A Halt in Executions As of December 31st, 1976, there had been no executions in the USA for nine and a half years, after the Supreme Court suspended the death penalty in 1968. The previous execution was that of 48-year-old Luis Jose Monge, who was put to death in Colorado’s gas chamber on June 2nd, … 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 and in 1955 was working as a nurse in the maternity department of the hospital in Sušice, in the Pilsen region. She was regarded as very competent, and was promoted to head nurse of that … 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, her mother a dentist. She did quite well at school but as she grew older she found it hard to communicate with her parents and classmates. Later she claimed that she could hardly approach … 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
