Michael Marshall was gunned down outside his luxury home in South Yarra, shot four times in the head in front of his five-year-old son on this day in 2003. The hit was part of the gangland war that tore through Melbourne underworld circles through the early 2000s.

Carl Williams ordered the killing, but the real twist was the setup behind it: Williams had first framed Marshall for the murder of Willie Thompson, manufacturing a motive and a target in one stroke. Victor Brincat and Thomas Hentschel carried out the shooting and were later convicted of Marshall’s murder, two more names drawn into a war where loyalty counted for nothing and innocence was no defence.

Gangland: more than a dictionary definition in Melbourne, 1998–2010.
Gangland: more than a dictionary definition in Melbourne, 1998–2010.

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A drunken brawl at a Launceston public house turned deadly when William Brown, also known as Stockton, drew a knife and stabbed a man named James Stephens. The wounds were serious enough that a doctor testified to their severity at trial, and Brown was convicted of stabbing with intent to kill and sentenced to death, with no hope of mercy.

While he lay under sentence in Launceston gaol, word reached him that a relative back in England had left him a sum of money. Rather than let the inheritance go to waste, Brown arranged to bequeath it to a servant who had once worked alongside him as a splitter and sawyer on a property near the East Tamar. He was hanged on this day in 1853, his strange act of generosity settled just before the sentence was carried out.

Signing a last will and testament document with quill pen
Signing a last will and testament document with quill pen

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

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Leonardo Moncado was a Chilean sailor aboard the trading schooner Sketty Belle when he killed a young cabin hand known as Bob during a voyage off Thursday Island. No trace of the victim was ever found except a mutilated portion of his body, discovered stuffed inside Moncado’s own trunk. One crewman who witnessed the victimes final moments stayed silent for months, having been threatened by Moncado, and only told police the truth once Moncado was committed for trial.

Moncado was convicted of murder and hanged in Brisbane on this day in 1892, attended on the scaffold by a Catholic priest.

Leonardo Moncado in custody: Queensland State Archives, Item ID ITM2947
Leonardo Moncado in custody: Queensland State Archives, Item ID ITM2947

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On This Day in True Crime History
1853·"I Would Finish You Now": Hanged in Melbourne for the Murder of His Mistress
1853·The Young Witness Testifies: Alexander Ram Hanged in Melbourne for Murdering Kitty Hennessy
1883·Hanged in Perth, Each Still Blaming the Other to the End
1885·Hanged in Brisbane After a Feverish Stockman Shot the Manager Who Denied Him Hospital
1888·Mutiny on the Brisbane River: the Captain Who Threatened to Turn His Guns on Parliament
1926·The Gold He Took to His Grave: Two Men Hanged in Fremantle for Killing Two Police Officers
More Crime On This Day →

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