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

1805: “I Have Killed Biddy, and Am Going to Deliver Myself Up”: A Hawkesbury Murderer Hanged at Sydney

William Miller, a labourer at Hawkesbury near Sydney, attacked Bridget Horan (also recorded as Kean) with a hoe on the afternoon of 18 September 1805. Minutes later he ran to a neighbour and blurted out the truth: “Yes: I have killed Biddy, and am going to deliver myself up.” He then led the chief constable straight to her body himself, the hoe still lying beside it.

At his trial before the Court of Criminal Jurisdiction in Sydney, Miller pleaded not guilty to acting with malice, insisting the killing had come from unbridled momentary rage rather than intent. The court was unconvinced. He was convicted and hanged on 30 September 1805, his body afterwards handed over for dissection.

Witnesses said Miller never wavered from his confession, going to the gallows with what observers called sincere repentance, seemingly resigned that only his own death could answer for hers.

⬅ See all events from 30 September

Australia Confession Execution Hawkesbury Murder NSW Sydney Trial

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1861: He Wept After Being Punched, Then Fetched a Hammer: a Melbourne Racing-Yard Killing

Martin Rice was a former steeplechase jockey with a reputation for violence when he picked a fight with Anthony Green, a well-known horse trainer, over the shoeing of a horse at Kirk’s Bazaar off Bourke Street in Melbourne. Green struck him once, told him to leave, and Rice wept and walked away, muttering that he would have his revenge.

Half an hour later, as Green stooped to check a horse’s foot with his back turned, Rice crept up behind him and drove a blacksmith’s hammer into his skull. Green lingered barely a day before dying, telling a friend he had heard his own bones crack. A coroner’s jury found the gap between the insult and the blow proved deliberate malice, not sudden provocation, and Rice was convicted of wilful murder at the Supreme Court and hanged at Melbourne Gaol.

On the scaffold Rice asked to speak, insisting he had borne no malice toward Green and had never meant to kill him.

⬅ See all events from 30 September

Australia Execution Melbourne Murder Trial VIC

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1630: A Mayflower Pilgrim Becomes the First Man Hanged in the New World Colonies

John Billington had been a troublemaker since the Mayflower crossing, defying Myles Standish and drawing accusations in a colony revolt, always insisting he was innocent. In 1630 a long feud over land boundaries turned fatal when he ambushed and shot fellow colonist John Newcomen, reportedly after catching him robbing his traps.

A grand and petty jury found Billington guilty of willful murder. Governor William Bradford, wary of setting a precedent, consulted the leaders of the neighbouring Massachusetts Bay Colony, who agreed the killing had to be answered to purge the land from blood. Billington was hanged on 30 September 1630, becoming the first person executed in Plymouth Colony. His burial place was never recorded.

Mayflower Compact 1620 handwritten agreement document

⬅ See all events from 30 September

Colonial History Execution Massachusetts Murder Trial USA

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1901: He Sharpened His Knife for Days: A Jealous Rockhampton Murder Ends on the Gallows at Brisbane

John Rheuben had lived with Fanny Hardwick for two years, supporting her mother and child, until he turned her out and she took up with another man. Furious at her refusal to return, he beat his rival twice, threatened to “do for him”, and quietly sharpened a sheath knife at the local gasworks. On a Sunday evening in Rockhampton he forced his way into the house where she was staying, dragged her into a back bedroom, and stabbed her five or six times, one wound reaching her heart.

Tried before Mr Justice Power, Rheuben was convicted despite a defence of temporary insanity, and a petition for mercy signed across Rockhampton failed to move the Executive. He was hanged in Brisbane on 30 September 1901, praying loudly on the drop and thanking the warders for their kindness before the trap fell.

He never admitted the killing outright. To his priest he said only that he had been “mad drunk” and remembered striking at someone, but nothing more.

⬅ See all events from 30 September

Australia Brisbane Execution Jealousy Murder QLD Rockhampton Trial

1805: “I Have Killed Biddy, and Am Going to Deliver Myself Up”: A Hawkesbury Murderer Hanged at Sydney

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1861: He Wept After Being Punched, Then Fetched a Hammer: a Melbourne Racing-Yard Killing

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1630: A Mayflower Pilgrim Becomes the First Man Hanged in the New World Colonies

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

1901: He Sharpened His Knife for Days: A Jealous Rockhampton Murder Ends on the Gallows at Brisbane

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Subscribe to Dark Stories