to include arsenic, cyanide, morphine, insulin, and suffocation, deployed across multiple hospitals over 17 years.

Harvey ultimately claimed 87 murders, with 37 confirmed victims. To avoid execution, he pleaded guilty and received 28 life sentences in total. He died in custody at Toledo Correctional Institution on March 30, 2017, one of the most prolific hospital killers in American history.

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Murder Poisoning Serial Killer Trial USA

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1960: Francis Gary Powers Pleads Guilty at Moscow Spy Trial

On 17 August 1960, American pilot Francis Gary Powers stood trial in Moscow after his U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down over Soviet airspace on 1 May 1960. Powers, flying a CIA surveillance mission, had been captured alive when his high-altitude spy plane was struck by a Soviet surface-to-air missile near Sverdlovsk.

Powers pleaded guilty to espionage charges before a Soviet military tribunal, in a trial that became a Cold War spectacle broadcast to the world. He was sentenced to ten years, serving nearly two before being exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin in February 1962.

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Cold War Espionage Europe Moscow Political Crime Russia Trial USA

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1959: The Birth of the Man Who Would Become David Koresh

Vernon Howell was born on this day in 1959, destined to become one of the most notorious cult leaders in American history. The Branch Davidians, the sect he would eventually command, were themselves an offshoot of the Davidians, a reform movement within the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Howell later renamed himself David Koresh, drawing on biblical symbolism to cement his claim as a messianic figure. His leadership of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas would end in a 51-day federal siege in 1993, a catastrophic fire, and the deaths of 76 of his followers.

Waco, Texas - November 11, 2024: The gate at the entrance to the Branch Davidian Memorial site compound | ID 344668604 © Mkopka | Dreamstime.com — #image_title

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Cult Disaster Siege Terrorism USA

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1932: William Cyril Moxley Hanged at Long Bay for a Double Murder in Moorebank

On 5 April 1932, Dorothy Ruth Denzel and Frank Barnby Wilkinson, a young couple soon to be engaged, were attacked and killed while resting on a rug in a darkened lane near Liverpool, NSW. Their killer, William Cyril Moxley, a police informer with a criminal record, fled the scene in Wilkinson’s red Alvis sports car, later found abandoned in Ashfield. Moxley was identified in part by a distinctive detail: a clean bullet hole through his left ear, a souvenir from criminals he had once informed on.

A massive manhunt followed, with more than a hundred police deployed and families in surrounding suburbs locking their homes at night. Moxley was eventually tracked to bushland at Frenchs Forest in Sydney. He tried to escape, but after a chase and struggle involving three police officers, he was overpowered and arrested. He was hanged at Long Bay Gaol on 17 August 1932.

William Cyril Moxley condemned murderer at Long Bay gallows 1932 — #image_title

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Australia Execution Murder NSW Sydney Trial

1987: Donald Harvey Sentenced to Triple Life Terms for Poisoning 24 Patients

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1960: Francis Gary Powers Pleads Guilty at Moscow Spy Trial

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1959: The Birth of the Man Who Would Become David Koresh

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1932: William Cyril Moxley Hanged at Long Bay for a Double Murder in Moorebank

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