Click through the gallery to see Brisbane's most shocking crimes.
On the evening of September 19, 1952, Betty Shanks, 22, a clerk in a Commonwealth Department, was returning to her parents’ home in Montepelier Street, The Grange.
While walking along Thomas Street she was attacked, savagely beaten and strangled.
Police believe Shanks’ attacker killed her in the shadow of trees on the corner of Thomas and Carberry streets before throwing her body over the front yard fence of a house only metres from Shanks’ own home. Her gold wrist watch had stopped at 9.53pm, 21 minutes after leaving the tram.
Her screams were heard but were tragically mistaken for children playing in Wilston State School.
Despite a long and thorough police investigation, the killer was never found. This murder case remains open and unsolved.
On 22 September 1976 William Robert Wilson shot dead 17-year-old Monika Schleus and 18-year-old Marianne Kalatzis and wounded Donald William Hepburn Galloway, Mavis Ethel Sanders, Virginia Hollidge and Quinto Alberti on Boundary Street, Spring Hill.
After arming himself with a .22 calibre rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition he arrived at Boundary Street around 12.30 pm and began shooting randomly in a milk bar and a neighbouring shop before being captured by heavily armed police around 4:15 pm at a suburban house where Wilson was holding a man and four young women hostage.
Wilson served three years in a mental hospital and after being found fit for trial, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 1980 to two consecutive life sentences for the murders and concurrent 10 years sentences for the four attempted murders.
The Whiskey Au Go Go fire occurred at 2.10am on Thursday 8 March 1973, in the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in Fortitude Valley.
15 people were killed in the fire which began with the ignition of two 23-litre drums of diesel fuel which were thrown into the building's foyer and ignited by a lit torch.
When ignited the burning diesel sent carbon monoxide up to the club's main room on the first floor. Large quantities of grease had been smeared over the stairs of the building's rear fire escape and the door of the fire escape.
James Richard Finch and John Andrew Stuart were arrested the weekend following the fire. During their trial Finch and Stuart loudly protested their innocence, claiming they had been "verballed": convicted based on false confessions. They both pleaded not guilty.
On 23 October 1973 both were convicted of the murder of Jennifer Denise Davie.[17] The jury found that the fire was lit as part of an extortion-terror campaign aimed at Brisbane nightclub operators, and they were sentenced to life in prison.
Tracey Avril Wigginton was 24 years old when she was jailed in 1991, after pleading guilty in the Supreme Court in Brisbane to the slaying of council worker Edward Baldock, 47.
Wigginton, her lesbian lover and another female couple lured a drunk Mr Baldock into their car before taking him to Orleigh Park, in the inner-city Brisbane suburb of West End.
In the early hours of October 21, 1989, Wigginton stabbed him 27 times before drinking his blood.
A 22-year-old woman was held captive in her own home for three days, raped and tortured with household bleach by a man she met on a dating website, a Brisbane court heard in November 2013.
The woman, who was not named, had met the accused online in June 2011 and began a relationship in which she "very quickly believed herself to be in love," prosecutor Sarah Dennis told the Brisbane District Court.
On 7 September 2011 48-year-old Kim Patterson murdered her 14-year-old daughter Sidonie Thompson with an axe while she lay in her bed in their Paddington home.
Patterson then drove to the Story Bridge where she took her own life by jumping while her 12 year old son remained in the stationary car.
21-year-old French student Sophie Collombet was found brutally murdered near the William Jolly Bridge in South Brisbane in April 2014.
The man accused of murdering the French business student was charged with depriving Collombet of her liberty and armed robbery with actual violence, was remanded in custody to appear again on July 28.
Brookfield real estate agent Gerard Baden-Clay, 43, was accused of murdering his wife Allison Baden-Clay, 43, on April 19, 2012.
He was found guilty on Tuesday 15 July 2014 in the Supreme Court at Brisbane after pleading not guilty.
Following victim impact statements provided by the family of Allison Baden-Clay, Gerard Baden-Clay was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The crimes that shocked our city.
The river city is generally known as a safe and happy place, but it has a dark side.
The latest crime to rock Brisbane is the recent conviction of Gerard Baden-Clay for the murder of wife Allison. The Brisbane community followed the case closely and was shocked by the details that emerged during the trial.
Many horrendous, brutal and senseless crimes have taken place in Brisbane before — click through the gallery above to see Brisbane’s most shocking crimes.
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Really is there’s any firm evidence that he did it as for a screaming woman ..it’s funny the scouts would heard the scream in the middle of the night and it was the Barking Owl.
Where is Alisons I pad??????? as I think they should have asked the phone company for a copy of all her calls.
Laura….bad English…”lied” should read “lay” and “stationery” should read “stationary”….”e” for “equipment” “a” for adjective…cheers
Hi Peter,
We’ve amended the article. Thanks for reading the story.
Laura