Rhoda Willis

Leslie James alias Rhoda Willis (14 August 1867 – 14 August 1907) was an English baby farmer convicted of murder.

She was born in Sunderland in 1867.

Was sentenced to death at Glamorgan Assizes for murdering the illegitimate child of a single woman named Maud Treasure on 3 June.

While lodging with a Mr and Mrs Wilson at Cardiff, Willis induced them to adopt a child for £1. One day Willis came home drunk and fell out of bed, Mrs Wilson went to her aid and discovered in the bed the dead body of another child wrapped in a parcel. The infant, which had been suffocated, was Maud Treasure's child, which Willis had undertaken to adopt and bring up for £6.

Willis was executed by hanging at Cardiff prison on 14 August 1907, her 40th birthday.[1] She was the only woman to be hanged in Wales in the 20th century and the last baby farmer to be executed.[2][3]

References

  1. ↑ TWO ARE CONDEMNED IN LONDON MURDER – Mrs. Thompson and Her Paramour, Bywaters, Are Sentenced to Be Hanged.BOTH CRY AGAINST VERDICTWoman Collapses In Dock-LondonQuestions Wheth...
  2. ↑ Dead woman walking: executed women ... – Google Books
  3. ↑ http://www.historytools.org/babyfarming/INTRODUCTION.pdf
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