Rhoda Willis
Rhoda Willis, alias Leslie James, (14 August 1867 – 14 August 1907) was an English baby farmer convicted of murder. She was the last woman to be executed in Wales.[1]
She was born in Sunderland in 1867.
She was sentenced to death at Glamorgan Assizes for murdering the illegitimate child of a single woman named Maud Treasure on 3 June.
While lodging with a Mr and Mrs Wilson at Cardiff, Willis induced them to adopt a child for £1. One day Willis came home drunk and fell out of bed, Mrs Wilson went to her aid and discovered in the bed the dead body of another child wrapped in a parcel. The infant, which had been suffocated, was Maud Treasure's child, which Willis had undertaken to adopt and bring up for £6.
Willis was executed by hanging at Cardiff prison on 14 August 1907, her 40th birthday.[2] She was the only woman to be hanged in Wales in the 20th century and the last baby farmer to be executed.[3][4]
References[]
- ^ The horrible story of the last woman to be hanged in Wales
- ^ TWO ARE CONDEMNED IN LONDON MURDER – Mrs. Thompson and Her Paramour, Bywaters, Are Sentenced to Be Hanged.BOTH CRY AGAINST VERDICTWoman Collapses In Dock-LondonQuestions Wheth...
- ^ Dead woman walking: executed women ... – Google Books
- ^ "History Tools is under construction" (PDF).
- 1867 births
- 1907 deaths
- People from Sunderland
- People convicted of murder by England and Wales
- 20th-century executions by England and Wales
- English people convicted of murder
- English murderers of children
- Executed people from County Durham
- British female murderers
- Executed English women
- 1907 in Wales
- People executed for murder