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

1850: James Yates Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the Murder of a Shepherd

James Yates was hanged outside Adelaide Gaol on 5 September 1850 for the murder of a shepherd at Skillagolee Creek. Around 800 spectators gathered in the rain before dawn to witness the execution, the gibbet erected within yards of the gaol’s front door, the coffin placed directly beneath the drop.

Yates ascended the ladder with a firm step, but his hollow eyes, ashen cheeks, and wasted frame betrayed the torment of his final weeks. On the drop he kicked off his boots with restless fury, then knelt reluctantly to prayer. Yates spoke no address to the crowd. His only words, repeated until the drop fell, were: ‘Lord have mercy on me, Christ have mercy on me, Lord, Jesus, have mercy on me.’

The hangman placed the noose under the wrong ear, but the drop was sufficient to break the neck, and death came quickly.

Robber woman in retro clothes praying near gallows for hanging criminals

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Adelaide Australia Execution Murder SA

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1877: Crazy Horse Fatally Bayoneted at Fort Robinson

Crazy Horse, the celebrated Lakota war leader who had helped defeat George Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn just a year earlier, was fatally stabbed with a bayonet at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, on 5 September 1877. He was 36 years old.

He had surrendered to U.S. Army forces earlier that year, ending years of armed resistance on the northern plains. Brought to the fort under the pretence of a meeting, he was seized and stabbed during a struggle, dying that night. The killing marked the end of one of the most formidable military careers in the history of the Lakota people.

Crazy Horse and his band of Indians on their way to surrender (1877)

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Assassination Military Political Crime USA War Crime

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1946: The Lipstick Killer Pleads Guilty, Then Tries to Cheat the Verdict

On September 4, 1946, William Heirens stood before a Chicago court with his parents and the victims’ families watching, and admitted guilt on burglary and murder charges spanning three killings. The prosecution had already staged a public reenactment of the Degnan murder in August, ensuring the case was tried in the press long before sentencing.

That night, Heirens attempted to hang himself in his cell, timing the attempt to coincide with a guard shift change. He was discovered before he died. He later said: ‘Everyone believed I was guilty … If I weren’t alive, I felt I could avoid being adjudged guilty by the law and thereby gain some victory. Before I walked into the courtroom my counsel told me to just enter a plea of guilty and keep my mouth shut afterward. I didn’t even have a trial.’

Red lipstick with blood splatter on white background, close up

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Murder Prison Serial Killer Trial USA

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1873: A Husband Killed by Mercury in Moonta, South Australia

Thomas Woolcock died at 3 am on 4 September 1873 in Moonta, Adelaide having suffered weeks of stomach pains, nausea, and prolonged vomiting. His death was initially attributed to exhaustion, but suspicion quickly fell on his wife Elizabeth Woolcock, a woman whose own life had been marked by hardship, abuse, and desperation.

Elizabeth had endured years of violence at the hands of Woolcock, a heavy-drinking wife-beater who had repeatedly prevented her from leaving. In the weeks before his death, she had made increasingly frantic attempts to obtain morphine and other substances from local chemists, and her behaviour had become talk of the community. Charged with murder by mercury poisoning, Elizabeth was tried, convicted, and hanged at Adelaide Gaol on 30 December 1873. She remains the only woman ever executed in South Australia.

Elizabeth Lillian Woolcock with her husband Thomas and their son Tom, c.1865. State Library of South Australia, B 12311. Public domain.

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Adelaide Australia Domestic Abuse Execution Moonta Murder Poisoning SA Trial

1850: James Yates Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the Murder of a Shepherd

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1877: Crazy Horse Fatally Bayoneted at Fort Robinson

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1946: The Lipstick Killer Pleads Guilty, Then Tries to Cheat the Verdict

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1873: A Husband Killed by Mercury in Moonta, South Australia

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