Today’s Forceful Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Witches in Scotland were subjected to be tortured by pressing, sometimes with fatal results. In the county of Fife, Scotland, in 1705, Janet Cornfoot was unjustly accused of witchcraft and arrested. After having been beaten with a staff by the local minister she was caught by the mob and, tied and helpless, secured to a rope on the shore and brutally stoned, until she collapsed. Not content with that, the rabble then put a door on top of her and, heaping it with heavy stones, pressed her to death.
Cornfoot was killed in a similar manner to that used in the pressing of Giles Corey during the Salem witch trials.
Eventually the appalling cruelty of peine forte et dure (pressing, literally “hard and forceful punishment”) became increasingly apparent, and in 1772 it was decided that a prisoner refusing to plead would automatically be assumed guilty, and without further legal argument would be sentenced to death. But denying a prisoner of any defense was so obviously an injustice that half a century later, in 1827, the law was changed—refusal to plead was considered as one of “Not Guilty”.
Culled from: Rack, Rope and Red-Hot Pincers
Ohio Prisoner Du Jour!
The Ohio Penitentiary, also known as the Ohio State Penitentiary, was a prison operated from 1834 to 1984 in downtown Columbus, Ohio, in what is now known as the Arena District. The prison housed 5,235 prisoners at its peak in 1955. Prison conditions were described as “primitive” and the facility was eventually replaced by the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, a maximum security facility in Lucasville. A separate women’s prison was built within its walls in 1837. The buildings were demolished in 1997.
My friend Jim was fortunate enough to visit the prison before it was demolished, and he has recently gifted me some books that describe the horrifying conditions inside. The following is an excerpt from the book The Ohio Penitentiary: 1899:
Lizzie Carter
No female in the prison has received half as much notoriety as has this colored woman, who was convicted by the Cincinnati courts of the murder of Bill Taylor in Cincinnati, August 1890.
Subsequently she was granted a new trial and sent to the Penitentiary for life. She is known as “Big Liz” because she pulls the beam at about 250 lbs. Lizzie is very muscular, and when she wishes, can “knock out” any half doze of the other “girls” in a friendly setto, or otherwise, if they desire it. She had no education when received, but can now read in the First Reader and write very well. She is attending school at the present time and takes a great interest in her studies.
Here is a newspaper article about Liz from the Salt Lake Herald, January 31, 1891:
“Big Liz” Carter, alias Taylor, is a well known colored resident of Cincinnati. She is of immense size, over six feet tall and very fleshy. She measures 71 inches around the bust and 50 inches around the waist. The circumference of her neck is 30 inches, yet she has small hands and wrists, and wears with ease a No. 3 shoe. As a domestic servant her intelligence and great strength made her valuable, but some time ago she acquired the reputation of a “lucky” woman, and thereafter earned a living by “picking the winners” in policy, lottery or at the horse races for a large number of clients, both black and white.
In 1872 “Big Liz,” as she claims, was married to William Taylor, a rather good looking man of her own race. Their domestic happiness was not continuous, for William “traveled on his shape” and often made Liz wildly jealous by his intrigues. That she loved him, however, is shown by the fact that on one occasion when he was assailed by two enemies Liz ran between the combatants and received in her big body three bullets intended for her husband. To an ordinary mortal the wounds would have proved fatal, but, thanks to her splendid constitution, she recovered. When she regained her feet she found that William was “fooling” with another negress. Liz hunted up her rival and gave her a tremendous thrashing. For this she was arrested, but a jury acquitted her.
Last summer it appears that the relations between Mr. and Mrs. Taylor grew more than usually strained. The former came home one day and soon after complained of excruciating pains. A doctor was called, but could not allay his torture, and he died a horrible death. After his burial the report spread that “Big Liz” had poisoned him. The corpse was exhumed, and a chemist announced traces of arsenic in the stomach. Mrs. Taylor was thereupon arrested. Purely circumstantial evidence came out at the trial, but the jury thought it sufficient, and rendered a verdict of murder in the first degree, which in Ohio means the death penalty as a punishment.
Liz is to have another chance for her life, however, as Judge Shroder has granted a new trial because of the misconduct of a juror named Stephenson, who, it was proved, had, while the cause was pending before him and his fellows, talked freely, giving his opinion that “Liz Carter would be hanged because she poisoned her husband; that she was a big nigger; that she sat before the jury as brazen as the devil himself; that she was a wicked nigger, and ought to be hanged.” These expressions were repeatedly made, and to a number of persons, acquaintances and strangers. As for the accused, she strenuously denies her guilt, and apparently mourns her Lothario-like spouse with sincere sorrow.