Bonzer Words!: Elizabeth Scott
"When the presiding judge at the trial of Elizabeth Scott pronounced she 'was to be hanged by the neck until dead' most people thought surely she would be reprieved. A woman had never been hanged in the Australian State of Victoria, and they were certain Elizabeth Scott would not be the first,'' writes Paula Wilson.
Elizabeth was twenty-three when she faced the prospect of going to the gallows for the murder of her husband Robert. Born Elizabeth Tuckett at Twickenham, England in 1840, she immigrated with her family to Canterbury, New Zealand in 1852.
There are two versions of the next period in Elizabeth's life; one claims she married Robert Scott when she was fourteen, they then moved to Victoria. The second is that the Tuckett family moved to Benalla where Elizabeth worked as a maid before getting married at thirteen. Whatever the truth she ended up married to Robert who was twenty-four years her senior and they had five children, of which only Thomas and John survived.
Elizabeth and Robert ran a grog shanty* at Devil's River near Mansfield. Robert, a drunk with criminal tendencies, was an extremely jealous husband. He did not like the attention the drinkers gave Elizabeth, but he was equally aware she was a major reason why they drank there.
The grog shanty doubled as a stage depot, and employed a groom, David Gedge, and cook Julian Cross. It was not long before the two became infatuated with Elizabeth, whom crime journalist Hugh Buggy years later described as 'the beautiful Elizabeth Scott.'
Elizabeth was not happy with her drunken brute of a husband and was said to have wanted to leave him but was scared he would come after her. Late on the night of 11 April 1863 a gunshot rang out. Robert Scott was found lying on the floor of his shanty with a bullet hole in his head. The police were summoned from Jamieson and Gedge told them Robert had shot himself. The police inspected the body and made further inquires before they arrested Cross for the murder. He then implicated Gedge, who subsequently implicated Elizabeth.
All three were brought to trial at the Beechworth Supreme Court before Chief Justice, Sir William Stawell on 23 October 1863. Evidence from Dr Reynolds and others witnesses discounted the suicide claim.
The newspapers of the day portrayed Elizabeth as 'a scarlet woman, luring young and innocent men to their doom.' It was implied that Elizabeth and nineteen-year-old Gedge were lovers. Both Cross and Gedge claimed Elizabeth had full knowledge of what was happening. They told the court they went to her and she said, 'Yes shoot him.' Throughout the trial Elizabeth insisted she was innocent.
The court found all three guilty and sentenced them to death.
Although Beechworth was a thriving gold town it did not have the facilities to conduct a hanging. Elizabeth, Gedge and Cross were transported to the Melbourne gaol to wait out their sentence.
They did not have to endure long in the cramped cells agonising over their fate. Their executions were scheduled for the morning of 11 November. The Sheriff aware that a triple public execution would draw a large crowd brought the designated time forward by one hour.
With their hands bound, the condemned were led to the gallows. In front of gaol officials and forty onlookers Elizabeth waited out her final minutes. Even then she still held out hope of a reprieve. While standing upon the wooden trapdoor she turned to Gedge and asked him if he would clear her of the crime. He did not reply. The lever was pulled, the trap opened and Elizabeth 'was hanged by the neck until dead.'
After the usual inquest her body was taken to the Melbourne General Cemetery and buried in a common grave.
Elizabeth became the first woman to be hanged in Victoria; another four women and countless men followed her to the gallows. Most of them were thoroughly evil people, yet some were the victims of circumstance. There are many questions that cannot be answered. Was Elizabeth one of the evil people or was she innocent as she claimed? Did the men involved implicate her in the hope they would get off? If she was guilty was she a victim of circumstance? We are never likely to know.
The stories, along with their grotesque death masks, of many of those hanged, are on display at the Old Melbourne Gaol, but surprisingly the first woman to be hanged in Victoria does not rate a mention.
* A small wooden building that sold liquor.
