The Last Triple Execution Involving a Woman On the morning of Monday, August 2, 1875, a small piece of legal history was made within the walls of Durham prison. A woman was to be hanged alongside two men, all for unrelated crimes. This was to be the last such occasion in England. The woman was … Read more
Forty nine year old Mary Lefley from Wrangle in Lincolnshire was hanged at Lincoln County Gaol by James Berry on Monday the 26th of May 1884 in what was to be his third execution and the second at this location. Previously hangings had been carried out at Lincoln Castle. Mary had been convicted of murdering her husband, fifty nine year old William, by putting … Read more
Selina Wadge was one of only four women to be hanged for of the murder of their child during the period 1868 – 1899. (I have included Louise Masset in this figure as the crime and trial took place in 1899, although her execution was carried out in January 1900). They were Mary Ann Cotton who was a serial poisoner … Read more
The Setting Fifty-five-year-old Catherine Churchill was a farmer’s wife who lived at Knowle St. Giles near Chard in Somerset. A Disturbing Morning One morning in early March 1879, Eliza Whatley, a neighbour of the Churchills, was taking breakfast to her husband George, who was working in one of his fields. As she walked past the … Read more
Kate was a rather incompetent career criminal who had served several prison terms for various thefts and offences of dishonesty, both in her native Ireland and in England. These included a period of 12 months in 1877 in London’s Wandsworth Prison, where she would ultimately die. She was born Catherine Lawler in 1849 in Killane, … Read more
