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

1910: Dr Crippen Captured at Sea, the First Fugitive Caught by Wireless Telegraph

American homeopath Hawley Harvey Crippen became one of history’s most notorious wife-murderers when his second wife, Cora, vanished after a dinner party at their home in Holloway, London, on the night of 31 January 1910. Crippen claimed she had returned to the United States and later died there, but Scotland Yard grew suspicious when his mistress, Ethel Le Neve, was seen openly wearing Cora’s jewellery. When police dug up the cellar at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, they found human remains.

Crippen and Le Neve fled aboard the SS Montrose bound for Canada. The ship’s captain, recognising the fugitives, used the newly available wireless telegraph to alert Scotland Yard. Chief Inspector Walter Dew boarded a faster ship, intercepted the Montrose, and arrested Crippen mid-Atlantic on 31 July 1910, making him the first criminal in history captured with the aid of wireless telegraphy. Crippen was returned to London, tried at the Old Bailey, convicted of murder, and hanged at Pentonville Prison on 23 November 1910.

Portrait of Dr Crippen early 1900s suspect in murder case

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Europe Execution Fugitive London Murder Police Trial UK USA

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1867: William Terry Hanged at Castlemaine for the Murder of Peter Reddick

William Henry Terry, known under a string of aliases including Hopkins, Williams, and Mitchell, was convicted at the Castlemaine Circuit Court before Chief Justice Sir William Stawell of the wilful murder of his mate Peter Reddick at the Coliban on 14 July 1862. The case rested on bones and other remains found at the scene, surveyed and mapped for the court. Terry had listened to the prosecution with apparent indifference throughout the trial.

On 31 July 1867, Terry was hanged at Castlemaine Gaol before around 100 witnesses. The execution was badly botched: too thick a rope and an improperly adjusted noose left him convulsing for eleven minutes, with the hangman pressing down on his shoulders to hasten death. Standing on the scaffold, Terry forgave those he blamed for his conviction, naming two detectives, Hockey and his daughter, and a man called Dring, accusing them of perjury.

Terry made no confession of the murder itself, though he had told the attending Wesleyan minister that he deserved to die for his many crimes.

Coliban River

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Australia Execution Murder Trial VIC

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1976: Son of Sam Claims His First Victim in the Bronx

Just after 1 a.m. on July 29, 1976, David Berkowitz approached a parked car in the Pelham Bay neighbourhood of the Bronx and opened fire with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver. Donna Lauria, 18, was killed instantly by a single bullet. Her companion Jody Valenti, 19, survived a gunshot wound to the thigh.

It was the first in a series of shootings that would terrorise New York City for over a year. Berkowitz, who came to be known as the Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, ultimately killed six people and wounded eleven before a parking ticket led investigators to his door. Arrested in August 1977, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received six concurrent life sentences.

Son of Sam Claims His First Victim in the Bronx

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Murder New York Serial Killer USA

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2023: Erin Patterson Serves Death Cap Mushrooms to In-Laws at a Lunch in Leongatha

On 29 July 2023, Erin Patterson invited four relatives to her home in Leongatha, Victoria, and served them beef Wellington laced with toxic death cap mushrooms. All four were hospitalised within 24 hours, diagnosed with severe liver failure. Three died within six days, one despite receiving a liver transplant. Ian Wilkinson was the sole survivor, recovering seven weeks later.

Patterson was arrested in November 2023 and charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder. After charges relating to her estranged husband Simon were dropped, she faced trial before a jury in the Supreme Court of Victoria at Morwell. On 7 July 2025, the jury convicted her on all remaining charges. Justice Christopher Beale sentenced her to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years, in the first sentencing hearing in Victoria to be broadcast live.

Beef Wellington fillet with mushrooms

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Australia Leongatha Morwell Murder Poisoning Trial VIC

1910: Dr Crippen Captured at Sea, the First Fugitive Caught by Wireless Telegraph

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1867: William Terry Hanged at Castlemaine for the Murder of Peter Reddick

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1976: Son of Sam Claims His First Victim in the Bronx

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2023: Erin Patterson Serves Death Cap Mushrooms to In-Laws at a Lunch in Leongatha

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