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

John Wayne Glover had killed only a day earlier, but on 3 November 1989 he struck again, this time inside the Wesley Gardens Retirement Village in Belrose, in Sydney. His victim was 81 year old Olive Cleveland, an elderly resident he overpowered and killed with brutal speed, slamming her head into the concrete before strangling her with her own pantyhose.

It was a signature he had already used on earlier victims and would use again, earning him the name the Granny Killer in the press. Before leaving, he rifled through her handbag for $60 in cash, a pitiful sum set against a life taken in moments. The short gap between this killing and the one before it exposed just how quickly his violence was escalating, and how close he was to finally being caught.

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Australia Elder Abuse Murder NSW Robbery Serial Killer Sydney

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Ten convicts, under armed marine escort, set out from Sydney Cove on this day in 1788, bound for a patch of ground at Rose Hill that would later grow into Parramatta. The fledgling colony was starving, its soil poor and its supply ships overdue, and this small, closely guarded party of prisoners carried the desperate hope that convict labour could turn the land self-sufficient before famine finished what the sea voyage had not.

There was no trial, no sentence, no scaffold in this story, only a gamble: that men transported for crimes in Britain could be made into the farmers who would keep an entire penal settlement alive. The ground they broke at Rose Hill became the first successful crops grown on the continent under British rule, and the settlement they built outgrew the colony that sent them there.

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Australia Colonisation Convict History NSW Parramatta Prison Labour Sydney

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Mona Fandey’s pop career never took off, so she and her husband reinvented themselves as sought after bomohs, trading in talismans and black magic for wealthy clients chasing power. In 1993 a state politician named Mazlan Idris paid them a fortune for a talisman said to once belong to an Indonesian president, convinced it would carry him to higher office. Instead he was led to a house for a ritual cleansing, told to lie down and wait for a mysterious voice to speak, and never left alive.

Their assistant admitted striking the fatal blow with an axe, claiming he was following orders. Mazlan’s body was cut into eighteen pieces and buried under cement, while Mona spent the following days on a cash fuelled shopping spree, a new Mercedes among the purchases. At trial she arrived each day in bright, theatrical outfits, smiling for photographers as though finally enjoying the fame her singing career never gave her. All three were convicted and sentenced to death.

Mona, her husband and their assistant were hanged together at Kajang Prison near Kuala Lumpur on this day in 2001. Prison officials said the trio showed no remorse, and Mona reportedly smiled on the gallows and declared, “I will never die.”

Shaman or bomoh in Malay. A bomoh is a Malay shaman and traditional medicine practitioner. [1] The term is used mainly in Malaysia and parts of Sumatra, whereas most Indonesians use the word dukun. | ID 113690847 © Syed Mohd Badril Hisham Syed Abdul Khalid | Dreamstime.com — ID 113690847 © Syed Mohd Badril Hisham Syed Abdul Khalid | Dreamstime.com

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Asia Execution Fraud Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Murder Occult Trial

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Charles Van Doren had been one of American television’s most beloved figures, a telegenic young academic whose winning streak on the quiz show 21 made him a household name and a symbol of brains over brawn. The adoration was built on a lie: producers had been feeding him questions and answers in advance, scripting his hesitations and furrowed brows to maximise suspense.

On this day in 1959, Van Doren admitted the truth before a congressional hearing, confessing that the contest had been fixed from the start. The admission shattered public faith in the new medium of television and triggered prosecutions of the producers and network figures behind the deception, some of whom later served time in prison.

Van Doren himself was convicted of perjury for earlier denials but received a suspended sentence, his once-golden reputation left in ruins.

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Fraud Scandal Trial USA

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