On May 30, 1806, Polly Barclay of Wilkes County, Georgia was “taken by a proper officer to a gallows previously to be erected in or near the town of Washington, and then and there on the day aforesaid, between the hours of ten o’clock in the forenoon and two o’clock in the afternoon … hung by the neck until you are dead.”
And may God have mercy on her soul.
The purported triggerman, Polly’s brother, had been acquitted of murdering Polly’s husband; then, said assassin turned right around and testified against his sister — who was duly condemned for hiring him. (They do say that Justice is blind.)
But don’t take Executed Today‘s word for it. For this sordid all-in-the-family homicide, we’re pleased to recommend a visit to the annals of Washington, Ga., we gladly defer to genealogist and historian Stephanie Lincecum‘s Peachy Past post.
On this day..
- 1629: Thomas Schreiber, "thistles, thorns, and strife"
- 1868: Georg Ratkay, the last public hanging in Vienna
- 1916: The Zainuco Massacre
- 1942: Jacques Decour
- 1741: Cuffee and Quack, "chained to a stake, and burnt to death"
- 1690: Old Mobb, witty highwayman
- 1868: Joseph Brown, for arson, murder, and money
- 1416: Jerome of Prague, the first Hussite martyr
- 2010: 18 in Libya
- 1916: Robert Digby in Villeret
- 2000: Fu Xinrong, involuntary organ donor
- 1431: Joan of Arc