In the early hours of 12 October 1988, two young constables, Steven Tynan, 22, and Damian Eyre, 20, stopped to check an abandoned car on Walsh Street in South Yarra, Melbourne. Within minutes both were dead, gunned down in what police believed was a professional ambush by an armed robbery gang taking revenge for a suspect shot dead by detectives hours earlier.

Four men, among them Victor Peirce, stood trial in 1991 after one of the largest investigations Victoria Police had ever run. All were acquitted, and the case has never been officially solved.

In 2005, Peirce’s own wife Wendy, who had once given him a false alibi and was later convicted of perjury for it, broke her silence and told the press that her husband had planned and carried out the killings himself.

Melbourne laneway after rain with wet paving and blurred lights
Melbourne laneway after rain with wet paving and blurred lights

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Peter McKean, alias William McDonald, bunked with William ‘Yorkie’ Marriott at a shepherd’s hut near Kojonup, both working for the same local farmer. Marriott was known for quietly saving his wages, and in June 1872 he vanished. His body was found slumped behind a cart more than a week later, the head so badly gnawed by dogs that he could only be identified by a missing finger on his right hand.

McKean was arrested on circumstantial evidence and convicted at the Albany Circuit Court of robbing and killing Marriott with an axe. After his arrest, McKean claimed Marriott had been killed by ‘a vicious horse’. He never offered proof, and the excuse died with him on the scaffold.

He was hanged at Albany on 12 October 1872, the rope worked by a fellow convict before a crowd that included schoolchildren.

Carpenters axe
Carpenters axe

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George Holland broke into the Parramatta home of Laughlane Galligheoghan in broad daylight, prising open a chest for just ten shillings. When the elderly, frail occupant tried to stop him, Holland turned the fractured door hinge in his hand into a weapon, stabbing him in the side. The court later heard he had plainly meant to kill, and was only stopped by the arrival of help.

Tried in Sydney, Holland was condemned to death, the Judge Advocate delivering a lengthy admonition on the heinous nature of the crime before the man was led back to gaol. The sentence was carried out the following morning at eight o’clock; the ten shillings and the hinge were the only measure of a life taken for a life.

Human skull with treasure chest and gold jewelry still life
Human skull with treasure chest and gold jewelry still life

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George Holland broke into the Parramatta home of Laughlane Galligheoghan in broad daylight, prising open a chest for just ten shillings. When the elderly, frail occupant tried to stop him, Holland turned the fractured door hinge in his hand into a weapon, stabbing him in the side. The court later heard he had plainly meant to kill, and was only stopped by the arrival of help.

Tried in Sydney, Holland was condemned to death, the Judge Advocate delivering a lengthy admonition on the heinous nature of the crime before the man was led back to gaol. The sentence was carried out the following morning at eight o’clock; the ten shillings and the hinge were the only measure of a life taken for a life.

Human skull with treasure chest and gold jewelry still life
Human skull with treasure chest and gold jewelry still life

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On This Day in True Crime History
1855·The Wife Who Forged a Will and Bought a Murderer: Bridget Hurford Hanged at Perth
1855·Hanged at Perth, William Dodd Spent His Final Words Blaming an Innocent Man
1855·"I Am Sorry I Did Not Kill Him": a Convict Hanged at Perth for a Shovel Attack on a Warder
1883·A Father Who Watched Him Hang: James Gardiner Executed at Brisbane for Killing German Ada
1953·Caroline Grills Laughed During Her Own Trial for Poisoning
More Crime On This Day →

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