November 13th, 2014
Headsman
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On this day..
- 1617: A miller of Manberna, the hangman's last - 2020
- 1951: Marcel Ythier, Andre Obrecht's first - 2019
- 1989: Rohana Wijeweera - 2018
- 1752: William Montgomery, small enough to fail - 2017
- 1544: Maria von Beckum and her sister-in-law Ursula - 2016
- 1765: Patrick Ogilvie, but not Katharine Nairn - 2015
- 1795: David McCraw, "blasted all our conjugal happiness" - 2014
- 2010: Farid Baghlani, womanslayer - 2013
- 1943: The Zalkind family - 2012
- Themed Set: Meaghan Good - 2012
- 1663: Corfitz Ulfeldt, in effigy - 2011
- 1676: Col. Thomas Hansford, the first American independence martyr - 2010
- 1534: Barthélemi Milon, for the Affair of the Placards - 2009
- 1849: Frederick and Marie Manning, a Dickensian scene - 2008
- 1002: St. Brice's Day Massacre - 2007
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized
November 13th, 2014
Headsman
On this date in 1795, Donald McCraw was hanged in Perth, Scotland. A weaver by trade, McGraw joined the great human migrations the Industrial Revolution was stirring by migrating from the Highlands to Perth’s booming textile industry.
There, he laments in a bracingly emotional confession published as a broadside on the day before his execution,
[I] might have lived very comfortable, if it had not been for that curse to all peace and happiness, an overbearing temper in myself, and a fractious discontented temper in my unfortunate wife, [which] blasted all our conjugal happiness, so that instead of bearing with one another, as we are commanded in scripture 1 Pet. 3:7-11, our time was unhappily spent in mutual railings, upbraidings, threatenings, and even blows. In this most disagreeable life we lived for several years, but wickedness did not stop here, which may teach those who have the pattern of dreadful example before them, how dangerous a thing it is to live a wicked life, and how any vice persevered in grows in us like a second nature, and rare if it be ever left off.
I had long made a practice of beating my unhappy wife, custom made me almost think it no crime till it ended in the horrid crime of murder! And that at a time, which made it a double crime, when she had only one month between her and childbed.
Oh how unhappy have I been, to embrue my hands in the blood of my helpless wife, and my innocent unborn offspring. I no sooner committed the horrid crime, and saw her lying lifeless, than I was seized with such a trembling horror, that had I been lord of a thousand worlds, I would freely have given them all to have had the horrid deed recalled; but alas! it was done past recalling.
McCraw at first fled his crime but after running just a few miles he
began to reflect that I could not fly from the presence of an all-seeing God, nor run from the guilty conscience that now overwhelmed my heart; for should I fly to the uttermost corner of the earth, I would still be in his presence, and my guilt would accompany me. I therefore thought it would be better to give myself up to justice, and suffer what I justly deserv’d, than live with the pangs of a guilty conscience which are worse than death.
After hanging, McCraw was delivered to the city’s doctors for dissection.
On this day..
Entry Filed under: 18th Century,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Execution,Hanged,History,Murder,Public Executions,Scotland
Tags: 1790s, 1795, david mccraw, november 13, perth
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