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

1692: Five Hanged at Salem in a Single Day for Witchcraft

On 19 August 1692, five people were executed by hanging at Salem, Massachusetts, after being convicted of witchcraft: Martha Carrier, George Jacobs Sr., George Burroughs, John Willard, and John Proctor. The executions were among the most notorious of the Salem witch trials, a period of mass hysteria that gripped colonial New England.

Fourteen more people would be executed before the year was out, and 150 others were imprisoned. The Salem trials remain one of the darkest episodes in early American legal history.

Painting of two alleged witches being tried in Salem, Massachusetts as part of the infamous witchhunts.

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Execution Historical Atrocity Massachusetts New England Political Crime Salem Trial USA

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1865: John Wesley Hardin Gunned Down in an El Paso Saloon

John Wesley Hardin was one of the most feared gunfighters of the American Old West. Born in Texas in 1853 to a Methodist preacher, he killed his first man at 15 and spent the following decade evading lawmen across the South. Sentenced to 24 years for murder in 1877, Hardin claimed to have killed 42 men, though historians estimate the true figure exceeded 20. He studied law in prison and wrote a self-aggrandising autobiography, widely noted for its exaggerations.

Within a year of his 1894 release, Hardin was shot dead by constable John Selman in the Acme Saloon in El Paso. Hardin had been gambling, rolling dice at the bar, and his last words were reportedly “Four sixes to beat.” Moments later, Selman walked up behind him and shot him in the head. Hardin was 42 years old.

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Gang Murder Organised Crime Prison Trial USA

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2005: BTK Killer Dennis Rader Sentenced to 175 Years for Ten Murders

Dennis Rader, a church council president and compliance officer from Wichita, Kansas, was sentenced to ten consecutive life terms totalling 175 years in prison for a killing spree that began in 1974 and claimed ten lives over three decades. Methodical and media-savvy, he bound, tortured, and killed his victims, earning the acronym BTK. He stalked neighbours, executed families, and kept trophies, all while living an unremarkable suburban life.

Rader had evaded capture for thirty years before his own need for notoriety led to his undoing. In 2004 he resumed contact with police and local media after a long silence. A floppy disk he sent to a television station was traced back to his church computer, and he was arrested in February 2005. He pleaded guilty to all ten murders in June 2005 and was sentenced in August of that year, using his final court appearance to describe each killing in cold, methodical detail.

Forensics expert examining floppy disk with magnifying glass

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Murder Serial Killer Trial USA

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1987: Donald Harvey Sentenced to Triple Life Terms for Poisoning 24 Patients

Donald Harvey, an Ohio hospital orderly who described himself as an ‘angel of death’, was sentenced to triple life terms after pleading guilty to poisoning 24 patients. Harvey claimed to have begun killing in 1970 to ease the suffering of the terminally ill, smothering his first victim, 88-year-old Logan Evans, with a pillow at Marymount Hospital in London, Kentucky. His methods expanded to include arsenic, cyanide, morphine, insulin, and suffocation, deployed across multiple hospitals over 17 years.

Harvey ultimately claimed 87 murders, with 37 confirmed victims. To avoid execution, he pleaded guilty and received 28 life sentences in total. He died in custody at Toledo Correctional Institution on March 30, 2017, one of the most prolific hospital killers in American history.

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Murder Poisoning Serial Killer Trial USA

1692: Five Hanged at Salem in a Single Day for Witchcraft

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1865: John Wesley Hardin Gunned Down in an El Paso Saloon

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2005: BTK Killer Dennis Rader Sentenced to 175 Years for Ten Murders

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1987: Donald Harvey Sentenced to Triple Life Terms for Poisoning 24 Patients

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