While visiting historical sites in Ireland in the summer of 1997, I was curiously fascinated by this tale. The townspeople had even written and produced a play of this notorious hang lady. After carefully researching the story, I was amazed to discover three different versions. So, I decided to weave it all together and come up with my own version of how the story may have taken place, if in fact, at all.
Roscommon Gaol
According to local records, the jail was built in the early 1740s and was owned
by the Roscommon landlord, the Earl of Essex. The building served as a jail for
less than a century.
It subsequently became a lunatic asylum, then a refuge for smallpox sufferers and later
a private house.
The Gaol is noted for having had a female Hangwoman,known as" Lady Betty".
From County Cork, she drifted into Roscommon one cold, rainy night, with only a few personal belongings, one being her young son. Betty took to the town well, working wherever she could, to earn enough for a bed and a meal for herself and her child.
Shortly, after arriving, she landed a job in a Carriage House just outside of town, cleaning, cooking and serving the weary travelers who stopped for a decent meal and a good nights sleep before continuing their journey.
Her small son was all she had in life of any great value. Some say her husband drove her insane and she left in the night to escape his many drunken beatings and traveled from Cork to Roscommon, performing menial work along the way. She taught her small son from the early part of his young life, that "wealth bought happiness." The lad grew up, went to England where he met a wealthy bachelor, a farmer, who befriended him and loved him as a son. Years later, the farmer died, leaving his land and money to Betty's son. Now, a wealthy landed gentleman in his twenties, remembering his mother and how she had toiled day and night, so that he might have a better life, decided to surprise her by paying an unscheduled visit to Roscommon. Dressed handsomely in clothing that he had meticulously chosen for this "special occasion, the finest of apparel, before boarding the ferry boat bound for Ireland.
Arriving late in the evening, he decided not to make himself known to her until morning. The plan began taking roots. As he was much older, had grown a beard in the past months, was unrecognizable to Betty. Upon entering the Carriage House where she worked, he announced himself as a "weary traveler" who needed lodging for the night. Upon seeing him, Betty knew that her "weary traveler" would soon be her forte. She prepared a meal "fit for a king" with much drink and lively atmosphere. Her son, incognito, leaving a huge tip, set off to his room for a decent nights sleep, and decided that he would not reveal his identity to his joyous mother, until breakfast, the next morning.
Betty was joyous, all right. She visualized this handsome young man of great wealth as her passage from a life of misery. While he was sleeping, she came into his room, stabbed him and proceeded to rob him. Back in her room, she began rummaging through his personal belongings, discovering that she had slain her only son and the love of her life. Upon this horrible discovery, she became insane running through the streets screaming to the townspeople what heinous thing she had done. She was immediately restrained, put in chains and hauled away with five other criminals, all being men.
The day came for the hangings to take place. As destiny would have it, the hangman took ill, the day of the hearings and in a few days died. The judge asked for any man to volunteer for the job.
No man would volunteer, so in an effort to save her own life, Betty yelled, "Your honor, let me go free and I'll hang them all and indeed, she did just that, and was known throughout Roscommon as the first hang lady.
Lady Betty acquired a fearsome reputation. Story has it that she was given a room
on the third floor of the Roscommon jail. A scaffold was erected outside the window of
her room.
Her method of hanging was to stand the victim on a wooden lapboard, a
horizontal door hinged to the wall, outside her window. The noose around the neck was
attached to an iron beam above her window.
She would then pull the bolt that held up the lapboard. The hinged platform would drop
and the victim was left to swing until dead.
Once the prisoner was hung, she would sketch in charcoal on her bedroom walls, the
gory scene. She lived with this appalling record of destruction around her until she
died, in the early 19th century.
I ventured outside to the spot where the hangings had occurred, outside of the Jail. My eyes scaling the outer walls until they came to rest upon the spot where so many had met their fate, the walls appeared to miraculously come to life in the golden rays of sunlight. The impressions still visible I could easily see the markings where the window had been sealed. With heart pulsating rapidly and imaginations running wild, I turned and took one last side-glance, and walked away in disbelief.
The final conclusion was drawn .... that "Hang lady Betty" had lived and died in the town of Roscommon, had met her appointment with destiny and her fate sealed.
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