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.
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 during the early period.
However, on the 29th of October 1889, six-month-old May Irene Dean, whom the Deans had legally adopted, died of convulsions after a short illness.
Eighteen months later, a second infant, Bertha Currie, died of “inflammation of the lungs”.
The coroner’s inquest returned a verdict of death by natural causes, but this second death led to a great deal more interest by the authorities in Minnie’s domestic activities, reflecting the scrutiny surrounding infant welfare throughout the Empire as examined in our survey of capital punishment in the British Commonwealth.
The Investigation and Discovery of the Bodies
On the 2nd of May 1895, Minnie was observed boarding a passenger train carrying both a baby and a tin hatbox.
When she disembarked, she was seen carrying only the hatbox.
The mother of the child, Jane Hornsby, was escorted to “The Larches” by police detectives, where she positively identified baby Eva’s clothing.
No trace could be found of the infant girl at the Deans’ home, and an extensive search along the railway line also proved unsuccessful.
Minnie was arrested and charged with Eva’s murder.
A full excavation of the grounds at “The Larches” led to the grim discovery of the bodies of two infants and the skeleton of a third buried in the garden.
Minnie was subsequently charged with their murders as well.
One body was identified as that of Eva Hornsby, who appeared to have died from asphyxiation.
The second body was that of Dorothy Edith Carter, who was found to have died from a lethal overdose of laudanum (a tincture of opium commonly administered to sedate crying infants during the Victorian era).
The infant skeleton was too deteriorated to yield any conclusive medical evidence regarding the cause of death.
The Trial at Invercargill (1895)
As was standard practice under contemporary British and colonial legal procedure, she was formally indicted and tried on a single capital count: the murder of Dorothy Edith Carter.
Her trial took place before Mr. Justice Joshua Strange Williams, a Judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, sitting at Invercargill from the 18th to the 21st of June 1895.
In her defence, Minnie claimed that all three infant deaths had been purely accidental, and that she had concealed the corpses and buried them secretly to avoid adverse publicity that would have ruined her commercial boarding livelihood.
The jury was not persuaded by this explanation, finding her guilty as charged, and she was sentenced to suffer death by hanging.
She was represented by Alfred Hanlon, a brilliant young Dunedin barrister who rose to national prominence through the case.
Hanlon later reflected that he believed his client was guilty and speculated that she would have continued her lethal enterprise had she not been intercepted.
In his published reminiscences of the trial, Hanlon detailed the chilling timeline:
“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.
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 formal petition to the Governor and Executive Council for clemency was rejected, leaving the death warrant to be executed under the statutory execution methods.
The Execution at Invercargill Gaol (12/08/1895)
Minnie Dean was executed at Invercargill Gaol at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, the 12th of August 1895, before a small assembly of official witnesses and accredited press representatives.
When formally asked by the Sheriff on the scaffold if she had any last words, she replied:
“No, I have nothing to say, except that I am innocent.”
The Otago Daily Times provided a detailed eyewitness account of her final moments:
“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.”
The execution was carried out using the scientific principles established in the evolution of the long drop in the 20th century, with the drop of 7 feet 9 inches producing instantaneous death from cervical dislocation.
She was buried in an unmarked plot in Winton Cemetery, alongside her husband Charles Dean, who later died in an accidental house fire at Winton in 1908 at the age of 73.
Minnie Dean holds the historic distinction of being the first and only woman ever to be hanged in New Zealand, pre-dating the permanent abolition of the death penalty in the Dominion in 1961, as detailed in our broader records of capital punishment in the British Commonwealth.
Her case echoed Victorian baby-farming executions in Great Britain, notably Margaret Waters at Horsemonger Lane Gaol in 1870, Amelia Sachs and Annie Walters at Holloway Prison in 1903, and Rhoda Willis at Cardiff Gaol in 1907.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Minnie Dean?
Williamina “Minnie” Dean (née McCulloch) was a Scottish-born New Zealand baby farmer who operated a child-care and adoption boarding home at “The Larches” in East Winton during the late 19th century. She was convicted of infanticide and remains the only woman ever executed in New Zealand history.
What was baby farming in 19th-century New Zealand?
Baby farming was the historical practice of accepting infants from unwed mothers or impoverished families in exchange for lump-sum adoption fees or periodic boarding payments. In the absence of strict regulatory oversight, unscrupulous practitioners sometimes neglected or deliberately murdered infants to maximize profits.
How was Minnie Dean caught?
Railway passengers noticed Dean boarding a train at Lumsden with a baby and a tin hatbox, but arriving at her destination carrying only the hatbox. Police investigated and located infant clothing identified by a mother; subsequent excavations in her garden at “The Larches” unearthed the bodies of two babies and the skeleton of a third.
What caused the death of the infants in the Minnie Dean case?
Forensic examinations revealed that baby Eva Hornsby had died from suffocation, while baby Dorothy Edith Carter died from a lethal overdose of laudanum (liquid opium).
When was Minnie Dean executed?
Minnie Dean was hanged at Invercargill Gaol at 8:02 a.m. on August 12, 1895. The long drop of 7 feet 9 inches caused instantaneous death, and she was buried in Winton Cemetery.
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