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

1970: Jim Morrison on Trial in Miami for Indecent Exposure

Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, stood trial in Miami, Florida on 10 August 1970, facing charges stemming from an incident at a concert on 1 March 1969. Prosecutors alleged he had exposed himself on stage at the Dinner Key Auditorium, using profane language before a crowd of thousands.

Morrison was acquitted of lewd and lascivious behaviour but convicted of indecent exposure and open profanity. He was sentenced to six months hard labour and fined $500, but remained free on bond while the conviction was under appeal. He never served the sentence. Morrison died in Paris on 3 July 1971, before the appeal could be heard.

Jim Morrison photos in cafe. Le Pere Lachaise cafe interior in Paris. Singer Jim Morrison used to visit this cafe. | ID 63547008 © Darius Strazdas | Dreamstime.com

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Political Crime Scandal Trial USA

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1899: Chung Yeung and Lem Kai Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the Yam Creek Murder

In July 1898, a Chinese man named Chee Hung vanished from Yam Creek in the Northern Territory. Days later, human bones were discovered in a neighbouring garden. Investigators found that Chee Hung had been accused of stealing gold, shot while fishing at a billabong, and then his body was cooked and dismembered with an axe to prevent identification. Lem Kai and his accomplice Chung Yeung were arrested and tried at the Circuit Court in March 1899, where circumstantial evidence was overwhelming and both men were convicted of wilful murder.

On 10 August 1899, both men were hanged in the yard of Fannie Bay Gaol in the presence of the deputy sheriff, gaol officials, and four justices of the peace. The executioner and his assistant were prisoners serving time in the gaol itself.

Both condemned men admitted their guilt to a Chinese missionary who attended them before the execution, and they met their deaths with composure.

Workers washing mining tailings in the 1870s

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Australia Execution Murder Northern Territory NT Trial Yam Creek

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1949: The Acid Bath Murderer: John Haigh Hanged for Six Killings

John George Haigh was an English serial killer who battered or shot his victims, then dissolved their bodies in sulphuric acid to erase all evidence. He forged his victims’ signatures to sell their possessions and collect large sums of money, a scheme he had refined through years of fraud and multiple prison terms. Though convicted of six murders, Haigh claimed to have killed nine.

Born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, and raised in Yorkshire by strict Plymouth Brethren parents, Haigh drifted from fraud into murder after becoming fascinated by French killer Georges-Alexandre Sarret, who had used acid to dispose of bodies. He was arrested in 1949 after police connected him to the disappearance of a widow whose remains, including gallstones and false teeth, survived the acid and were found at his workshop in Crawley, Sussex. Haigh was convicted at Lewes Assizes and hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 10 August 1949.

Portrait of john george haigh

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England Execution Fraud London Murder Organised Crime Serial Killer Sussex UK Yorkshire

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1969: The Manson Family Kills to Ignite an Apocalyptic Race War

In the early hours of 9 August 1969, members of Charles Manson’s Family carried out the Tate murders at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles, leaving five dead. The killings were the first act in what Manson called Helter Skelter, an apocalyptic race war he had been prophesying since at least New Year’s Eve 1968, drawing on the Book of Revelation and the Beatles’ 1968 White Album. Manson believed the murders, staged to look like the work of Black militants, would ignite a war between the races from which the Family would emerge as rulers.

At trial, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi used the testimony of Family member Paul Watkins to reconstruct the vision in full. Bugliosi later detailed the case in his 1974 book, Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders. Manson and three co-defendants were convicted on all charges of conspiracy and murder, though some writers, detectives, and even participants have since argued the killings were also driven by copycat motives or revenge for a bad drug deal.

Viersen, Germany - May 9. 2020: View on isolated book cover about story of manson murders with pile of books background | ID 197949551 © Ralf Liebhold | Dreamstime.com

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Conspiracy Cult Gang Murder Organised Crime Trial USA

1970: Jim Morrison on Trial in Miami for Indecent Exposure

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1899: Chung Yeung and Lem Kai Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the Yam Creek Murder

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1949: The Acid Bath Murderer: John Haigh Hanged for Six Killings

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1969: The Manson Family Kills to Ignite an Apocalyptic Race War

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