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1989: The Night Stalker Convicted on All 43 Counts: Richard Ramirez Faces California Justice

Richard Ramirez, the serial killer known as the Night Stalker who terrorised California in 1984 and 1985, was found guilty on every one of the 43 charges brought against him: thirteen counts of murder, five attempted murders, eleven sexual assaults, and fourteen burglaries.

The trial itself became a spectacle of its own, dragging on for years and costing an estimated 1.8 million dollars, making it one of the most expensive criminal trials in California history at the time.

Ramirez showed no remorse throughout proceedings, at one point flashing a pentagram drawn on his palm to reporters and declaring his admiration for Satan.

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Burglary California Murder Serial Killer Sexual Assault Trial USA

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1822: Eight Convicts Fled Macquarie Harbour, and Two Ate the Rest

On 20 September 1822, Alexander Pearce, Bob Greenhill and six other convicts escaped the brutal penal outpost of Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania’s west coast, plunging into some of the most impenetrable wilderness in the colony with almost no food or supplies.

As starvation set in, the group turned on itself. Greenhill, who had once been a butcher, took the lead in killing and butchering their companions one by one to survive, and Pearce joined him in eating the flesh of the dead.

Eventually only Pearce and Greenhill remained, each watching the other, until Pearce killed Greenhill as well and continued alone, becoming the last man standing from the original party of eight.

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Australia Cannibalism Escape Murder Prison TAS

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1692: Pressed to Death: the Only Person in America Executed by Stone for Refusing to Plead

Giles Corey, an 81 year old farmer in Salem, Massachusetts, refused to enter a plea when charged with witchcraft during the hysteria of 1692. By standing mute he prevented a trial from proceeding under the law of the time, which instead prescribed peine forte et dure: the accused was stretched on the ground and heavy stones piled onto his chest to force a plea.

Corey endured the ordeal for two days without submitting. Sheriff’s men reportedly used a stick to push his tongue back into his mouth when it protruded under the weight. His last words are said to have been a simple demand for more weight: “more weight”.

By refusing to plead, Corey ensured he was never convicted, which meant his property could not be seized by the colony, an outcome believed to be his deliberate motive in choosing this brutal death over a trial. He remains the only person in American history known to have been executed by pressing.

Peine forte et dure - Punishment for refusing to plead in court. — Peine forte et dure – Punishment for refusing to plead in court.

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Colonial History Execution Massachusetts Salem Trial USA Witchcraft

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1934: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping: Bruno Hauptmann Arrested Two Years After America’s Crime of the Century

In March 1932, twenty month old Charles Lindbergh Jr, son of aviator Charles Lindbergh, was taken from his nursery in Hopewell, New Jersey, via a homemade ladder left beneath the window. A ransom of 50,000 dollars in gold certificates was paid, but the child’s body was found in nearby woods weeks later.

On September 19, 1934, police arrested Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German born carpenter, after one of the marked gold certificates surfaced at a petrol station and was traced back to him. Searchers found thousands of dollars of the ransom money hidden in his garage, and timber from the ladder was matched to a board missing from his attic floor.

Hauptmann was tried at Flemington, New Jersey, convicted of murder, and executed in the electric chair at Trenton State Prison in April 1936.

Hauptmann maintained his innocence to the end, reportedly refusing an offer to commute his sentence in exchange for a confession, and went to his death still denying any role in the kidnapping.

Charles A. Lindbergh , American Aviator. Famous American Aviator, Charles A. Lindbergh and wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh at North Beach Airport ,Queens, NYC on June 8, 1931. HISTORIC PHOTO © PICTUREMAKERS LLC | ID 60332383 © Picturemakersllc | Dreamstime.com

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Execution Kidnapping Murder New Jersey Trial USA

1989: The Night Stalker Convicted on All 43 Counts: Richard Ramirez Faces California Justice

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1822: Eight Convicts Fled Macquarie Harbour, and Two Ate the Rest

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1692: Pressed to Death: the Only Person in America Executed by Stone for Refusing to Plead

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1934: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping: Bruno Hauptmann Arrested Two Years After America’s Crime of the Century

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