Dino Dibra, 25, was one of the early casualties of Melbourne‘s gangland war. He was gunned down on this day the moment he stepped outside his home in Sunshine West, hit multiple times in what police believed was a professional, pre-planned hit rather than a chance confrontation.

Investigators were confident a hired shooter had been waiting for him, and suspicion quickly fell on Andrew Veniamin, a figure who would go on to be linked to several more killings as the underworld conflict spread across the city. Dibra’s murder became one of the opening chapters in a decade-long cycle of tit-for-tat violence that would eventually claim more than thirty lives.

Gangland: more than a dictionary definition in Melbourne, 1998–2010.
Gangland: more than a dictionary definition in Melbourne, 1998–2010.

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She had already lost one throne and spent nearly two decades a prisoner in England, but in October 1586 Mary, Queen of Scots, was brought before a tribunal of English noblemen at Fotheringhay Castle, accused of plotting to assassinate her own cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. Letters allegedly written in cipher, part of what became known as the Babington Plot, were produced as evidence that she had approved a plan to murder Elizabeth and seize the English crown for herself.

Mary denied any part in the conspiracy and refused at first to recognise the court’s authority over an anointed queen. The trial proceeded regardless, and the verdict that followed would send her to the executioner’s block the following year.

Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots in royal attire
Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots in royal attire

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Thomas Airey had spent most of his adult life behind bars in England before he was transported to Western Australia aboard the Nile, arriving at Fremantle in December 1857 to serve a 15 year sentence for burglary. In June 1860 he was granted a ticket of leave, a conditional release that let convicts who had shown good behaviour work and live within a set district without constant supervision, a step short of full freedom but a clear sign the colony had judged him trustworthy.

That trust lasted barely four months. By October 1860 Airey stood before the Supreme Court in Perth convicted of a serious assault and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Perth Gaol on 13 October 1860, aged 29, and buried the following day at East Perth Cemetery.

Ticket of leave men historical photograph
Ticket of leave men historical photograph

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William Westwood was already notorious as Jackey Jackey, a bushranger transported twice and flogged repeatedly, when he helped lead the 1846 Cooking Pot Uprising on Norfolk Island, a desperate convict revolt sparked by brutal rations and treatment. In the chaos, three constables and an overseer were killed.

He was 26 when he was hanged on 13 October 1846, one of the largest mass executions in Australian penal history.

Death mask of William Westwood known as Jackey Jackey
Death mask of William Westwood known as Jackey Jackey

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On This Day in True Crime History
1794·The First Free Settler Murdered in the Colony: Hanged at Sydney for a Parramatta Stabbing
1826·The Gun That Misfired Twice: Three Bushrangers Hanged Outside Sydney
1873·A Tearful Confession in Custody Cracked the Case: Two Men Hanged at Perth Gaol for Eating their Victim
1889·He Called It an Accident. The Jury Called It Murder: Robert Landells Hanged at Melbourne Gaol
1907·A Doctor Fooled Twice: Martha Rendell and the Second Child to Die of Diphtheria
2002·Shot Dead in His Own Bed: A Melbourne Gangland Killing Blamed on a Friend
More Crime On This Day →

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