A Halt in Executions As of December 31st, 1976, there had been no executions in the United States for nine and a half years, following the effective nationwide suspension of the death penalty by the courts in 1968. The previous judicial execution was that of 48-year-old Luis José Monge, who was put to death in … Read more
Jean Lee, an attractive 31-year-old redhead, made history as the last woman to hang in Australia when she went to the gallows in Pentridge Prison in the Coburg suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, on the morning of Monday, February 19th, 1951. She and her two male companions were hanged for the murder of 73-year-old dwelling house … Read more
Background Marie Fikáčková was born on 9th September 1936 in Sušice, in Czechoslovakia. She grew up in a dysfunctional family but was able to graduate from medical school in Central Klatovy with good grades. In 1955, she was working as a nurse in the maternity department of the hospital in Sušice, in the Pilsen region. … Read more
Background Olga Hepnarová was born on June 30, 1951, to a middle-class family in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Her father was a bank clerk and her mother was a dentist. She did quite well at school, but as she grew older, she found it increasingly difficult to communicate with her parents and classmates. Later, she claimed that … Read more
Background: End of Public Hangings On the 29th of May 1868, the Capital Punishment (Amendment) Act came into force, ending public hanging in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. In the drafting of the Act, the Channel Islands were either overlooked or resisted the change, and so it was just over seven years later when the … Read more
