But on this day in 1972, news of the executions of two convicted murderers by beheading made the front page. The two men, Claude Buffet, 42, and Roger Bontemps, 37, were executed for the killing of two hostages during an attempted escape from prison, where they were serving long sentences for murder. The method of execution would hang around in France until 1981.

It was proverbial blood and gore though that carried the lead headline on the day, thanks to Prime Minister Billy McMahon's wholehearted attack on the media, who he felt had a blood-lust for Liberals.

He ripped into the Sydney Morning Herald for waging war on his government in "a feudal fashion", but he saved his strongest attacks for the Murdoch Press (these days News Corp), which he called "rancid".

"I think that some sections of the Press have now smelt blood, or they have tasted blood, and they feel it is rather a good thing to destroy Liberals as soon as they can", he said.

The deeply unpopular Mr McMahon said the media had "hounded" his predecessor John Gorton out of office and was trying the same on him.

The Prime Minister was in the job another six days before his government was routed at the 1972 election. For Mr McMahon that ended a record 21-year streak as a government minister.

See:https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/12740581#