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

1939: Bookmaker Irving Feinstein Strangled and Burned by Murder Inc.

In September 1939, New York bookmaker Irving Feinstein was strangled to death by members of Murder Inc., the enforcement arm of the American organised crime syndicate. His body was set alight and dumped in a vacant lot, a signature disposal method of the organisation.

The killing was ordered after Feinstein was accused of doublecrossing a criminal associate. He was one of dozens of victims claimed by Murder Inc. during its brutal reign as a contract killing operation for the mob.

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Gang Murder Organised Crime USA

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1894: H. H. Holmes Kills Accomplice in Philadelphia Insurance Fraud Murder

On September 4, 1894, serial killer H. H. Holmes murdered his accomplice Benjamin Pitezel at 1326 Callowhill Street in Philadelphia. The original scheme called for Pitezel to fake his own death under the alias ‘B.F. Perry’, supposedly killed in a lab explosion, with Holmes supplying a substitute corpse so that Pitezel’s wife could collect a $10,000 life insurance policy. Instead, Holmes knocked Pitezel unconscious with chloroform and burned his body with benzene, staging the death as an accident.

A coroner’s jury returned a verdict of accidental death, and Pitezel’s body was buried in a potter’s field. Three weeks later, Holmes collected the $10,000 payout. The murder only unravelled after Philadelphia detective Frank Geyer investigated, ultimately exposing Holmes as one of the most prolific killers in American history.

Benjamin Pitezel; associate of H.H.Holmes

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Fraud Murder Organised Crime Pennsylvania Philadelphia Serial Killer USA

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1873: A Husband Killed by Mercury in Moonta, South Australia

Thomas Woolcock died at 3 am on 4 September 1873 in Moonta, Adelaide having suffered weeks of stomach pains, nausea, and prolonged vomiting. His death was initially attributed to exhaustion, but suspicion quickly fell on his wife Elizabeth Woolcock, a woman whose own life had been marked by hardship, abuse, and desperation.

Elizabeth had endured years of violence at the hands of Woolcock, a heavy-drinking wife-beater who had repeatedly prevented her from leaving. In the weeks before his death, she had made increasingly frantic attempts to obtain morphine and other substances from local chemists, and her behaviour had become talk of the community. Charged with murder by mercury poisoning, Elizabeth was tried, convicted, and hanged at Adelaide Gaol on 30 December 1873. She remains the only woman ever executed in South Australia.

Elizabeth Lillian Woolcock with her husband Thomas and their son Tom, c.1865. State Library of South Australia, B 12311. Public domain.

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Adelaide Australia Domestic Abuse Execution Moonta Murder Poisoning SA Trial

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1885: Charles Bushby Hanged at Ballarat for Shooting a Detective on the Gong Gong Road

In December 1884, plain-clothes Detective Sergeant Hyland was pursuing a suspect wanted as an accomplice in a wool-stealing robbery at Kyneton. Acting on a tip that the man had been seen asking questions near the Gong Gong hotel, Hyland and Senior Constable Hehir hired a cab and tracked him along the road near Brown Hill. When Hyland stepped out and approached, the man drew a revolver and shot him in the shoulder at close range. Hyland rushed him before he could fire again, and a fierce struggle followed, with two more shots discharged into the ground and air before the man was handcuffed and taken into Ballarat. Surgeons at the hospital extracted the bullet from the sergeant’s back.

The man, Charles Bushby, also known as Baker, was convicted of attempted murder at the Ballarat Court and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Ballarat on 3 September 1885.

Old abandoned Kyneton Hospital building in Victoria, Australia

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Australia Ballarat Execution Kyneton Murder Police Robbery Trial VIC

1939: Bookmaker Irving Feinstein Strangled and Burned by Murder Inc.

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1894: H. H. Holmes Kills Accomplice in Philadelphia Insurance Fraud Murder

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1873: A Husband Killed by Mercury in Moonta, South Australia

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1885: Charles Bushby Hanged at Ballarat for Shooting a Detective on the Gong Gong Road

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