Archives: Dark Stories: On This Day In True Crime History - Page 38
1981: Hinckley Pleads Not Guilty to Shooting President Reagan
In March 1981, John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots at President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington D.C. hotel, wounding Reagan and three others. The attack was later revealed to be motivated by an obsession with actress Jodie Foster.
On 28 August 1981, Hinckley entered a plea of not guilty to charges of attempted assassination. He was ultimately found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982 and was committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Washington D.C.
1973: The Stockholm Bank Siege That Gave Psychology a New Term
On 28 August 1973, Swedish police ended a six-day hostage crisis at Sveriges Kreditbanken in Stockholm by pumping tear gas into the vault where captors and hostages had been confined since 23 August. The standoff concluded not with gratitude but with something far stranger: the hostages insisted on leaving alongside their captors, fearing police would open fire, and then embraced them warmly as the ordeal ended.
The behaviour baffled investigators and onlookers alike. A psychiatrist advising Swedish police coined the term ‘Stockholm syndrome’ to describe the paradoxical emotional bonds that had formed between the captives and the people holding them at gunpoint. The phrase entered the psychological lexicon and has since been applied to hostage situations around the world.
1857: Frederick Turner Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Armed Robbery and Attempted Murder
Frederick Turner, just 21 years old, was hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 28 August 1857 for robbery under arms on the Flemington Road. He and accomplices had robbed a labouring man near Flemington, and when the victim begged for the return of half a crown to feed his children, Turner drew a revolver and fired at his head. The ball glanced off, inflicting only a minor wound, but the intent was clear. Turner had arrived in Victoria as a free emigrant aboard the William Jardine in 1849, accompanied by his parents and brother.
Convicted at the Criminal Sessions of highway robbery and shooting with intent to murder, Turner went to the gallows clinging to hope of a reprieve that never came. He refused to reveal his real name, admitting only that idleness and dissolute company had been his ruin.
He maintained he had never intended to kill his victim, and this belief appeared to sustain a lingering, ill-founded hope that mercy would be shown to him in this world.
1808: Joseph Moreton Hanged in Sydney for Forging a Promissory Note
In early June 1808, Joseph Moreton purchased livestock worth 24 pounds, paying with a promissory note he endorsed on the spot without hesitation. The note later proved to be a forgery.
At trial before the Court of Criminal Jurisdiction in Sydney, multiple witnesses corroborated the transaction and the note was produced as evidence. Moreton claimed he had found it near a bridge in Sydney and held it for some days before passing it on. The court returned a verdict of guilty and a sentence of death. He was hanged on 28 August 1808.
