Not everyone’s job is to end people’s lives. However, some have found it easier than others to work as executioners, a job which, so to speak, has been done exclusively by men over the centuries.
But one of the most famous was a woman, said Betty of Roscommon, who had to draw pictures of everyone she executed on her bedroom walls.
But who was Betty and what made her so famous in such a dark profession?
Dead her child on the side of the road
Elizabeth Sugrue was born in rural Ireland around 1740. She married young and had two children, but was widowed at an early age. Betty could not give birth or clothe her children due to poverty and so decided to travel to the next big town, Roscommon, in search of a better life. Betty had no other way to get there than to walk, but the walk was difficult for her and the children, and her youngest child died on the way.
Betty buried the baby by the side of the road and continued on her way with her son, Padraic.
In Roscommon, the mothers were housed in a half-used shed and lived by begging as well as digging for food and other valuables in the town’s rubbish dumps.
Betty and her son had a reputation early on for being strange, they never talked to other people but were inseparable.
Land of opportunities, the only way
When Padraic was older, he realized that there was nothing better waiting for him in life in Roscommon than begging and heaps of rubbish and the occasional precarious job. He decided, like many at that time, to cross the Atlantic Ocean and seek a better life in the United States – the land of opportunity.
Betty was very upset with her son’s decision and begged him not to go anywhere, but Padraic was firm but promised his mother to send him all the money he could. But the mother-in-law’s relationship deteriorated sharply from that moment on.
In April 1775, Padraic finally secured a ship for America and sailed, despite his mother’s cries and cries. Betty has become even lonelier as a result, as her only company in life is gone. She never left the shed except to look for food and she never scolded anyone. When she had money, she went to a nearby pub, where Padraic sometimes did odd jobs, to buy a hot meal.
Betty has redesigned the execution platform.
More and more bitter and angry
Padraic kept his word and regularly sent money to his mother, but that did nothing to brighten Betty’s mood, which grew increasingly bitter and angry. She felt that the world had turned its back on her and hated everything and everyone.
Padraic also wrote regular letters to his mother. He told her that he had joined the army and would fight against the British for American independence. This was smart for Padraic, who had little to no education or special skills, as ex-soldiers usually had good jobs and respect after military service. On the other hand, they had to manage to survive the war.
The postal service was not at its best in the midst of the American Civil War, and Betty soon stopped receiving letters from her son. She began to doubt that he was still alive and gradually she seems to have grown even more bitter, angry, and mentally ill than before.
And then we say a lot of things.
The rich newcomer
One cold November night, Betty was walking towards her hut when a man started talking to her. She was quick to see that he was a wealthy man as his clothes were elaborate. And besides, he had a bag of money on his belt and looked dapper.
The man said he was visiting Roscommon and needed the necessary accommodation for the night, but unfortunately the nearby pub was full and there were no rooms available. He asked Betty to stay in his cabin for the night. Betty quickly figured out how to get money from the man and offered him her bed. She herself was sleeping on the floor.
When the man was asleep, Betty crept up on him, stabbed him to death, and emptied his wallet. As she had suspected, there was more money to be found there than Betty had ever dreamed of.
She still decided to search the body just to be safe, you never knew if it was worth more. But Betty didn’t expect what she actually found. In the man’s possession was found a letter from his son, Padraic.
In it, he said that he was a friend of his and that he wanted to surprise his mother by sending her all the money he had collected for her in recent years.
Betty’s Scream
Betty completely broke down reading the letter and her cries of despair could be heard all around. Someone called law enforcement officers, who came across Betty in the body, and she was quickly arrested and jailed.
The justice system worked quickly during these years and a few days later Betty was sentenced to death and was to be hanged for the murder.
On the day Betty was to be hanged, the executioner was ill, but that day he was to execute 26 people.
The warden wondered what to do and was completely speechless when Betty stepped forward and offered to hang her fellow inmates. She was cool and calm when she made her proposal.
Afterwards, Betty’s offer was accepted and she performed so well that the former executioner was fired and Betty was hired in her place. Her own death sentence was postponed indefinitely, but she was forced to remain in prison, mostly for her own protection, as the public had grown to hate Betty and viewed her as a danger to life on the city streets.
Everything redesigned
Betty took her job very seriously. She thought the execution platform, and everything that came with it, wasn’t good enough, and drew a new area herself. Betty completely redesigned the Roscommon hangings and the authorities were so pleased with Betty’s suggestions that everything was rebuilt, according to her suggestions. Betty was very active in the construction, supervising the craftsmen and directing them how the execution platform should be, what type of rope to use, etc.
Betty gradually gained a reputation as Ireland’s finest executioner and was sought after as such in nearby towns. Betty was therefore pardoned in 1802, as there was little sense in executing the best executioner in the land.
Betty continued executing people, expressionless, for years to come. She was always alone and had no friends or acquaintances. In her spare time, she gardened in the prison yard where Betty lived until her death in 1807, probably aged 67.
The prison where Betty lived until her death.
Lafdi Betty has a better reputation
The manager knew well how much Betty was hated and ordered that she be placed in an unmarked grave at night. That’s why no one today knows where Betty is buried.
Over the years, however, Betty’s reputation improved and she was jokingly given the maiden title among men, as she was considered to have vastly improved her execution, so to speak. Its design ensured that the convict died immediately and there was much less chance of mistakes during executions. Previously, it regularly happened that people did not break their necks immediately, but had to endure long and painful days of death.
In addition, people gradually began to appreciate the self-reliance of Betty Sugrue, who had, despite the fact that all avenues seemed closed, managed to escape the death sentence and obtain food and shelter until her death. . And though Betty had to pay a high price for her freedom, it never seems to affect her.
What she, on the contrary, thought in her solitude, no one knows. Betty, Ireland’s most famous and finest executioner, did not change her expression until her death.
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