Throughout the centuries there have been a number of executions that have occurred in
Britain that have gone shockingly wrong.
Executioner Jack Ketch was known for botching executions in London, and during the Duke
of Monmouth’s killing he made such a mess of proceedings that he almost caused a riot.
The repeated swings of the axe and the fact Ketch gave up forced him to be led away by
guards for his own safety.
But inside of Edinburgh, the Scottish Capital there was one execution that was incredibly
shocking.
The city had a long history of bloodshed, with murderers such as Burke and Hare killing
many people, and people even tried to steal bodies from graveyards to sell to medical
professionals for dissections.
But one of the most shocking executions in History saw a rather outspoken woman Maggie
Dickson being taken to the gallows.
She was hanged by the executioner, but shockingly those who were witnessing her execution at
the Grassmarket in Edinburgh never forgot what they saw that day.
Join us today as we look at the ‘Failed execution of Maggie Dickson, Edinburgh’s
half hangout Maggie.
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Born in Musselburgh around the year 1702, Maggie Dickson was raised in the small town
on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
She married a fisherman, but in 1723 he ran away and left her.
He may have been forced to join the navy, and Maggie left the town and moved south to
a town named Kelso near the Scottish Borders.
She worked in an inn, and then quickly she became pregnant after sleeping with the son
of the innkeeper.
This shocked Maggie and she was greatly worried that she would be forced out of her home.
She worried that she would be taken to court for having an affair with another man despite
the fact she was married.
Maggie then decided to hide the pregnancy and the relationship as long as she could,
but her child sadly was born premature and it’s not known if it was born stillborn,
or whether the child died a few days after it was born.
But Maggie decided to then do something rather shocking that would secure her fate.
She left her child on the banks of the River Tweed, and its probable that she intended
to throw the child into the river but could not bring herself from doing it.
A short while after, the baby was found by locals and a doctor confirmed that the child
had been alive, but it had been killed.
With this, the hunt for Maggie Dickson was on, and it was easy to find her and she was
arrested and transported to Edinburgh to stand trial in front of a magistrate.
Maggie Dickson was accused of hiding a pregnancy, but after evidence of the doctor’s examination
was presented to the court, her charge was then changed to murder of her new born child.
This was very serious, and was a capital offence, and she stood in front of an all male jury
who took no mercy on her.
All evidence was put forward, and then she was quickly found guilty.
The Edinburgh judge then had no other option but to sentence Maggie Dickson to death for
her crimes, and she was condemned to die by hanging.
She was then taken to the Grassmarket in the shadow of Edinburgh castle on the 2nd September
1724.
Her execution was scheduled, and she was around the age of 22.
The Grassmarket was where executions took place in Edinburgh inside of the old city,
and thousands of people would line the streets to see the proceedings.
The crowd were baying for the blood of the woman deemed to have been a murderer, and
many regarded her as a witch.
But here execution did not go to plan, and she was not killed.
It has been stated that Maggie allegedly was friends with the rope maker in Edinburgh who
helped to spare her and save her life, and some even believe she was friends with the
executioner herself, a man named Jock Dalgleish.
It was stated that as Maggie was on the gallows, the hangman that day tied the noose around
her neck looser than it needed to be, and that she could fit her fingers through the
noose, and this would stop it tightening around her throat.
This may have even took place on the scaffold, with Maggie being informed what was happening.
The executioner checked the noose, and then Maggie was stood on either a ladder of a bucket
with the loose noose around her neck.
The executioner then gave her a nudge, and Maggie was there hanging in front of the crowd.
But to the crowd that day, they would have believed they were witnessing the end of Maggie
Dickson.
In front of thousands, she was hanging, and there was a huge rush after she was left for
30 minutes hanging from the gallows.
Medical students wanted her body for dissections and these were fought off by Maggie’s friends
and families who wanted her body to give it a dignified burial.
Medical students wanted her body as they were allowed to dissect murderers, but some people
even pulled down her legs which was dangerous to the woman.
There was a shortage of bodies in Edinburgh, and fights at executions involving medical
students was common.
But Maggie was not dead.
Her friends managed to secure her body, and quickly they placed her in a coffin and she
was taken on a cart back to Musselburgh for burial.
But the cart then stopped outside a pub for refreshments whilst the family toasted her
death, but during this the coffin was not guarded.
It was said that in some accounts that the coffin was placed in front of a window, and
the coffin lid then moved open and a moaning came from inside the coffin.
Someone heard the noise and took off the lid, and inside was Maggie Dickson who was very
much alive.
A surgeon was fetched, and it was said she would make a full recovery, and less than
an hour after being hanged, she was alive and she walked back home.
She arrived home and her husband then rekindled his love for her.
But many across Edinburgh could not believe the crazy story of Half Hangit Maggie, the
woman who was half hanged and then survived.
Many believed that her resurrection was god’s will and that she was cared for by God and
that the decision to sentence her to death was wrong.
Under the law at the time, as her punishment had been carried out by the executioner, she
could not legally be put to death again for this and she then was released from any further
action.
She became a local celebrity, and was even seen drinking in the grass market with friends,
the place where she was hanged, and out of respect a pub today is named after her close
to where she was hanged.
So Maggie Dickson’s botched execution was one of the most shocking executions in British
History.
It did not go well, and to the crowd that day they believed justice had been done, but
then many could not believe the rumours when they heard that the condemned woman had been
raised from the dead.
It’s claimed that she lived into her mid 60s, living 40 more years and she became known
as half-hangit Maggie.
She had a very strange life, and one that was rather tragic, but her execution was one
of Edinburgh’s greatest stories.
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