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

1985: The Night Stalker’s begins His FInal Strike in Mission Viejo, California

In the late hours of August 24, 1985, Richard Ramirez drove to Mission Viejo in Southern California, intending to break into the Romero family home. Thirteen-year-old James Romero III spotted him and recorded the car details, alerting police. Ramirez moved on to the nearby home of Bill Carns and Inez Erickson, shooting Carns three times in the head before assaulting Erickson. Remarkably, both victims survived.

The car details noted by James Romero III proved critical. Police traced the vehicle, leading directly to the identification and arrest of Ramirez, bringing the reign of one of California’s most feared serial killers to an end.

Hooded hooligan with obscured face walking city streets at night

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Attempted Murder Murder Serial Killer USA

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1922: Cecil Hides a Body in his Bath

Cecil Maltby, a 47-year-old London tailor with a taste for gambling and drink, shot his mistress Alice Hilda Middleton three times in the back at his flat above his shop at 24 Park Road, Regent’s Park, on 24 August 1922. He concealed her decomposing body in a bath in the kitchen, wrapped in a sheet with a note claiming she had committed suicide. Her husband, returning from service with the Merchant Navy in the Far East, reported her missing in December 1922, prompting police to watch the premises.

When authorities finally forced entry on 10 January 1923, using a health order citing unsanitary conditions, officers heard a shot from the bedroom. Maltby had put a gun to his mouth and died within minutes. The pathologist’s report demolished his suicide narrative: Middleton had been shot three times from behind. A coroner’s jury returned a verdict of murder against Maltby, finding that he had then taken his own life to avoid arrest.

Bathtub filled with blood in a horror crime scene concept

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Concealment of Body London Murder Suicide UK

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1929: The Vampire of Dusseldorf Kills Two Foster Sisters at a Fairground

Peter Kurten, known as the Vampire of Dusseldorf, murdered two young foster sisters at a fairground on 23 August 1929, in one of a string of attacks that terrorised the city throughout that year. Born in Cologne in 1883, the eldest of 13 children, Kurten endured a childhood of brutal poverty and domestic terror, and had already demonstrated violent and sadistic tendencies from boyhood, including drowning two playmates on the Rhine at the age of nine.

His killing spree in 1929 left Dusseldorf gripped by fear. He was eventually arrested, tried, and convicted of nine murders, though police suspected him in as many as 68 attacks. His victims were overwhelmingly women and girls. He was executed by guillotine in July 1931. Shortly before his death, he asked the prison psychiatrist whether he would still be able to hear his own blood gushing from his neck after the blade fell. When told his brain might function for a few seconds, Kurten replied: ‘That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures.’

Peter Kürten police mugshot, 1931. Photographer unknown; Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

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Cologne Dusseldorf Europe Execution Germany Murder Serial Killer Trial

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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

1985: The Night Stalker’s begins His FInal Strike in Mission Viejo, California

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1922: Cecil Hides a Body in his Bath

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1929: The Vampire of Dusseldorf Kills Two Foster Sisters at a Fairground

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

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