Ellen Thomson, the only woman ever executed in Queensland, was hanged this date in 1887, along with her lover John Harrison — both condemned for murdering Ellen’s husband William.

Ellen arrived at Port Douglas in the late 1870s, already a widowed mother.

She became a housekeeper for William Thomson, a man almost twice her age.

Unsurprisingly, they ended up in matrimony.

Unsurprisingly, that May-December match ended in grief.

Ellen’s relationship with the younger marine John Harrison brought the conflict to a head; the husband was murdered in October of 1886. On the eve of the hanging, Harrison attempted to protect his paramour by claiming sole responsibility for the crime … but it was too little, too late. Both were hanged at Boggo Road Gaol.

Port Douglas’s Court House Museum still maintains an exhibit on this milestone case.

On this day..

• 1677: Benjamin Tuttle
• 1690: Tom Kelsey, royal robber
• 1483: William Hastings, trusting too much
• Feast Day of St. Cetteus
• 1962: The only hangings in independent Cyprus
• 1873: A day in the death penalty around the U.S., courtesy of the New York Herald
• 1628: John Lambe murdered
• 1930: Lee Akers, after the Ohio Penitentiary Fire
• 1857: Twelve blown from cannons in British Punjab
• 1683: James Smith and John Wharry, Covenanter bystanders
• Unspecified Year: Clever Tom Clinch, hung like a hero
• 1798: Rigas Feraios, Greek poet