Minnie Dean – “The Winton baby farmer” New Zealand.

Williamina “Minnie” McCulloch was born on the 2nd of September, 1844, at West Greenock, Renfrewshire in Scotland to Elizabeth and John McCulloch, the fourth in a family of eight girls. Elizabeth died of cancer when Minnie was only 11 years of age, however, her father managed to ensure she received a good education. She married young to a man named McCulloch by whom she had two daughters. Nothing is known about her and her husband or what became of their marriage.

Around 1868, she and her daughters emigrated to Invercargill in New Zealand where she later married Charles Dean who ran a boarding house. They had no children of their own but in 1881, they adopted a little girl called Margaret Cameron. This seemed to be the catalyst for starting a baby farming business. Click here for a photo of her.

The business was run from their home at “The Larches” in East Winton and was not in itself illegal. It is thought that over 100 children stayed at their home over the years while Minnie found them foster homes and there seemed to be no evidence of neglect or ill treatment. However, on the 29th of October, 1889, 6-month old May Irene Dean, whom the Deans had legally adopted, died of convulsions after a short illness. Eighteen months later a second baby, Bertha Currie, died of “inflammation of the lungs”. The inquest returned a verdict of death by natural causes, but this death led to a great deal more interest by the authorities in Minnie’s activities.

On the 2nd of May 1895, Minnie was seen getting onto a train carrying both a baby and a hatbox. When she got off, she was only carrying the hat box. The mother of the baby, Jane Hornsby, was taken to “The Larches” by the police where she identified baby Eva’s clothes. No trace could be found of the little girl at the Dean’s home and the railway line was also searched without success. Minnie was arrested and charged with Eva’s murder and a full search of “The Larches” led to the discovery of the bodies of two babies and the skeleton of a third buried in the garden of “The Larches”.

Minnie was also charged with their murders. One body was identified as that of Eva Hornsby who appeared to have died from asphyxiation and the other was that of Dorothy Edith Carter who was found to have died from an overdose of laudanum (an opiate drug commonly given to sooth children at this time). The child skeleton was not able to yield any clues as to cause of death.
As was standard practice at the time, she was only tried on one charge, that of Dorothy Edith Carter. Her trial took place before Mr. Joshua Strange Williams, a Judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, at Invercargill from the 18th to the 21st of June 1895. In her defence, Minnie claimed that all three deaths had been accidental, and that she had concealed them to avoid adverse publicity which would have ruined her business. The jury were not persuaded by this and she was found guilty and sentenced to hang.

She was represented by Alfred Hanlon, a young Dunedin barrister. He later said he believed his client was guilty and speculated she would have continued her activities had she not been caught.

"The extraordinary nerve of the woman is illustrated by the fact that she brought the body of the Carter baby all the way from Lumsden in the hatbox to meet Mrs Hornsby," Hanlon later wrote in his account of the case.

"The two women met at Milburn and went by train to Clarendon, that box with its gruesome contents being left in the waiting room at Milburn. While waiting for the south train at Clarendon Mrs. Dean asphyxiated the child and then rolled it up in a shawl. When she boarded the train she placed this in a rack above her seat and at Milburn she collected from the waiting room the tin [hat] box with the corpse of the other child so that on the journey to Clinton she had one body beneath her feet and the one above her head."

Her appeal for clemency was rejected and she was executed at Invercargill Gaol at 8.00 a.m. on the 12th of August, 1895 before a small number of officials and press witnesses. Asked if she had anything to say she replied, “No, I have nothing to say, except that I am innocent."

The Otago Daily Times covered her execution and reported as follows:

"I was struck, as I always was in court during her trial, with her dignified carriage and bearing - head erect (uncovered, of course), thin, fine, iron-grey hair, nicely brushed, neatly parted in the middle, and fastened in a knot behind." "She walked straight on without a halt to the drop-door, gave a scrutinising glance, first at the gallows and its belongings, then at the half dozen people standing below, a contemptuous, loathing look at the hangman, and placed herself in a position to facilitate his work as much as possible, and took a few long breaths while he was adjusting the rope and placing the white calico cap over her head and face.

" The sheriff then asked her if she had anything to say, to which she replied, 'I have nothing to say, except that I am innocent'. She began to sway backward and forward a little, and was heard to say under the cap by those who were standing close beside her, 'Oh, God, let me not suffer!' At two minutes past 8 the bolt was drawn, and the body dropped a distance of 7ft 9in out of sight." She was buried in Winton cemetery, alongside her husband, who died in a house fire at Winton in 1908, aged 73.

She was the first and only woman to be hanged in New Zealand.

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