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Louisa Collins - Executed on the 8th of January 1889
LOUISA Collins was one of the only people in the world ever to be tried four times for murder. On 8 January 1889, Louisa Collins, 39, a mother of ten became the last woman hanged at the Darlinghurst gaol in NSW. It was a gruesome end at the hand of hangman Robert “Nosey Bob” Howard, who misjudged the drop and nearly tore her head off. Louisa was beautiful. She was promiscuous. She was under suspicion for murdering her first husband and had just been found guilty of murdering her second, Michael Peter Collins. To make matters worse the evidence which condemned her to the gallows came from her own daughter, 11-year-old May. But was she guilty? Or did the courts send an innocent woman to hang? For five years, author, journalist and now associate editor of the Australian Women’s Weekly, Caroline Overington has investigated the case. From - The Herald Sun Link to Carolines book http://www.carolineoverington.com/#!about-louisa/mainPage
Darlinghurst Gaol
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Louisa Collins and her second husband, Michael Collins. Photo: courtesy of HarperCollins
Prison card
An illustration of Collins before her execution. Photo: Courtesy of HarperCollins
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