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

1895: The Wild Scotchman: Death of Queensland Bushranger James Macpherson

James Alpin Macpherson, known as the Wild Scotchman, was one of Queensland’s most notorious bushrangers before his capture and imprisonment. Released from prison in 1874, he lived out the remainder of his days quietly, working as a stockman and station overseer far from his outlaw past.

Macpherson died on 23 August 1895 at Burketown, Queensland, aged 53, after falling from a horse. The man who had once terrorised the bush met his end not in a blaze of gunfire, but in an ordinary accident on the land he had spent his later years working.

Portrait of bushranger James MacPherson 1866: The Wild Scotchman

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Accident Australia Burketown Bushranger Death QLD

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2004: The Scream and Madonna Stolen at Gunpoint from Oslo Museum

In broad daylight on 22 August 2004, masked gunmen entered the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, and tore two priceless works from the walls: the 1910 version of Edvard Munch’s iconic The Scream and his enigmatic Madonna. A quick-thinking bystander photographed the thieves as they fled to a getaway car. Fragments of the gilded frames were later found nearby, and fears circulated that the paintings had been deliberately destroyed to eliminate evidence.

Norwegian police arrested a suspect in April 2005, and in early 2006 six men stood trial. Three were sentenced to between four and eight years in prison. Then, in August 2006, police announced they had recovered both works. The Scream bore moisture damage to its lower-left corner; Madonna showed tears and holes on her right side. Before restoration, the Munch Museum exhibited the damaged paintings to the public for five days, drawing more than five thousand visitors.

Edvard Munch, The Scream (1893). Photo: Børre Høstland/National Museum of Norway. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Armed Robbery Art Theft Europe Norway Oslo Robbery Trial

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1962: De Gaulle Survives a Hail of Bullets at Petit-Clamart

On the evening of 22 August 1962, Lieutenant-Colonel Jean Bastien-Thiry led a carefully planned ambush on the presidential motorcade at Petit-Clamart, south of Paris. Acting under the banner of the Organisation armee secrete (OAS), his team opened fire with automatic weapons as de Gaulle’s car passed, riddling the vehicle with bullets. The president and his wife escaped without injury.

The attack, code-named Operation Charlotte Corday, triggered a massive manhunt that swept up nearly all participants within months. Bastien-Thiry was brought before a military court, where he justified the attempt by declaring de Gaulle a tyrant who had betrayed French Algeria. He was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad in March 1963, the last person to die by that method in France.

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Assassination Europe Execution France Political Crime Terrorism Trial

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1854: Hanged at Brisbane Gaol for the Killing of a Station Manager

In March 1852, Adolphus Henry Trevethan, a station manager at Rawbell in the Burnett District, was killed during a tense confrontation with a large group of armed men on his property. He had gone out to negotiate and was returning with tobacco and pipes when he came running back, hand pressed to his chest, crying ‘I’m a dead man’ before dying of multiple stab wounds within hours.

The accused was tried at the Brisbane Circuit Court, where witness James Carney testified against the accused. Found guilty and sentenced to death, the condemned man walked to the scaffold on 22 August 1854, ascending it without resistance and dying without a struggle.

Noose at historic Tombstone courthouse courtyard, Arizona

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Australia Brisbane Burnett District Execution Murder QLD Trial

1895: The Wild Scotchman: Death of Queensland Bushranger James Macpherson

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2004: The Scream and Madonna Stolen at Gunpoint from Oslo Museum

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1962: De Gaulle Survives a Hail of Bullets at Petit-Clamart

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1854: Hanged at Brisbane Gaol for the Killing of a Station Manager

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