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

Two days after shooting cabdriver Paul Stine dead in San Francisco, the Zodiac Killer sent the San Francisco Chronicle a taunting letter dated October 13, 1969. Inside was a torn piece of Stine’s bloodstained shirt, offered as proof the killer was the same man terrorising the Bay Area, not a copycat.

The letter mocked police for failing to catch him despite patrols flooding the area that night, and promised more killings to come. It remains one of several pieces of physical evidence tied to an identity that, more than fifty years on, has never been conclusively proven.

Symbolism – Zodiac Serial Killer Mystery

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Cold Case Murder San Francisco Serial Killer Unsolved USA

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Thomas Airey had spent most of his adult life behind bars in England before he was transported to Western Australia aboard the Nile, arriving at Fremantle in December 1857 to serve a 15 year sentence for burglary. In June 1860 he was granted a ticket of leave, a conditional release that let convicts who had shown good behaviour work and live within a set district without constant supervision, a step short of full freedom but a clear sign the colony had judged him trustworthy.

That trust lasted barely four months. By October 1860 Airey stood before the Supreme Court in Perth convicted of a serious assault and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Perth Gaol on 13 October 1860, aged 29, and buried the following day at East Perth Cemetery.

Ticket of leave men historical photograph

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Australia Convict History Execution Fremantle Perth Prison Trial WA

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On 12 October 2002, a suicide bomber walked into Paddy’s Pub in Bali’s Kuta district and detonated an explosive vest on the crowded dance floor. Twenty seconds later, as survivors fled into the street to see what had happened, a second bomb hidden in a van outside the Sari Club tore through the crowd gathered there, killing many who had just escaped the first blast. The attack claimed 202 lives, including 88 Australians, the deadliest act of terrorism in Indonesia’s history. Three men were convicted of orchestrating the bombings and sentenced to death. They were executed by firing squad on Nusakambangan island in November 2008. In their final moments, the three men showed no remorse, shouting loudly, rather than any word of apology.

Kuta carnival 2010. Paddle for peace. Bali. Annual Kuta beach carnival celebration. Initially organized as a response to the Bali terrorist attack of October 2002, the event has now become a regular fixture on Bali's busy calendar of yearly events. October 2010. Among majority of events - every year all surfers padles to the mid of the ocean to make the circle, unite the hands, put flowers into the water and pray for victims of terrorist attack. The name of this part is Paddle for piece | ID 16538257 © Evgeniya Bolyukh | Dreamstime.com — ID 16538257 © Evgeniya Bolyukh | Dreamstime.com

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Asia Australia Bali Bombing Execution Indonesia Mass Casualty Attack Terrorism Trial

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Inejiro Asanuma, leader of the Japan Socialist Party, was mid speech at a political debate in Tokyo on 12 October 1960 when a seventeen year old ultranationalist named Otoya Yamaguchi sprinted across the stage and drove a short samurai sword into his chest, twice. Cameras were rolling for a live broadcast, and the killing was captured in full, shown and reshown to a horrified nation.

Yamaguchi was no stranger to the far right; he had trained with militant nationalist groups and viewed Asanuma, who had made friendly overtures toward Communist China, as a traitor to Japan. Arrested at the scene, he spent weeks in juvenile detention before hanging himself in his cell with a bedsheet, leaving behind a message of loyalty to the emperor.

His death meant he was never tried, and the killing remains one of the most notorious political murders of postwar Japan, preserved on film as it happened.

Inejiro Asanuma founds a new political party in 1945

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Asia Assassination Japan Murder Political Crime

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