45 year old Mary Ann Ashford became the last woman to be hanged in public in the county of Devon. She was executed in front of the County Gaol at Exeter before a crowd estimated at between 15 and 20,000 at 8.00 a.m. on Wednesday the 28th of March 1866 for the murder by arsenic poisoning of her husband of 20 years, 45 year … Read more
Thirty five year old Priscilla Biggadyke became the first woman in Britain to be executed in private when was hanged at 9.00 a.m. on Monday, the 28th of December, 1868, at Lincoln Castle. She had been convicted of poisoning her husband, Richard, with arsenic at their home on September 30th 1868. Priscilla was born Priscilla Whiley in the village of Gedney in Lincolnshire in 1833 and had married Richard in … Read more
Mary Ann Cotton has the dubious distinction of being Britain’s worst female serial killer and her probable tally of killings would remain unequalled by either sex until the 1980’s. She is strongly suspected of 14 or 15 murders, either for gain or to enable her to marry or both, and 21 people who were close to her died … 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
Background Catherine Flannagan, aged 55, and Margaret Higgins, aged 41 (her age is also given as 45), were sisters who emigrated from Ireland during the potato famines of 1845–1849 and came to live in the Liverpool slums. They embarked on a plan to make money from life insurance and burial societies, which were popular in … Read more
