FEATURED POST

California | San Quentin begins prison reform - but not for those on death row

Image
California is transferring everyone on death row at San Quentin prison to other places, as it tries to reinvent the state's most notorious facility as a rehabilitation centre. Many in this group will now have new freedoms. But they are also asking why they've been excluded from the reform - and whether they'll be safe in new prisons. Keith Doolin still remembers the day in 2019 when workers came to dismantle one of the United States' most infamous death chambers.

60th anniversary of New Zealand's last hanging

Walter James Bolton
Walter James Bolton
Walter Bolton was the last man to be hung in New Zealand before capital punishment was repealed.

The trap door opened. His body fell.

On this day 60 years ago [February 18, 1957], Whanganui farmer Walter James Bolton became the last person in New Zealand to be hanged after being found guilty of murdering his wife of 43 years, Beatrice Bolton, by poisoning her with arsenic.

Bolton, 68, was hanged at the gallows in Auckland Prison, now known as Mt Eden Prison, at 6.30pm for the part he played in the crime.

Stuff reports show the prosecution alleged Bolton killed Beatrice because he was in love with another woman - his sister-in-law Florence Doughty - with whom he had a sexual affair.

Lawyers for the Crown claimed Bolton had concocted a potion of arsenic from sheep dip and laced his wife's tea with it on several occasions, requiring hospital treatment, before killing her with a large dose on July 11, 1956.

His execution was made controversial by the suggestion that his wife had not been murdered at all.

Bolton and his wife were married for 43 years and had 6 children and a relatively close relationship, journalist Bernie Steeds wrote in an article on the couple.

In the 15 months before she died, her mystery illness was never diagnosed, but an autopsy identified arsenic as the cause.

It was suggested Bolton had put the poison in her cups of tea, though no trace of the poison was ever found.

Steeds said sheep dip may have found its way into the house's spring and Bolton also had traces of arsenic in his hair and fingernails.

Active people get rid of arsenic more quickly, and Beatrice had been unwell, and had rested a lot before the poisoning was alleged to have begun, he said.

But an all-male jury in Bolton's hometown found him guilty, and despite his claims of innocence, he lost his Court of Appeal case.

In a book written by Sherwood Young, Guilty On The Gallows, a police officer who attended Bolton's execution was interviewed.

Only 20 at the time, the officer described what it was like.

"When the sheriff gave the signal, the hangman moved the lever. There was a loud metallic clang as the trap door opened. Bolton disappeared from sight behind the tarpaulin.

"A prison warden released the rope while I supported the body. It looked about 7 feet long, hanging there. The toes were almost touching the ground. The tongue was out of his mouth. When the rope was removed it slurped back into his mouth.

"I will never forget this experience."

Other stories later claimed Bolton's execution had gone horribly wrong.

Rather than having his neck broken the instant the trapdoor opened, they alleged Bolton slowly strangled to death.

Between Maketu’s execution in 1842 and Walter Bolton in 1957, there were a further 82 executions.

The year 1866 was the busiest, with 10 executions in total.

Only one woman has been hanged in New Zealand and that was Williamina (Minnie) Dean – the so-called Winton Baby Farmer – who was executed at Invercargill in August 1895.

Executions were carried out in 10 different centres. In total, 41 people were executed in Auckland, 17 in Wellington and 7 in Lyttelton.

The death penalty was abolished in 1941, reinstated in 1950, and then abolished again in 1989.

Sources: stuff.co.nz, New Zealand History, February 17, 2017

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.


Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

‘A Short Film About Killing’: The movie that brought an end to the Polish death penalty

California | San Quentin begins prison reform - but not for those on death row

Bali | British grandmother on death row for more than 10 years for drug smuggling given ‘one final hope of escape'

Congo reinstates death penalty after 20-year hiatus

Georgia Court Case Tests the Limits of Execution Secrecy in the United States

Georgia | Death penalty trial for accused Atlanta spa shooter in limbo

Alabama | Judge formally imposes death penalty on man who gunned down Mobile cop

Malaysia | Death sentence commuted for ex-cop who killed toddler, babysitter

Iran | Man executed in Qazvin