In 1894, Lizzie Halliday was sentenced to death for
murdering her husband and two others and. A state commission judged her insane
and commuted her sentence to life in an asylum. Though she exhibited all
the signs of a woman who was violently insane, many believed that Lizzie was
merely a gifted actress.
At Mattawan State Asylum, she killed her favorite nurse with
a pair of scissors. No one disagreed when the press dubbed Lizzie Halliday
“Worst woman on earth.”
Read the full story here: The Worst Woman on Earth.
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2 comments :
February 20, 2021 at 10:20 AM
Lizzie Halliday, along with Henry Dowd and Ameer Ben Ali....were all situated in Matteawan State Asylum in the late 1890's. While in the facility, there was a fire which, fortunately for the three, did not take their lives. What's unusual about the incident is that all three of these inmates were, at one time, considered as being Jack The Ripper. Naturally, Halliday wasn't the Ripper, but her notoriety was such that the theory floated to the surface. Dowd, an unstable English-born denizen of the Lower East Side, was apprehended in early 1892. His moniker was 'Jack The Slasher'....but considering the outburst of throat and facial slashings he committed upon men in the early morning hours of the Winter of 1891-92, he too was considered as a possible Jack The Ripper suspect. He wasn't. Ali was sentenced to prison at Dannamora (NY) and subsequently deemed insane and sent to Matteawan with the other three.
February 23, 2021 at 9:23 AM
Here is a post about Henry Dowd (aka Jack the Slasher):
http://www.murderbygaslight.com/2019/01/jack-slasher.html
It refers to Matteawan by its other name, The Asylum for Insane Criminals.
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