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

1985: Night Stalker Richard Ramirez Captured by an Angry Mob in East Los Angeles

For months in 1985, Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, terrorised California, breaking into homes while families slept to assault, mutilate, and murder. His reign of terror ended not with a police operation but with a newspaper front page: once his mugshot was published across California media, his anonymity was gone.

On 31 August 1985, Ramirez attempted to carjack vehicles in the Boyle Heights neighbourhood of East Los Angeles. Residents recognised him, chased him down the sreet, and beat him to the ground before police arrived to take him into custody. Facing the mob, Ramirez reportedly confessed to officers, preferring arrest to the alternative.

Stalker captured

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Boyle Heights California Capture East Los Angeles Los Angeles Murder Organised Crime Serial Killer Trial USA

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2022: Chris Dawson Found Guilty of Murdering Wife Lynette

After five hours of delivering his reasons in a judge-alone trial, Justice Ian Harrison found former rugby league footballer Chris Dawson guilty of murdering his wife, Lynette Dawson, who vanished from their Bayview home near Sydney on or about 8 January 1982. Lynette had been planning to meet her mother the following day; she never arrived. Chris did not report her missing for six weeks, and two days after her disappearance, a teenage student he had groomed moved permanently into the family home.

Two coronial inquests had already concluded Lynette was murdered, but prosecution was twice refused due to insufficient evidence. A podcast revival of the case and sustained public pressure finally brought Dawson to trial. Justice Harrison rejected all alleged sightings of Lynette as wholly unreliable and found a compelling body of evidence that she had not abandoned her family. Dawson was sentenced to 24 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 18 years.

Found Guilty

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Australia Cold Case Disappearance Murder NSW Sydney Trial

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1830: A Daring Escape and a Public Hanging in Colonial New South Wales

In February 1829, a man from the Shoalhaven region of New South Wales killed English sawyer John Rivett in the Kangaroo Valley, claiming self-defence after a dispute over a trade and a personal grievance. He and his accomplice evaded capture for months, using their knowledge of the densely forested hilly terrain to outrun colonial authorities.

Arrested in May 1829, the accused made a bold escape aboard a ship bound for Sydney, stealing the keys to his chains from a sleeping guard before jumping overboard with his companion. Recaptured and tried, he was found guilty of wilful murder and publicly executed by infamous hangman Alexander Green on 30 August 1830.

White bark gumtrees by Shoalhaven River under storm clouds

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Australia Colonial History Escape Execution Kangaroo Valley Murder NSW Shoalhaven Sydney

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1875: An Gaa Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the Murder of a Mining Partner at Vaughan

In June 1875, a Chinese miner was found dead at a hut near the goldfields of Vaughan, central Victoria. An Gaa, who shared the hut with the deceased, was found calmly eating rice by candlelight when Constable King and a Chinese interpreter arrived to investigate.

The scene was disturbing: the body lay on its side, a used opium pipe in the hand, blood soaked through the straw bunk and into the wood beneath, and a wet towel stained with blood and water nearby. An Gaa claimed to know nothing of how his housemate had died.

Tried before Justice Sir Redmond Barry in July 1875, An Gaa was convicted of murder. He was hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 30 August 1875.

Workers washing mining tailings in the 1870s

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Australia Castlemaine Execution Melbourne Murder Trial Vaughan VIC

1985: Night Stalker Richard Ramirez Captured by an Angry Mob in East Los Angeles

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2022: Chris Dawson Found Guilty of Murdering Wife Lynette

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1830: A Daring Escape and a Public Hanging in Colonial New South Wales

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1875: An Gaa Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the Murder of a Mining Partner at Vaughan

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