Trial of Dr. Pritchard

A detailed account of the sensational murder trial that shocked Victorian Scotland and ended in Glasgow’s last public hanging.

In July of 1865, Dr. Edward William Pritchard was put on trial for the murder of his wife and mother-in-law. He slowly poisoned his wife, Mary Jane, while pretending to treat her for a mysterious illness. When her mother came to help care for her, Pritchard poisoned her, as well. He then falsified both women’s death certificates.

Over the course of the trial, dramatic testimonies exposed Pritchard’s scandalous past, his infidelity, and the suspicious death of a servant girl he was suspected of killing years earlier. Pritchard was found guilty and was sentenced to death by hanging in Glasgow Green.