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

1981: Andrei Chikatilo Resumes Killing After a Three-Year Pause

Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo had committed his first murder in 1978, preying on young victims lured from rail stations and bus depots around Rostov-na-Donu. By 1981, after a three-year hiatus that investigators could scarcely explain, he resumed killing. Poverty and the decay of Soviet society made his victims easy to isolate: young people drifting toward cities with no contacts, no money, and no one to report them missing.

Chikatilo would not be caught for nearly another decade. In 1984, police briefly detained him but a botched blood typing test cleared him. He was convicted of theft and served three months. By 1990, when he was finally arrested, he had murdered at least 50 people. Soviet authorities had actively suppressed public warnings during the investigation, maintaining that serial murder was ideologically incompatible with communist society.

Aerial view of Rostov

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Europe Execution Murder Rostov-na-Donu Russia Serial Killer Soviet Union Trial

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1928: Clifford Hulme Hanged at Perth for the Wubin Murder

In June 1928, Clifford Hulme shot and killed Harold Eaton Smith at Wubin, a remote farming district north of Perth. The two men had been working together that afternoon. When Smith’s children went to bring their father his usual tea, they found Hulme approaching the house carrying a rifle. What followed included further attacks on Smith’s widow and children, crimes that shocked the court and compelled the Chief Justice to clear the public gallery before Mrs Smith gave her testimony.

Hulme’s defence rested on a plea of insanity, but the jury declared him sane and guilty. He received the death sentence without a word. He was executed on 3 September 1928.

Clifford Hulme murderer hanged at Fremantle Gaol Monday morning

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Australia Execution Murder Perth Trial WA Wubin

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1984: The Milperra Massacre: Seven Dead in Father’s Day Bikie War at Sydney Tavern

On Father’s Day, 2 September 1984, a heavily armed convoy of Comanchero motorcycle club members descended on the Viking Tavern car park in Milperra, a south-western suburb of Sydney.

The Comancheros had been at war with the newly formed Bandidos, a breakaway chapter, whose split from the Comancheros founder had curdled into open conflict. When both clubs converged on a swap meet that day, gunfire erupted in the car park. Seven people died, including a 14-year-old girl caught in the crossfire, and twenty-eight others were wounded.

The Milperra Massacre became the bloodiest single clash in the history of Australian outlaw motorcycle clubs.

Biker

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Australia Gang Milperra Murder NSW Organised Crime Sydney Trial

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1666: The Great Fire of London Begins on Pudding Lane

In the early hours of 2 September 1666, a fire broke out at the Pudding Lane bakery of Thomas Farriner in the City of London. Driven by strong winds, the blaze consumed around 80 percent of the old city before it was brought under control on 6 September. Though attributed to an accident at the bakery, the disaster ignited a desperate search for culprits.

Robert Hubert, a French watchmaker from Rouen, confessed to starting the fire. His confession was riddled with impossibilities: he had not arrived in England until two days after the fire broke out, and he described throwing a fire grenade through a window at the Farriner bakery, which had no windows. With nationalism inflamed by the Second Anglo-Dutch War, a scapegoat was needed, and Hubert, a foreigner in a hostile city, was hanged for a crime he almost certainly did not commit.

The Great Fire of London

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Arson Disaster Europe Execution London Political Crime UK Wrongful Conviction

1981: Andrei Chikatilo Resumes Killing After a Three-Year Pause

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1928: Clifford Hulme Hanged at Perth for the Wubin Murder

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1984: The Milperra Massacre: Seven Dead in Father’s Day Bikie War at Sydney Tavern

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1666: The Great Fire of London Begins on Pudding Lane

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