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Woman Hanged Execution: A Historical and Societal Examination
The phrase "woman hanged execution" evokes a chilling image, a stark reminder of a brutal chapter in human history. This post delves into the grim reality of this form of capital punishment as applied to women, exploring its historical context, the societal factors contributing to its prevalence, and the lasting impact it has left on our understanding of justice and gender. We will analyze not only the mechanics of the execution itself but also the broader social and legal landscape that made it possible. This examination will avoid gratuitous sensationalism and instead focus on providing a nuanced, historically informed perspective on this dark aspect of the past.
H2: The Historical Context of Women's Executions by Hanging
Hanging, a method of execution dating back centuries, wasn't gender-specific. However, the circumstances surrounding women's executions often differed significantly from those of men. Throughout history, women subjected to capital punishment faced biases rooted in patriarchal societies. Charges ranged from petty theft and witchcraft (particularly during the witch hunts of the 15th-17th centuries) to more serious crimes like murder and treason. The legal systems of the time often reflected these biases, leading to harsher punishments for women in some instances, while in others, mitigating circumstances were less readily considered. Examining historical records, including court documents and execution accounts, reveals a complex picture, often overshadowed by the inherent brutality of the act itself. The prevalence of hanging varied geographically and temporally, reflecting differing legal codes and societal norms.
H3: Notable Cases of Women Hanged: Examining Individual Stories
While comprehensive data on all women executed by hanging is unavailable, examining individual cases offers insight into the diverse experiences and circumstances leading to this ultimate punishment. Researching specific historical figures allows us to move beyond mere statistics and grapple with the human cost. These cases, while tragic, serve as a critical reminder of the importance of due process and equitable justice. Understanding the narratives of these women illuminates the social injustices, prejudices, and limitations within the legal systems of their time. Each story offers a unique perspective on the complexities of the era and the impact of gender on the application of capital punishment.
H4: The Mechanics and Physical Realities of the Execution
The actual process of a woman's hanging execution, while varying slightly over time and location, shared common characteristics. The physical toll on the condemned was significant, often resulting in prolonged suffering. While the intended result was swift death by cervical dislocation, complications and failures were not uncommon, leading to prolonged agony. The physical aspects, often omitted from sanitized historical accounts, are crucial to understanding the brutality of the punishment and the inherent risks involved. Analyzing accounts from execution witnesses, though often sparse and unreliable, provides fragmented glimpses into this harrowing process.
H2: Societal Factors Contributing to the Prevalence of Hanging for Women
Beyond the specifics of legal proceedings, societal norms and prejudices played a crucial role in shaping the application of capital punishment to women. The prevalence of misogyny, the societal power imbalances between genders, and religious beliefs all significantly influenced the frequency and justification of such executions. Understanding these societal factors is critical to contextualizing the historical practice. The perceived social roles and expectations of women in various historical periods directly impacted the interpretation of their crimes and the consequent punishments.
H3: The Abolition of Hanging and the Evolution of Capital Punishment
The gradual abolition of hanging, particularly in Western societies, marks a significant shift in attitudes towards capital punishment and human rights. The move away from public executions, and the growing awareness of the inherent cruelty and potential for error, contributed to the adoption of alternative methods, such as lethal injection. This evolution reflects a broader societal shift in values, a growing emphasis on human rights, and a heightened awareness of the ethical dilemmas surrounding state-sanctioned killing.
H2: The Lasting Legacy of Women Hanged Executions
The practice of hanging women, though largely consigned to history in many parts of the world, leaves a lasting legacy. It serves as a stark reminder of the injustices and biases that have shaped legal systems throughout history. Studying these historical accounts fosters a deeper understanding of the ongoing fight for social justice and gender equality. The historical record should not be ignored; it is a vital tool for critical reflection and preventing the repetition of past mistakes.
Conclusion:
The history of women hanged executions is a somber testament to the complexities of justice, gender inequality, and the evolving understanding of human rights. By examining the historical context, societal factors, and individual narratives, we gain a deeper appreciation for the gravity of these events and their lasting impact. It is through acknowledging this dark chapter that we can strive for a more just and equitable future.
FAQs:
1. Were there any legal differences between the execution of men and women by hanging? While the overall legal framework applied, there were often subtle differences in sentencing practices and the considerations given to mitigating circumstances, often reflecting gender biases.
2. Were women always hanged in public? Public executions were common, but the practice varied across regions and time periods. Some executions were conducted privately, particularly as public opinion shifted.
3. What were some common crimes leading to women's execution by hanging? Crimes ranged from murder and treason to witchcraft and property crimes, often reflecting the social and legal norms of the specific time and place.
4. Were there any efforts made to reform capital punishment for women during these historical periods? While widespread reform was slow, individual advocates and reformers did attempt to challenge the harshness of the legal system and advocate for fairer treatment of women.
5. How does studying the history of women's executions contribute to contemporary discussions about capital punishment? Studying historical examples, including the biases and injustices present, provides valuable context for ongoing debates about the morality, ethics, and fairness of capital punishment.
| woman hanged execution: Last Woman Hanged Caroline Overington, 2014-11-01 Two husbands, four trials and one bloody execution: Winner of the 2015 Davitt Award for Best Crime Book (Non-fiction) -- the terrible true story of Louisa Collins. In January 1889, Louisa Collins, a 41-year-old mother of ten children, became the first woman hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol and the last woman hanged in New South Wales. Both of Louisa's husbands had died suddenly and the Crown, convinced that Louisa poisoned them with arsenic, put her on trial an extraordinary four times in order to get a conviction, to the horror of many in the legal community. Louisa protested her innocence until the end. Much of the evidence against Louisa was circumstantial. Some of the most important testimony was given by her only daughter, May, who was just 10-years-old when asked to take the stand. Louisa Collins was hanged at a time when women were in no sense equal under the law -- except when it came to the gallows. They could not vote or stand for parliament -- or sit on juries. Against this background, a small group of women rose up to try to save Louisa's life, arguing that a legal system comprised only of men -- male judges, all-male jury, male prosecutor, governor and Premier -- could not with any integrity hang a woman. The tenacity of these women would not save Louisa but it would ultimately carry women from their homes all the way to Parliament House. Caroline Overington is the author of eleven books of fiction and non-fiction, including the top-selling THE ONE WHO GOT AWAY psychological crime novel. She has said: 'My hope is that LAST WOMAN HANGED will be read not only as a true crime story but as a letter of profound thanks to that generation of women who fought so hard for the rights we still enjoy today.' Praise for LAST WOMAN HANGED 'The story she tells ... is a useful challenge to any tendency to simple moral indignation' -- Beverley Kingston, Sydney Morning Herald 'This is a fascinating book, a terrific read, and an excellent reminder of who tells the stories, and whose stories are forgotten' -- Frances Rand, South Coast Register '... what's ... interesting is Caroline Overington's even-handed appraisal of Collins's alleged crime(s) that led her to become the last woman hanged in New South Wales in 1889' -- Launceston Sunday Examiner |
| woman hanged execution: Murdering Stepmothers Anna Haebich, 2010 Sensational rumours of the murder of three small children by their stepmother ignite the passions of Perth citizens in 1909. Shocked by horrific descriptions of how she poisoned the children, they demand her execution as one voice. But did she do it? Or was she a victim of the prejudices of her persecutors? Based on a true story and meticulously researched, this compelling novel is driven by passion, imagination and an eerie conjuring up of the past. |
| woman hanged execution: The Last Woman to be Hanged Robert Hancock, 2020-11-26 On the eve of her hanging, Ruth Ellis wrote to a friend: 'I must close now but remember I am quite happy with the verdict, but not the way the story was told, there is so much that people don't know.' Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain. This is her story. In July 1955 Ruth Ellis was sentenced to death for the shooting of her lover, motor-racing driver David Blakely. Barely three months later she was executed at Holloway prison. In this book, Robert Hancock sets the record straight. Using official documents including the transcript of her trial at the Old Bailey, he unlocks the full, secret background to the story of the last woman to be hanged in Britain. Meticulous and fair in its analysis, The Last Woman to be Hanged is an absorbing portrait of the tragic life of a young woman, a vivid snapshot of an era and a gripping account of a notorious case that shocked the nation. |
| woman hanged execution: Ugly Prey Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, 2017-05-01 Ugly Prey tells the riveting story of poor Italian immigrant Sabella Nitti, the first woman ever sentenced to hang in Chicago, in 1923, for the alleged murder of her husband. Journalist Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi leads readers through the case, showing how, with no evidence and no witnesses, Nitti was the target of an obsessed deputy sheriff and the victim of a faulty legal system. She was also—to the men who convicted her and reporters fixated on her—ugly. For that unforgiveable crime, the media painted her as a hideous, dirty, and unpredictable immigrant, almost an animal. Featuring two other fascinating women—the ambitious and ruthless journalist who helped demonize Sabella through her reports and the brilliant, beautiful, 23-year-old lawyer who helped humanize her with a jailhouse makeover—Ugly Prey is not just a page-turning courtroom drama but also a thought-provoking look at the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and class within the American justice system. |
| woman hanged execution: Women and the Gallows 1797-1837 Naomi Clifford, 2018-01-23 131 women were hanged in England and Wales between 1797 and 1837, executed for crimes including murder, baby-killing, theft, arson, sheep-stealing and passing forged bank notes. Most of them were extremely poor and living in desperate situations. Some were mentally ill. A few were innocent. And almost all are now forgotten, their voices unheard for generations. Mary Morgan – a teenager hanged as an example to others. Eliza Fenning – accused of adding arsenic to the dumplings. Mary Bateman – a ‘witch’ who duped her neighbours out of their savings. Harriet Skelton – hanged for passing counterfeit pound notes in spite of efforts by Elizabeth Fry and the Duke of Gloucester to save her. Naomi Clifford has unearthed the events that brought these ‘unfortunates’ to the gallows and has used contemporary newspaper accounts and documents to tell their stories-- |
| woman hanged execution: By Force of Circumstances: the Lefley Case Reopened Malcolm Moyes, 2021-03-28 Mary Lefley was the last woman to be executed in Lincoln, arraigned for the alleged brutal poisoning of her husband in 1884 with enough arsenic to kill fifty men. Despite there being little hard evidence, including a lack of motive, as well as a total absence of poison in the house. |
| woman hanged execution: Women and the Noose Richard Clark, 2023-02 A fascinating insight into the crimes of women, and how their executions took place From Sarah Malcolm, sentenced to be executed for multiple murders in the early eighteenth century, to Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain in 1955, Women and the Noose traces the history of female crime through the cases of seventy women who met their end on the hangman's gallows. In this detailed account, each woman's story is revealed: her background, criminal acts and execution. Through their tales, historian Richard Clark highlights the wide range of crimes once punishable by death, from cold-blooded murder and crimes of passion to burglary and petty theft. He also shows how, as time went on, execution methods evolved, from burning at the stake to death by hanging, and how the public came to prefer a more humane, private death over the cruel, public scenes of earlier periods. Clark's frank treatment of events, combined with sympathetic revelations about the women's private lives, makes this revised and updated edition of Women and the Noose a chilling and surprisingly moving read. |
| woman hanged execution: The Hanging of Jean Lee Jordie Albiston, 2021 In 1951, Jean Lee was Australia's last woman hanged. Award-winning poet Jordie Albiston's acclaimed verse novel puts this woman's tragic story within the context of her times.'As one might expect, it is a grim, tough story of the deterioration of a young woman's life and its brutal end. It is divided into four sections with deliberately cold-hearted titles: Personal Pages, Entertainment Section, Crime Supplement and Death Notices. The Hanging of Jean Lee is economically and imaginatively conceived with a strong narrative drive. In a series of short connected poems, Jordie Albiston has made a heart-breaker out of her material, ringing the verse changes, using rhyme and blank verse in short chopped lines, colloquial language, reportage, and newspaper headlines with considerable skill.' Dorothy Hewett, Australian Book Review, 1999First published in 1998, The Hanging of Jean Lee was adapted for music-theatre and performed by Opera Australia.Jordie Albiston has published six collections of poetry. Nervous Arcs (1995), her debut, won the Mary Gilmore Award and The Sonnet According to M (2009) won the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry. Her most recent work is Element (2020). She received the Patrick White award in 2019. |
| woman hanged execution: The Hanging of Betsey Reed Rick Kelsheimer, 2007 In 1845 twenty thousand people gathered in Lawrenceville, Illinois, to witness the hanging of Betsey Reed for poisoning her husband. Considered a witch by some, a victim by others; this is her story. |
| woman hanged execution: The Wrong Carlos James S. Liebman, Shawn Crowley, Andrew Markquart, Lauren Rosenberg, 2014-07-08 In 1989, Texas executed Carlos DeLuna, a poor Hispanic man with childlike intelligence, for the murder of Wanda Lopez, a convenience store clerk. His execution passed unnoticed for years until a team of Columbia Law School faculty and students almost accidentally chose to investigate his case and found that DeLuna almost certainly was innocent. They discovered that no one had cared enough about either the defendant or the victim to make sure the real perpetrator was found. Everything that could go wrong in a criminal case did. This book documents DeLunaÕs conviction, which was based on a single, nighttime, cross-ethnic eyewitness identification with no corroborating forensic evidence. At his trial, DeLunaÕs defense, that another man named Carlos had committed the crime, was not taken seriously. The lead prosecutor told the jury that the other Carlos, Carlos Hernandez, was a ÒphantomÓ of DeLunaÕs imagination. In upholding the death penalty on appeal, both the state and federal courts concluded the same thing: Carlos Hernandez did not exist. The evidence the Columbia team uncovered reveals that Hernandez not only existed but was well known to the police and prosecutors. He had a long history of violent crimes similar to the one for which DeLuna was executed. Families of both Carloses mistook photos of each for the other, and HernandezÕs violence continued after DeLuna was put to death. This book and its website (thewrongcarlos.net) reproduce law-enforcement, crime lab, lawyer, court, social service, media, and witness records, as well as court transcripts, photographs, radio traffic, and audio and videotaped interviews, documenting one of the most comprehensive investigations into a criminal case in U.S. history. The result is eye-opening yet may not be unusual. Faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation, and prosecutorial misfeasance continue to put innocent people at risk of execution. The principal investigators conclude with novel suggestions for improving accuracy among the police, prosecutors, forensic scientists, and judges. |
| woman hanged execution: Ruth Ellis Robert Hancock, 2000 In July 1955, Ruth Ellis was sentenced to death for the shooting of her lover, motor-racing driver David Blakely. On the eve of her execution she wrote ...there is so much that people don't know about; this book attempts to set the record straight, revealing the full background to the story. |
| woman hanged execution: Ruth Ellis: My Sister's Secret Life Muriel Jakubait, with Monica Weller, 2012-11-01 The secret double-life of Ruth Ellis and the Establishment cover-up that led to her unjust hanging Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, was convicted fifty years ago for shooting her lover David Blakely. The case became a notorious part of British criminal history and was turned into the film, Dance with a Stranger. The story that has been perpetuated ever since is that of a peroxide tart who killed in a fit of passion. Yet, crucial questions were left unasked in the original trial. Ruth Ellis's sister, Muriel Jakubait, knew her longest of all. She has never given up her search for justice. Now after fifty years she has decided to reveal the hard facts about their shared upbringing, and seek to piece together the full true story of her sister. As she is at pains to point out, the jealous killer tag has never been substantiated. This is a story of power, espionage, lies, loyalty, poverty, sex and betrayal. It suggests a third man may have pulled the trigger for the fatal shots. And that he belonged to a web of espionage into which Ruth Ellis fell long before the shooting. Above all, it indicates that Ruth was being run by Stephen Ward, at least a decade before his name became public in the Profumo Scandal. Muriel's motive is about more than proving her sister Ruth's innocence. It's about reclaiming the right to tell the story of her own family, stripped bare of the many tabloid myths that have accrued over the decades. She shows that Ruth was somebody damaged at a very early age - who strove to make something of herself, only to be caught up in something much bigger and end up paying with her life. |
| woman hanged execution: Burial Rites Hannah Kent, 2013-05-01 The multi-award winning debut bestseller from the author of The Good People, with new novel Devotion out now. In northern Iceland, 1829, Agnes Magnusdottir is condemned to death for her part in the brutal murder of two men. Agnes is sent to wait on the farm of District Officer Jon Jonsson and his family, who are horrified and avoid Agnes. Only Toti, the young assistant reverend appointed as Agnes's spiritual guardian, is compelled to try to understand her. As the summer months fall away to winter, Agnes's story begins to emerge. And as the days to her execution draw closer, the question burns: did she or didn't she? Based on a true story, Burial Rites is a deeply moving novel about freedom and the ways we will risk everything for love. In beautiful, cut-glass prose, Hannah Kent portrays Iceland's formidable landscape, and asks: how can one woman endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others? WINNER FOR INDIE AWARDS 2014 WINNER FOR VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARD PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD 2014 WINNER FOR FAW CHRISTINA STEAD AWARD 2014 WINNER ABA NIELSEN BOOKDATA BOOKSELLERS' CHOICE AWARD 2014 WINNER FOR ABIA LITERARY FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2014 WINNER FOR SMH BEST YOUNG AUSTRALIAN NOVELIST 2014 WINNER FOR ABIA/BOOKTOPIA PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD 2014 WINNER FOR DAVITT AWARDS DEBUT FICTION 2014 WINNER FOR DAVITT AWARDS READER'S CHOICE 2014 SHORTLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD 2013 SHORTLISTED FOR NIB WAVERLEY AWARD FOR LITERATURE 2013 SHORTLISTED FOR THE STELLA PRIZE 2014 SHORTLISTED FOR BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2014 SHORTLISTED FOR VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION 2014 SHORTLISTED FOR ALS GOLD MEDAL 2014 SHORTLISTED FOR VOSS LITERARY AWARD 2014 SHORTLISTED FOR NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS 2014 Praise for Burial Rites 'Burial Rites is an accomplished gem, its prose as crisp and sparkling as its northern setting' - Geraldine Brooks 'Burial Rites is beautiful and compelling . . . it's the announcement of a writer to watch.' - Guardian 'A gripping tale.' - New York Times 'Kent is to be commended for being drawn to a story and a character rather than any narrow cultural agenda. Burial Rites is far removed from us in time and place and, ironically, this fact makes it an intimate experience.' - Sydney Morning Herald 'The most talked about Australian debut novel in years.' - Australian 'An outstandingly good debut . . . I found myself spellbound . . . Kent has done a great deal of research and transformed its results into a work of art.' - Literary Review 'A taut, atmospheric tale, compellingly told' - Irish Independent 'A story of swirling sagas, poetry...Holds an exhilaration that borders on the sublime.' - Sunday Telegraph 'Kent is an Australian, but her beautiful first novel has the extraordinary setting of Iceland in the 1820s . . . a wonderfully strange and haunting story.' - The Times 'One of the best Scandinavian crime novels I have read . . . Hannah Kent's prose is extraordinarily terse and precise as she tells the story from several different viewpoints . . . and the cruelty of human beings is described with vivid intensity. Yet the beauty and fascination of this way of life is movingly portrayed, as is the spirit of its highly literate people. Kent's immersion in Icelandic lore seems total, though she came from the other side of the world. Great stories are universal.' - Independent 'Burial Rites is a debut of rare sophistication and beauty' - Observer 'A remarkable achievement . . . Burial Rites will stand comparison with Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace and Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang.' - Sunday Times 'So gripping I wanted to rush through the pages, but so beautifully written I wanted to linger over every sentence. Hannah Kent's debut novel is outstanding.' - Madeline Miller |
| woman hanged execution: Executed Women of 20th and 21st Centuries L. Kay Gillespie, 2009-06-15 Executed Women of the 20th and 21st Centuries provides a look into the lives, crimes, and executions of women during the 20th and 21st centuries. Rather than dealing with these women as numbers and statistics, this book presents them as human beings. Each of these women had lives, histories, and families. The purpose is not to condone their actions, but to suggest that those we executed are, in fact, humans—rather than monsters, as they are often portrayed. |
| woman hanged execution: Capital Punishment in Japan Petra Schmidt, 2002 This book provides an overview of capital punishment in Japan in a legal, historical, social, cultural and political context. It provides new insights into the system, challenges traditional views and arguments and seeks the real reasons behind the retention of capital punishment in Japan. |
| woman hanged execution: Women and the Death Penalty in the United States, 1900-1998 Kathleen A. O'Shea, 1999-02-28 Studies criminal cases from throughout the twentieth century in which women have been given the death penalty. |
| woman hanged execution: Ellen Thomson Vashti Farrer, 2013 North Queensland was alive with goldrush excitement when a young widow moved to the new township of Port Douglas. Vashti Farrer opens the door on a colonial world, and hard pioneering lives in a tropical paradise. This illustrated book describes the men in Ellen Thomson's life, including the husband she was blamed for killing. It follows her agonising trial and surprise hanging, as well as the roles of Aborigines, Chinamen, policemen, Ellen's children and a judge whose mind was made up. This riveting true story leaves readers wondering if justice was done. |
| woman hanged execution: The Hanging Tree V. A. C. Gatrell, Vic Gatrell, 1994 A history of mentalities, emotions, and attitudes rather than of policies and ideas, it analyses responses to the scaffold at all social levels: among the crowds which gathered to watch executions; among 'polite' commentators from Boswell and Byron on to Fry, Thackeray, and Dickens; and among the judges, home secretary, and monarch who decided who should hang and who should be reprieved. Drawing on letters, diaries, ballads, broadsides, and images, as well as on poignant appeals for mercy which historians until now have barely explored, the book surveys changing attitudes to death and suffering, 'sensibility' and 'sympathy', and demonstrates that the long retreat from public hanging owed less to the growth of a humane sensibility than to the development of new methods of punishment and law enforcement, and to polite classes' deepening squeamishness and fear of the scaffold crowd. |
| woman hanged execution: Notes on an Execution Danya Kukafka, 2022-01-25 'THRILLING' Paula Hawkins 'COMPULSIVE' The Times 'SEARING' Brit Bennett 'DEVASTATING' Observer 'UNFORGETTABLE' Ashley Audrain 'BRILLIANT' Chris Whitaker Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. But this is not his story. Ansel doesn't want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. Yet now he awaits the same fate he forced on those girls, years ago. This is the story of the women who survive. As the clock ticks down, three women - a mother, a sister, a detective - reckon with the choices that culminate in tragedy, the impact on those in its wake, and the possibility of redemption. WINNER OF THE MWA EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL 2023 |
| woman hanged execution: Ada and the Doc Charles M. Hargroder, 2000 |
| woman hanged execution: Harnessing the Power of the Criminal Corpse Sarah Tarlow, Emma Battell Lowman, 2018-05-17 This open access book is the culmination of many years of research on what happened to the bodies of executed criminals in the past. Focusing on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it looks at the consequences of the 1752 Murder Act. These criminal bodies had a crucial role in the history of medicine, and the history of crime, and great symbolic resonance in literature and popular culture. Starting with a consideration of the criminal corpse in the medieval and early modern periods, chapters go on to review the histories of criminal justice, of medical history and of gibbeting under the Murder Act, and ends with some discussion of the afterlives of the corpse, in literature, folklore and in contemporary medical ethics. Using sophisticated insights from cultural history, archaeology, literature, philosophy and ethics as well as medical and crime history, this book is a uniquely interdisciplinary take on a fascinating historical phenomenon. |
| woman hanged execution: The Penalty is Death Marlin Shipman, 2002 In 1872 Susan Eberhart was convicted of murder for helping her lover to kill his wife. The Atlanta Constitution ran a story about her hanging in Georgia that covered slightly more than four full columns of text. In an editorial sermon about her, the Constitution said that Miss Eberhart not only committed murder, but also committed adultery and violated the sanctity of marriage. An 1890 article in the Elko Independent said of Elizabeth Potts, who was hanged for murder, To her we look for everything that is gentle and kind and tender; and we can scarcely conceive her capable of committing the highest crime known to the law. Indeed, at the time, this attitude was also applied to women in general. By 1998 the press's and society's attitudes had changed dramatically. A columnist from Texas wrote that convicted murderess Karla Faye Tucker should not be spared just because she was a woman. The author went on to say that women could be just as violent and aggressive as men; the idea that women are defenseless and need men's protection is probably the last vestige of institutionalized sexism that needs to be rubbed out. |
| woman hanged execution: Outrages Naomi Wolf, 2020-10-09 From New York Times bestselling author Naomi Wolf, Outrages explores the history of state-sponsored censorship and violations of personal freedoms through the inspiring, forgotten history of one writer’s refusal to stay silenced. Newly updated, first North American edition--a paperback original In 1857, Britain codified a new civil divorce law and passed a severe new obscenity law. An 1861 Act of Parliament streamlined the harsh criminalization of sodomy. These and other laws enshrined modern notions of state censorship and validated state intrusion into people’s private lives. In 1861, John Addington Symonds, a twenty-one-year-old student at Oxford who already knew he loved and was attracted to men, hastily wrote out a seeming renunciation of the long love poem he’d written to another young man. Outrages chronicles the struggle and eventual triumph of Symonds—who would become a poet, biographer, and critic—at a time in British history when even private letters that could be interpreted as homoerotic could be used as evidence in trials leading to harsh sentences under British law. Drawing on the work of a range of scholars of censorship and of LGBTQ+ legal history, Wolf depicts how state censorship, and state prosecution of same-sex sexuality, played out—decades before the infamous trial of Oscar Wilde—shadowing the lives of people who risked in new ways scrutiny by the criminal justice system. She shows how legal persecutions of writers, and of men who loved men affected Symonds and his contemporaries, including Christina and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Walter Pater, and the painter Simeon Solomon. All the while, Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass was illicitly crossing the Atlantic and finding its way into the hands of readers who reveled in the American poet’s celebration of freedom, democracy, and unfettered love. Inspired by Whitman, and despite terrible dangers he faced in doing so, Symonds kept trying, stubbornly, to find a way to express his message—that love and sex between men were not “morbid” and deviant, but natural and even ennobling. He persisted in various genres his entire life. He wrote a strikingly honest secret memoir—which he embargoed for a generation after his death—enclosing keys to a code that the author had used to embed hidden messages in his published work. He wrote the essay A Problem in Modern Ethics that was secretly shared in his lifetime and would become foundational to our modern understanding of human sexual orientation and of LGBTQ+ legal rights. This essay is now rightfully understood as one of the first gay rights manifestos in the English language. Naomi Wolf’s Outrages is a critically important book, not just for its role in helping to bring to new audiences the story of an oft-forgotten pioneer of LGBTQ+ rights who could not legally fully tell his own story in his lifetime. It is also critically important for what the book has to say about the vital and often courageous roles of publishers, booksellers, and freedom of speech in an era of growing calls for censorship and ever-escalating state violations of privacy. With Outrages, Wolf brings us the inspiring story of one man’s refusal to be silenced, and his belief in a future in which everyone would have the freedom to love and to speak without fear. |
| woman hanged execution: All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days Rebecca Donner, 2021-08-05 SELECTED AS A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK Born and raised in America, Mildred Harnack was twenty-six and living in Germany when she witnessed the meteoric rise of the Nazi party. She began holding secret meetings in her apartment, forming a small band of political activists set on helping Jews escape, denouncing Hitler and calling for revolution. When the Second World War began, she became a spy, couriering top-secret intelligence to the Allies. In this astonishing work of non-fiction, Harnack’s great-great-niece Rebecca Donner draws on extensive archival research, fusing elements of biography, political thriller and scholarly detective story to tell a powerful, epic tale of an enigmatic woman nearly erased by history. |
| woman hanged execution: The Wonders of the Invisible World Cotton Mather, 1862 |
| woman hanged execution: The One Who Got Away Caroline Overington, 2016-05-01 The perfect couple. The perfect crime. The not-to-be-missed new psychological thriller from Caroline Overington. When Loren meets David, she falls hard. Although they're from the same Californian town they come from very different backgrounds ... but Loren is not about to let that stop her from winning over her perfect man. Their lives look charmed - his thriving investment business, beautiful twin daughters, a lovely home - until it all begins to unravel. Behind the perfect facade are lies, secrets, betrayals ... and worse. But what really happened and who is truly to blame? Will the right person be brought to justice or is there one who got away? An unsettling, compelling new psychological thriller for fans of GIRL ON A TRAIN. |
| woman hanged execution: Writing to Save a Life John Edgar Wideman, 2018-05-03 When Emmett Till was murdered aged fourteen for allegedly whistling at a white woman, photographs of his destroyed face became a flashpoint in the civil rights movement. A decade earlier Emmett’s father, Louis, had also been killed – court-martialled and hanged. Though the circumstances could hardly have been more different, behind both deaths stood the same crime, of being black. In Writing to Save a Life, John Edgar Wideman, born the same year as Emmett Till, investigates the tragic fates of father and son. Mixing research, memoir and imagination, this book is an essential commentary on racism in America – illuminating, humane and profound. |
| woman hanged execution: Hanged for Murder Tim Carey, 2013-09-15 Between 1923 and 1954 the Irish state executed twenty-nine people convicted of murder. Almost all executions were carried out in the hanghouse of Mountjoy Prison by members of the Pierrepoint family. The often shocking and fascinating stories of these men and one woman have been largely forgotten. Their remains lie behind prison walls as strange testaments to an abandoned form of punishment. Among those buried in Mountjoy are Bernard Kirwan, convicted of killing his brother, though a body was never conclusively identified. Kirwan's presence in Mountjoy Prison and his execution inspired Brendan Behan's play 'The Quare Fellow'. Also there lie Henry McCabe, convicted of killing six people in a house in Malahide, and Annie Walsh, convicted of murdering her husband for compensation money. Few had ever been convicted of a crime before each was convicted of the most serious of all. The voices of some seem to whisper from the unmarked graves that it was not they who carried out the crime as doubts remain about the safety of some of the convictions. 'Hanged for Murder' tells their stories, some in graphic detail, for the first time. |
| woman hanged execution: A Fine Day for a Hanging Carol Ann Lee, 2012-09-06 In 1955, former nightclub manageress Ruth Ellis shot dead her lover, David Blakely. Following a trial that lasted less than two days, she was found guilty and sentenced to death. She became the last woman to be hanged in Britain, and her execution is the most notorious of hangman Albert Pierrepoint's 'duties'. Despite Ruth's infamy, the story of her life has never been fully told. Often wilfully misinterpreted, the reality behind the headlines was buried by an avalanche of hearsay. But now, through new interviews and comprehensive research into previously unpublished sources, Carol Ann Lee examines the facts without agenda or sensation. A portrait of the era and an evocation of 1950s club life in all its seedy glamour, A Fine Day for a Hanging sets Ruth's gripping story firmly in its historical context in order to tell the truth about both her timeless crime and a punishment that was very much of its time. |
| woman hanged execution: Ruth Ellis, My Mother Georgie Ellis, Rod Taylor, 1996-02 On July 13, 1955, Ruth Ellis was hanged for the murder of the lover who jilted her, motor-racing driver David Blakely. Forty years on, her only surviving child, Georgie, recalls her mother's tragic life that culminated in the murder for which she was executed. She tells it with the insight and intimate knowledge that only a daughter could have, supported by family reminiscences and photographs. |
| woman hanged execution: Executions in the United States, 1608-1987 M. Watt Espy, John Ortiz Smykla, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, 1987 This study furnishes data on executions performed in the United States under civil authority. It includes a description of each individual executed and the circumstances surrounding the crime for which the person was convicted. Variables include age, race, name, sex, and occupation of the offender, place, jurisdiction, date and method of execution and the crime for which the offender was executed. |
| woman hanged execution: A Place of Execution Val McDermid, 2009-05-22 A riveting psychological thriller from the Number One bestselling Queen of crime fiction – Val McDermid. |
| woman hanged execution: Murder and Society Peter Morrall, 2006-10-02 Human psychological and physical well-being is damaged and destroyed when people are deliberately killed by other people. There are millions of primary and secondary victims of murder throughout the world, and human society as a whole is a tertiary victim of murder. Despite this, people are often fascinated and engrossed by stories of homicide and killers. This book provides a fascinating exploration of murder, providing an insight into what leads people to kill and what effect this has on society as a whole. This book is organized into five chapters that each answer a specific question on murder: What is Murder? Who Commits Murder? Why Commit Murder? Why is Murder Devastating? Why is Murder Fascinating? |
| woman hanged execution: In Cold Blood Truman Capote, |
| woman hanged execution: Jean Lee Paul R. Wilson, Don Treble, Robyn Lincoln, 1997 |
| woman hanged execution: Hanged at Norwich Neil R. Storey, 2011-09 This is the story of those who ended up on the end of the hangman's rope at Norwich Castle Prison, Norwich City Prison on Earlham Road and the later Victorian Norwich Prison on Knox Road. The executions included in this book range from some of the earliest recorded in the county during the thirteenth century, then down the years including two gallows survivors and the execution of Kett and many of his rebels in 1549, to the last execution conducted in the county in 1951, when two young men went to the gallows for separate incidents but having committed the same crime - they both murdered their pregnant sweethearts. Recorded here are executions for a host of forgotten cases and a cornucopia of crimes as diverse as highway robbery, housebreaking, riot, arson and theft of livestock. Norwich was the location for the hangings of such notorious criminals as Frances Billing and Catherine Frary 'The Burnham Poisoners' - the last public double execution and last women to hang in the county; James Blomfield Rush, the Stanfield Hall Murderer; William Sheward, the murderer who confessed almost eighteen years after the murder and dismemberment of his wife; and, Herbert Bennett, the Yarmouth Bootlace Murderer who may, or may not, have been guilty of his crime. Norwich Castle Prison was also the scene of one of the most infamous incidents in the history of British hangings and recalled with trepidation by all executioners who came after as 'The Goodale Mess'. Crime historian Neil R. Storey has researched Norfolk executions and the stories behind them for over twenty years and brings them together in this volume for the first time. |
| woman hanged execution: Women and Capital Punishment in the United States David V. Baker, 2015-11-26 The history of the execution of women in the United States has largely been ignored and scholars have given scant attention to gender issues in capital punishment. This historical analysis examines the social, political and economic contexts in which the justice system has put women to death, revealing a pattern of patriarchal domination and female subordination. The book includes a discussion of condemned women granted executive clemency and judicial commutations, an inquiry into women falsely convicted in potentially capital cases and a profile of the current female death row population. |
| woman hanged execution: The Hanging of Susan Eberhart Fay Burnett, 2018-08-07 In 1873, Georgia Governor James M. Smith insured that justice prevailed in Preston, Georgia. Enoch F. Spann and his paramour Susan Eberhart were tried and convicted in the murder of Spann's elderly, invalid wife. One year later, the two were hanged. But, it was not so easy to execute a woman in Georgia, especially a white woman. In the case of Susan Eberhart, the public cried out for mercy, but to no avail. A number of people were affected by the Governor's decision to withhold clemency, including the Governor himself. This tragic story exemplifies the classic struggle between justice and mercy. However in this case, the underlying themes of poverty, ignorance and mental illness complicate the struggle. The Atlanta Daily Sun, a publication owned by Alexander H. Stephens, (former Vice-President of the Confederacy), described this story as the most interesting case of crime that ever occurred in Georgia, and which is certainly one of the strangest in history of crimes. May we never hear of the like again. But, we did hear of the case again. The story of Susan Eberhart is one that simply won't die. Her name continues to be invoked whenever a woman is scheduled for execution in Georgia. Dr. Fay Stapleton Burnett, a native of Metter, Georgia, is a retired dentist and first time author. Her passions are Georgia history, genealogy, and visiting St. Simons Island, Lake Russell, and all points in between. A multi-generational Baptist, she is married to Rev. Brock Burnett, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Winder, Georgia. She shares her extensive research on this case based on historic documents. The author discovered this story through the involvement of her Great-Great-Grandfather, Maj. George Lawson Stapleton, Jr. I have examined your book for several hours, and want to congratulate you for the prodigious research you have done on the crime and the punishment of the perpetrators. I don't think you have left any stone unturned in this notable effort. The book will be a treasure for any future historian who wishes to report on these events. Both I personally and The Carter Center have long condemned capital punishment as unfairly applied, often in error, unnecessary and counterproductive, and I have expressed these views in several of my books. I hope your book will help to end this barbarous policy in America. - Former President Jimmy Carter |
| woman hanged execution: Brooding over Bloody Revenge Nikki M. Taylor, 2023-07-13 The powerful stories of enslaved women who waged lethal force as the ultimate form of resistance. |
| woman hanged execution: DeathQuest Robert M. Bohm, 2016-11-10 This fifth edition of the first true textbook on the death penalty engages the reader with a full account of the arguments and issues surrounding capital punishment. The book begins with the history of the death penalty from colonial to modern times, and then examines the moral and legal arguments for and against capital punishment. It also provides an overview of major Supreme Court decisions and describes the legal process behind the death penalty. In addressing these issues, the author reviews recent developments in death penalty law and procedure, including ramifications of newer case law, such as that regarding using lethal injection as a method of execution. The author’s motivation has been to understand what motivates the deathquest of the American people, leading a large percentage of the public to support the death penalty. The book educates readers so that whatever their death penalty positions are, they are informed opinions. |
Woman Hanged Execution (PDF) - netsec.csuci.edu
The phrase "woman hanged execution" evokes a chilling image, a stark reminder of a brutal chapter in human history. This post delves into the grim reality of this form of capital …
New York’s Death Penalty Saga - New York State Unified …
Roxalana Druse was hanged on February 28, 1887 in Herkimer, NY. The hanging did not go well: Being only an estimated 100 pounds, the force of Roxalana’s weight was not sufficient to …
EXECUTION LIST - South Dakota
Executed by the State of South Dakota officials: James B. Leehman, Feb. 19, 1892, Custer, for the July 11, 1889, murder of James H. Bums. Nathaniel Thompson, Oct. 20, 1893, DeSmet for …
Procedure for Military Executions,No. 27-4, December 1947
If the prisoner is a woman and medical examination reveals that she is pregnant, immediate report of the fact will be made to the confirming authority or to The Adjutant General, as prescribed in …
Hanging Execution Woman - gestao.formosa.go.gov.br
Aug 15, 2023 · the first woman ever sentenced to hang in Chicago, in 1923, for the alleged murder of her husband. Journalist Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi leads readers through the case, …
JUDICIAL EXECUTION BY BURNING AT THE STAKE IN NEW …
(male), and a Negro woman had murdered their Master, Mistress and seven children; and that being tried and convicted, the man was sentenced to be hanged and the woman to be burnt, …
BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online
Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain. She was twenty-eight years old. On April 10, 1955 and in front of several witnesses, she shot and killed her lover, David Blakely, outside …
Saudi Arabia: Further information: Sri Lankan woman executed …
Rizana Nafeek was executed on 9 January in Dawadmi, a town west of the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh. Aged only 17 years at the time, Sri Lankan domestic worker Rizana Nafeek was …
THE LAST WOMAN HANGED IN NSW - Australasian Legal …
Woman Hanged in NSW - The Extraordinary Case of Louisa Collins. I allowed my audience to make up their own minds as to her guilt or innocence. The case has piqued the interest of …
Hanging Women Execution Pictures (book)
bloody execution: Winner of the 2015 Davitt Award for Best Crime Book (Non-fiction) -- the terrible true story of Louisa Collins. In January 1889, Louisa Collins, a 41-year-old mother of …
Bloody Aberdeen Trail - visitabdn.com
the execution of the Marquis of Montrose in Edinburgh, one of his limbs was suspended outside the Tolbooth. From 1776, all town hangings were conducted immediately outside the Tolbooth …
‘INNOCENT VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE’ OR ‘A VERY DEVIL …
Convicted and condemned to death, and refused mercy by the Governor and Executive Council, Elizabeth was hanged at the Adelaide Gaol on 30 December 1873, holding the dubious …
End executions by stoning - Amnesty International
Since the campaign began, five people have been saved from stoning (see Chapter 5). Others have been granted stays of execution, and some cases are being reviewed or retried. Nine …
Distr: SC/DP/CC/CO - Amnesty International
Apr 24, 1989 · She was the first woman to be executed for over two years. She was convicted for her alleged role in the murder of a 16-year-old girl. They also include two white men, Anton …
Mary Surrat: The Unfortunate Story of Her Conviction and …
Mary Surratt would become famous as the first woman who was ever convicted by the federal court, and her conviction would leave many people questioning if they had just sent an …
Methods of Execution
Lethal injection is the most widely-used method of execution, but states still authorize other methods, including electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, and ring squad. jection. The …
A Fine Day For A Hanging The Real Ruth Ellis Story / Muriel …
became the last woman to be hanged in Britain, and her execution is the most notorious of hangman Albert Pierrepoint's 'duties'. Despite Ruth's infamy, the story of her life has never …
Ned Kelly’s Last Words: “Ah, Well, I Suppose” - Monash …
Kelly was hanged at the Melbourne Gaol on Thursday, 11 November 1880, after nearly two years on the run. Behind him was more than a decade of crime, including stock theft, highway …
Prison conditions for women facing the death penalty
Introduction. There are at least 500 women currently on death row around the world. While exact figures are impossible to obtain, it is estimated that over 100 women have been executed in …
Woman Hanged Execution (PDF) - netsec.csuci.edu
The phrase "woman hanged execution" evokes a chilling image, a stark reminder of a brutal chapter in human history. This post delves into the grim reality of this form of capital punishment as …
New York’s Death Penalty Saga - New York State Unified Court …
Roxalana Druse was hanged on February 28, 1887 in Herkimer, NY. The hanging did not go well: Being only an estimated 100 pounds, the force of Roxalana’s weight was not sufficient to break …
EXECUTION LIST - South Dakota
Executed by the State of South Dakota officials: James B. Leehman, Feb. 19, 1892, Custer, for the July 11, 1889, murder of James H. Bums. Nathaniel Thompson, Oct. 20, 1893, DeSmet for the …
The Death Penalty in Georgia
The first person believed legally executed in Colonial Georgia was a woman. In 1735, Alice Ryley, a white female who arrived in America on an Irish transport, was hung for the murder of her master …
Procedure for Military Executions,No. 27-4, December 1947
If the prisoner is a woman and medical examination reveals that she is pregnant, immediate report of the fact will be made to the confirming authority or to The Adjutant General, as prescribed in …
Hanging Execution Woman - gestao.formosa.go.gov.br
Aug 15, 2023 · the first woman ever sentenced to hang in Chicago, in 1923, for the alleged murder of her husband. Journalist Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi leads readers through the case, showing how, …
JUDICIAL EXECUTION BY BURNING AT THE STAKE IN NEW …
(male), and a Negro woman had murdered their Master, Mistress and seven children; and that being tried and convicted, the man was sentenced to be hanged and the woman to be burnt, which …
BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online
Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain. She was twenty-eight years old. On April 10, 1955 and in front of several witnesses, she shot and killed her lover, David Blakely, outside a …
Saudi Arabia: Further information: Sri Lankan woman executed …
Rizana Nafeek was executed on 9 January in Dawadmi, a town west of the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh. Aged only 17 years at the time, Sri Lankan domestic worker Rizana Nafeek was arrested …
THE LAST WOMAN HANGED IN NSW - Australasian Legal …
Woman Hanged in NSW - The Extraordinary Case of Louisa Collins. I allowed my audience to make up their own minds as to her guilt or innocence. The case has piqued the interest of others too. I …
Hanging Women Execution Pictures (book)
bloody execution: Winner of the 2015 Davitt Award for Best Crime Book (Non-fiction) -- the terrible true story of Louisa Collins. In January 1889, Louisa Collins, a 41-year-old mother of ten children, …
Bloody Aberdeen Trail - visitabdn.com
the execution of the Marquis of Montrose in Edinburgh, one of his limbs was suspended outside the Tolbooth. From 1776, all town hangings were conducted immediately outside the Tolbooth and …
‘INNOCENT VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE’ OR ‘A VERY DEVIL …
Convicted and condemned to death, and refused mercy by the Governor and Executive Council, Elizabeth was hanged at the Adelaide Gaol on 30 December 1873, holding the dubious distinction …
End executions by stoning - Amnesty International
Since the campaign began, five people have been saved from stoning (see Chapter 5). Others have been granted stays of execution, and some cases are being reviewed or retried. Nine women and …
Distr: SC/DP/CC/CO - Amnesty International
Apr 24, 1989 · She was the first woman to be executed for over two years. She was convicted for her alleged role in the murder of a 16-year-old girl. They also include two white men, Anton Koen …
Mary Surrat: The Unfortunate Story of Her Conviction and …
Mary Surratt would become famous as the first woman who was ever convicted by the federal court, and her conviction would leave many people questioning if they had just sent an innocent …
Methods of Execution
Lethal injection is the most widely-used method of execution, but states still authorize other methods, including electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, and ring squad. jection. The Supreme …
A Fine Day For A Hanging The Real Ruth Ellis Story / Muriel …
became the last woman to be hanged in Britain, and her execution is the most notorious of hangman Albert Pierrepoint's 'duties'. Despite Ruth's infamy, the story of her life has never been fully told.
Ned Kelly’s Last Words: “Ah, Well, I Suppose” - Monash …
Kelly was hanged at the Melbourne Gaol on Thursday, 11 November 1880, after nearly two years on the run. Behind him was more than a decade of crime, including stock theft, highway robbery, …
Prison conditions for women facing the death penalty
Introduction. There are at least 500 women currently on death row around the world. While exact figures are impossible to obtain, it is estimated that over 100 women have been executed in the …
