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A review by lisa_setepenre
Last Woman Hanged by Caroline Overington
3.0
Last Woman Hanged is author and journalist Caroline Overington's careful exploration of Louisa Collins, accused of murdering two husbands and the last woman hanged in New South Wales (though not Australia). Overington covers Collins' early life, her trials and sentencing but also astutely links the struggle for Collins' life to the emergence of the suffragette movement in Australia.
This is not a book that proudly proclaims to finally, finally, reveal the "truth" of what really happened. Louisa Collins' guilt or innocence is never presumed and what caused her husbands' frankly mysterious deaths is never at the centre of this story. Overington herself never comes down on either side and offers up a theory. The closest she comes to is this:
I found Last Woman Hanged an easy – albeit harrowing – read and appreciated that Overington's approach to her subject, as well as the way Overington linked Collins' story into the move for women's rights in Australia and the abolition of the death penalty.
That said, I didn't always appreciate Overington's writing style. The narrative seemed a little too overwrought at places and I occasionally felt like I was being talked down to.
The case for the padding in this book is pretty strong. No, I don't need the Our Father quoted, nor another prayer – the Order for the Burial of Dead. Nor do I need an epilogue that goes on for nearly 50 pages, detailing what happened to anyone and everyone remotely connected to this story. I appreciated finding out what happened to Louisa Collins' children, but as it went on and on and the figures became more and more obscure, I began to skim-read and then skip great big chunks.
Last Woman Hanged is a decent book, one with a few things I didn't appreciate. However, I do think it is well worth the read, at least to better understand the plight of women in pre-Federated Australia and a great injustice done to a woman who may well have been innocent.
This is not a book that proudly proclaims to finally, finally, reveal the "truth" of what really happened. Louisa Collins' guilt or innocence is never presumed and what caused her husbands' frankly mysterious deaths is never at the centre of this story. Overington herself never comes down on either side and offers up a theory. The closest she comes to is this:
It is entirely possible that Louisa killed both Charles Andrews and Michael Collins. However in the humble opinion of the author – shared by many good citizens of the colony, and three juries before the final one – the case was not proved beyond a reasonable doubt , and even if it had been so proved the problem is not the verdict, but the sentence. [p. 299]Indeed, Overington's focus is not on "did she do it?" but on the legitimacy of the verdict and the sentence passed. That a miscarriage of justice occurred in Collins' case is clear – she should have never been convicted, much less executed on the basis of the evidence presented. But that is only one of the injustices to be found in this story.
I found Last Woman Hanged an easy – albeit harrowing – read and appreciated that Overington's approach to her subject, as well as the way Overington linked Collins' story into the move for women's rights in Australia and the abolition of the death penalty.
That said, I didn't always appreciate Overington's writing style. The narrative seemed a little too overwrought at places and I occasionally felt like I was being talked down to.
The case for the padding in this book is pretty strong. No, I don't need the Our Father quoted, nor another prayer – the Order for the Burial of Dead. Nor do I need an epilogue that goes on for nearly 50 pages, detailing what happened to anyone and everyone remotely connected to this story. I appreciated finding out what happened to Louisa Collins' children, but as it went on and on and the figures became more and more obscure, I began to skim-read and then skip great big chunks.
Last Woman Hanged is a decent book, one with a few things I didn't appreciate. However, I do think it is well worth the read, at least to better understand the plight of women in pre-Federated Australia and a great injustice done to a woman who may well have been innocent.