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

Hamida Djandoubi went to the guillotine in France on this day in 1977, the last person ever executed by the device and the last person executed in France at all. He had been convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Elisabeth Bousquet, a crime that closed out nearly two centuries of the guillotine’s use as the instrument of French justice.

His execution marked a quiet historical hinge: within a few years France would abolish capital punishment altogether, in 1981, making Djandoubi’s death the final chapter of a punishment first adopted during the French Revolution.

Close-up of a guillotine in dark foggy setting execution concept

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Europe Execution France Murder Trial

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After their conviction for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in the family’s Beverly Hills home, the California Department of Corrections classified Lyle and Erik as maximum-security inmates and separated them, ending years of the brothers being held together. Lyle was sent to the California Correctional Institution near Tehachapi, while Erik was sent to California State Prison near Sacramento.

The brothers had initially told police that intruders, possibly connected to organised crime, were responsible for the killings. Suspicion grew after investigators noted their lavish spending in the months following the murders and discovered they had hired a computer expert to delete their father’s recently updated will. Erik ultimately confessed to the killings during sessions with his psychologist, describing a desire to escape a controlling father’s demanding expectations, a disclosure that led to both brothers’ arrests.

Beverly Hills sign in Hollywood, Los Angeles against a blue cloudy sky | ID 1216184 © Stephen Coburn | Dreamstime.com — ID 1216184 © Stephen Coburn | Dreamstime.com

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California Murder Prison Trial USA

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John Wayne Glover, 72, was found hanging from a shower rail in his cell at Lithgow prison in New South Wales. He had been serving life without parole for the murder of six elderly women on Sydney‘s North Shore between 1989 and 1990. The mayor of Mosman described his death as the end of a terrible era.

No evidence has ever surfaced that Glover killed before 1989, when he was 56 and had already been married for 20 years with children; his wife had no idea of the violence in his past. He only admitted to the murders once confronted with the police evidence against him.

Glover denied responsibility for other crimes in which he was a prime suspect. Years after his conviction, he admitted he never worried about who his victims were or why he killed them; he said he wanted to stop but could not, and simply returned to his normal life after each murder.

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Australia Death in Custody Lithgow Murder NSW Prison Serial Killer Sydney

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On September 9, 1971, inmates at Attica Correctional Facility in New York seized control of the prison, taking dozens of guards and staff hostage in protest over brutal conditions, overcrowding, and demands for basic political and civil rights. For four days the prisoners held the yard, negotiating with officials and issuing a list of demands broadcast to the watching public.

On September 13, on the order of Governor Nelson Rockefeller, state troopers and police stormed the facility, opening fire on inmates and hostages alike. By the time the smoke cleared, 39 people were dead, including ten hostages, most killed not by prisoners but by the retaking force’s own gunfire.

The riot remains one of the deadliest prison uprisings in American history and exposed the brutal conditions inside Attica, triggering decades of lawsuits, investigations, and a landmark settlement for survivors and victims’ families.

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Disaster New York Police Prison Riot USA

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