Last Woman Hanged: The Terrible, True Story of Louisa Collins by Caroline Overington
SKU TBM9780732299729
AU$18.00
In stock
1
Product Details
ISBN:9780732299729
Shelf No:2615
Author:Caroline Overington
Edition:1st edition
Publisher:HarperCollins Publishers
Place:Sydney NSW
Year:2014
Format:Hardcover
Volume:1
Pages:338 pages
Book Type:SECONDHAND
Cost:1.00
Period:19th Century
Private Notes:2nd copy $3 -- 3rd copy $9.50
Location:Bunbury
Book Description
Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book corners and edges. Some marks on front and back blank inside pages. Dust jacket has creasing at corners and at spine top and tail.
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. (publisher blurb)