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

She was born Margaretha Zelle in the Netherlands and reinvented herself in Paris as Mata Hari, an exotic dancer whose stage act and string of wealthy, often military, lovers made her a sensation across Europe. When war came, French intelligence suspected she was selling pillow talk to Germany.

The evidence against her was thin and largely circumstantial, built on intercepted telegrams and a reputation for scandal rather than proof. A French military tribunal convicted her of espionage anyway, and she was executed by firing squad outside Paris on 15 October 1917.

She refused a blindfold and reportedly blew a kiss to the soldiers before they fired, going to her death still insisting she had never betrayed France.

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Espionage Europe Execution France Scandal Trial

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William Dodd, a ticket-of-leave man, struck the bargain that would hang him: ten pounds and a horse named Turk, promised by the wealthy settler’s own wife in exchange for her husband’s death. At the Vasse, Dodd lost his nerve at the bedroom door and had to be plied with more drink before he went back in, seized John Hurford by the throat, and strangled him as the old man cried out.

Convicted at Perth on circumstantial evidence and a damning account from a fellow ticket-of-leave man he had bragged to, Dodd was hanged within the walls of the new gaol on 15 October 1855, alongside the wife who had hired him.

On the scaffold, Dodd tried to shift the blame, insisting that another man had actually struck the fatal blow while he merely stood by, a story that flatly contradicted the confession he himself had made days after the murder.

Angry muscular man pointing at camera in confrontation

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Australia Conspiracy Execution Murder Perth Trial Vasse WA

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Andrei Chikatilo cut the eyes from his victims, believing the dead retained an image of their killer burned into their retinas. He could only reach climax while torturing or murdering, and prosecutors said he ate parts of his victims, including their sexual organs, over a killing spree across the Rostov region that claimed at least 52 lives, mostly women and children lured into forests and fields.

On this day a Russian court convicted him on all counts. He was executed by a single shot to the back of the head, a death far quicker than any he gave the people he killed.

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Cannibalism Europe Execution Murder Russia Serial Killer Trial

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Caroline Grills was the kind of woman neighbours trusted: she brought cups of tea and homemade treats to relatives and friends, and several of them sickened and died. On this day she was convicted of the attempted murder of Eveline Lundberg with thallium, the same insidious poison police believed had already killed members of her own family.

Her manner in the dock attracted attention. When the jury returned its guilty verdict, Grills shrugged her shoulders and smiled broadly. After the judge recorded a sentence of death, she reportedly turned to police and asked, “Is that all?” She had protested her innocence throughout the trial.

The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. Grills died on 6 October 1960 never expressing remorse for the deaths linked to her name.

Caroline Grills arriving at Sydney Central Court, 9 July 1953. Unknown photographer. Originally published in the Brisbane Telegraph. Source: Trove, National Library of Australia. Public domain.

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Australia Execution Murder NSW Poisoning Sydney Trial

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