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

1985: The Night Stalker’s begins His FInal Strike in Mission Viejo, California

In the late hours of August 24, 1985, Richard Ramirez drove to Mission Viejo in Southern California, intending to break into the Romero family home. Thirteen-year-old James Romero III spotted him and recorded the car details, alerting police. Ramirez moved on to the nearby home of Bill Carns and Inez Erickson, shooting Carns three times in the head before assaulting Erickson. Remarkably, both victims survived.

The car details noted by James Romero III proved critical. Police traced the vehicle, leading directly to the identification and arrest of Ramirez, bringing the reign of one of California’s most feared serial killers to an end.

Hooded hooligan with obscured face walking city streets at night

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Attempted Murder Murder Serial Killer USA

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1895: The Wild Scotchman: Death of Queensland Bushranger James Macpherson

James Alpin Macpherson, known as the Wild Scotchman, was one of Queensland’s most notorious bushrangers before his capture and imprisonment. Released from prison in 1874, he lived out the remainder of his days quietly, working as a stockman and station overseer far from his outlaw past.

Macpherson died on 23 August 1895 at Burketown, Queensland, aged 53, after falling from a horse. The man who had once terrorised the bush met his end not in a blaze of gunfire, but in an ordinary accident on the land he had spent his later years working.

Portrait of bushranger James MacPherson 1866

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Accident Australia Burketown Bushranger Death QLD

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1929: The Vampire of Dusseldorf Kills Two Foster Sisters at a Fairground

Peter Kurten, known as the Vampire of Dusseldorf, murdered two young foster sisters at a fairground on 23 August 1929, in one of a string of attacks that terrorised the city throughout that year. Born in Cologne in 1883, the eldest of 13 children, Kurten endured a childhood of brutal poverty and domestic terror, and had already demonstrated violent and sadistic tendencies from boyhood, including drowning two playmates on the Rhine at the age of nine.

His killing spree in 1929 left Dusseldorf gripped by fear. He was eventually arrested, tried, and convicted of nine murders, though police suspected him in as many as 68 attacks. His victims were overwhelmingly women and girls. He was executed by guillotine in July 1931. Shortly before his death, he asked the prison psychiatrist whether he would still be able to hear his own blood gushing from his neck after the blade fell. When told his brain might function for a few seconds, Kurten replied: ‘That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures.’

Peter Kürten police mugshot, 1931. Photographer unknown; Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

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Cologne Dusseldorf Europe Execution Germany Murder Serial Killer Trial

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1853: John Smith Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the Murder of a Miner at Fryer's Creek

In 1853, John Smith and Henry Turner forced their way into the hut of John Warren at Fryer’s Creek, demanding gold. When Warren could not produce it, the pair shot him in the eye with a revolver at close range. Warren was found blind and bleeding, groping through the bush. He died shortly after, the bullet having shattered a fragment of his temporal bone into the brain.

Both men were tried, convicted, and hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 23 August 1853, before a large crowd assembled outside the walls.

Smith, attended by Catholic priests in his final days, was brought to acknowledge that the sentence he was about to suffer was just and merited.

View from below of historical gallows in Tombstone Arizona

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Australia Execution Fryers Creek Gold Rush Crime Melbourne Murder Robbery VIC

1985: The Night Stalker’s begins His FInal Strike in Mission Viejo, California

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1895: The Wild Scotchman: Death of Queensland Bushranger James Macpherson

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1929: The Vampire of Dusseldorf Kills Two Foster Sisters at a Fairground

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1853: John Smith Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the Murder of a Miner at Fryer's Creek

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