Susan Newell

Who was Susan Newell?

Susan Newell was the last woman to be hanged in Scotland. She killed newspaper boy, John Johnston. It is speculated that she killed the boy trying to obtain his small amount of money. This has never been established as there are no witnesses to any verbal exchange and Susan Newell never pleaded guilty She killed her victim via strangulation on 20 May 1923.

Newell was caught after she and her daughter made an attempt to dispose of the body. She tried to implicate her husband for the crime, but he had a solid alibi as he could prove he was at his brother's funeral at the time of the murder. Her daughter Janet, testified against her, describing how the body of the paperboy had been wheeled through the streets on a pram.

At the trial her defence put forward a plea of insanity, but she was convicted on a majority verdict with one juror against. However, the jury unanimously suggested mercy. A petition was put forth to the Secretary of State for Scotland pleading that the sentence be reduced to penal servitude due to her gender and the fact that she was a woman destitute, who's husband had abandoned her and was left homeless and penniless.