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Post by Waverley on Nov 18, 2007 13:45:29 GMT 1
The case of Jess McPherson who was murdered by Old Fleming the epitomy of middle class Victorian respectability of Presbyterian Scotland.
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Post by pwm437 on Jan 7, 2008 10:10:36 GMT 1
In 1862 the house at 17 Sandyford Place was owned by John Fleming, a well respected Glasgow accountant. He lived there with his wife, children and his fahter, Old Fleming.
Old Fleming collected rents on properties owned by his son, and this provided him with a modest income.
On Friday 4th July 1862, John Fleming took his wife and family to their villa near Dunoon for the weekend. He left his house at Sandyford Place in the care of his father and a 35 year old servant Jessie McPherson. Old Fleming continually made advances towards Jessie McPherson, asking her to marry him.
When John Fleming and his family returned to the house at Sandyford around 4.00 p.m.on Monday 7th July, they were surprised when Old Fleming opened the door, and not the servant Jessie McPherson. Old Fleming told them he had not seen Jessie since the Friday night.
John Fleming made his way into the basement of the property, where Jessie had a room. He unlocked the door and found Jessie McPherson lying on the floor, next to the bed, and naked from the waist down. She was covered in blood and had been battered to death around the head.
Old Fleming claimed not to have seen Jessie since the Friday night, but remembered hearing moans on the Saturday morning around 4.00 a.m. but did not investigate, and went back to sleep. The police arrived and established that some silver cutlery was missing.
On Saturday 5th July, the day after Old Fleming claims to have last seen Jessie McPherson, a woman who signed her name as Mary McDonald pawned the cutlery for £6. 15/-. The pawnbroker reported this to the police on 25th July.
However, by this time the police had arrested Old Fleming in connection with the murder of Jessie McPherson, and he was remanded in custody.
The police then became interested in a woman called Jessie McLachlan, who had previously been a servant at the Fleming household at Sandyford Place. Jessie McLachlan was friends with Jessie McPherson and would often visit her in her basement bedroom at the Sandyford house.
Jessie McLachlan was arrested on the 13th of July, and in her statement to the police she claimed she had pawned the silver under the assumed name of Mary McDonald, but had done so at the request of Old Fleming.
A copy of Jessie McLachlan's footprint was taken whilst she was in prison and it matched blood stained prints on the basement floor at Sandyford Place.
Jessie McLachlan was tried at Glasgow High Court in September 1862, and Old Fleming denied he had asked her to pawn the cutlery. Jessie was found guilty of murder and sentenced to be hanged, although this was later reduced to life imprisonment. She served 15 years and left prison in 1877, by which time Old Fleming was dead.
Jessie McLachlan left Glasgow, and like Madeleine Smith, went to America to live. She died in 1899 at Port Huron.
It is widely believed that Old Fleming murdered Jessie McPherson, perhaps as a result of spurning his advances.
Jessie McLachlan almost certainly visited Sandyford Place after the attack on Jessie McPherson, hence the footprints, and may have colluded with Old Fleming to pawn the cutlery, but she did not commit the murder.
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Post by norrie on Jan 7, 2008 12:58:56 GMT 1
Hi PWM437, cant say that I have heard of that murder. Very interesting. Why wasnt she hanged, was there some doubt about the verdict? Bye for now, Norrie
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2008 13:08:27 GMT 1
Enjoyed it during the Walk Peter and now again.
To think I was outside the exact House !!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2008 22:51:03 GMT 1
Trials Of Madeleine Smith, Oscar Slater, Dr. Pritchard, Jessie McClachlan(The Sandyford Place Mystery), and The City Of Glasgow Bank Directors, are all available in ebook form at archive.org. I haven't read them, but had a quick look through a couple of them and they seem to be very detailed. You can download them in PDF format, for use with Adobe Reader, or - preferably - in DejaVu (djvu) format, which is generally a much smaller file and quicker to download. The only problem is that you will need a Deja Vu reader. WinDejavu is one such reader, available free on the net.
Be warned, however, download speed from archive.org varies enormously - sometimes it is slower than dialup speed. There are also many other books on Glasgow and Scotland available at archive.org
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