Jeannie Donald

Case details

Jeannie Donald was tried in July 1934 for the murder of Helen Priestly.

Helen Priestly was eight years old when her body was found in a sack under the stairs of the Aberdeen tenement where she lived.

Background

Helen Priestly lived in a drab and overcrowded tenement block at number 61 Urquhart Street in Aberdeen. The building had been divided into eight two-room flats.

Helen Priestly lived with her father, John Priestly, and her mother, Agnes Priestly.

Jeannie Donald lived in the ground-floor flat of 61 Urquhart Street. She had a husband and a daughter named Jeannie Junior, also called Jeannie.

The offence

Helen Priestly went missing after being sent to buy a loaf of bread for her mother.

Her body was concealed in a sack in a lavatory of the tenement where she lived. Her death was determined to be asphyxiation.

There appeared to be signs of rape, but later forensic tests determined that Helen Priestly had not been raped; the child had been injured to make it appear as though she had been sexually assaulted.

Jeannie Donald never explained how and why Helen Priestly was killed.

Investigation

After Helen Priestly disappeared, the police carried out door-to-door interviews in one of the biggest operations Aberdeen had ever seen.

A neighbour reported hearing a high-pitched scream from a house in the Priestly close around lunchtime. A slater who had been working in the back close also reported hearing a “screech” around the same time.

The body was found in a blue hessian bag. The bag bore distinctive marks and a fading Canadian export stamp. With inquiries, the police ascertained that the bag was used for transporting flour, and that there was one outlet in Aberdeen: a bakery close to Helen’s house.

A baker recalled that a woman had come in asking for a bag some time before, and he had given her one of the blue Canadian bags. The police looked closer to home and investigated local people in the building, including the Donald family.

There had been “bad blood” between the Priestly family and the Donald family. The Priestlys refused to talk to the Donalds after Mrs Donald had hit Helen when the girl had been cheeky to her. The two families maintained enmity and were not speaking.

Human hairs were found in the sack with Helen Priestly. These hairs proved to be those of Mrs Donald.

A part of a loaf of bread was found in the Donald kitchen. The brand matched the bread that Mrs Priestly used.

Coal-ash and cinders matched similar items found in the Donalds’ home.

In the Donalds’ flat, the police found nine more identical bags to the one the body had been bundled into, each with similar stains.

Blood stains of the same blood group belonging to Helen were discovered on a packet of soapflakes, a scrubbing brush and some cleaning cloths.

Sir Sydney Smith, regius professor of forensic medicine at Edinburgh University, examined the flat in minute detail and discovered that Helen Priestly had a rare condition: an enlarged thalamus/thymus gland that caused her to produce an extremely rare bacterium and made her prone to fainting.

Microbiological tests showed that the bacterium covered the Donald household, over the floor, cleaning rags and on counter tops.

The police examined dust fibres in the bag and found cotton, wool, silk, cat hair, rabbit hair and some human hair that showed indications of being badly permed, matching Jeannie Donald’s.

Dust samples from the Donald flat matched the detritus in the sack in its composition, including strands of badly permed hair.

Alexander Donald, the husband of Jeannie Donald, was arrested and interviewed. It was said that witnesses confirmed he had been at work when Helen disappeared, leading to his release.

Jeannie Donald was the person charged with Helen Priestly’s murder.

Arrest and charge

Jeannie Donald was arrested and went to trial in July 1934.

She was charged with murder.

Trial

Court and date

Jeannie Donald was tried at Edinburgh on 16 July 1934.

The trial commenced before Judge Lord Craige Mason Aitchison.

Plea and defence

Jeannie Donald pleaded not guilty.

The defence argued that Helen Priestly’s injuries were consistent with rape. The defence also contended that Jeannie Donald could not have committed the murder because she was physically incapable of raping the young girl.

Prosecution evidence

The Crown relied on forensic evidence, including hair analysis.

Professor John Glaister of Glasgow University studied hair and testified that hairs found on Helen’s corpse matched hair found on a brush used by Jeannie Donald in jail. Hair inside the blue hessian sack was also said to be Jeannie Donald’s.

Fibres from the sack were said to match fibres in the Donalds’ home. Bacterial growth inside the sack was said to match that in the Donalds’ home.

Three pathologists examined Helen’s body and said the injuries were caused by the shaft of a hammer or broom handle, making it appear as if the girl had been raped and killed.

Jeannie Donald’s daughter testified regarding the Co-op loaf that had been found in the Donald house, stating it was not theirs.

Verdict and sentence

The jury took 18 minutes to find Jeannie Donald guilty of murder.

Jeannie Donald was sentenced to death and driven off through the screaming crowds to Craiginches Prison, Aberdeen.

Appeals and sentence commutation

On 3 August 1934, Jeannie Donald’s lawyers lodged an appeal.

The next day, the Lord Provost of Aberdeen received a letter from the Secretary of State and informed Craiginches Prison that Jeannie Donald was not to hang and should serve life in jail.

Jeannie Donald was transferred to the women’s jail in Duke Street, Glasgow.

Outcome

Jeannie Donald was sentenced to death in 1934, but her death sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life.

She was released on June 24, 1944.

Jeannie Donald died in 1976.

Other details

It was said that Judge Lord Aitchison had been reduced to tears after sentencing Jeannie Donald.

There were claims in the surrounding narrative that the body had been placed between 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. after no bag had been seen at 2:00 a.m. when Helen’s father went home for rest.

There was also an account that Dick Cotton later confessed that he had made up a story about seeing Helen being dragged by a middle-aged man in a dark overcoat and that he had not seen a kidnapping.

Jeannie Donald was described as having been granted compassionate leave in June 1944 to care for her dying husband after Alexander Donald fell terminally ill with cancer in June 1944.

After her husband died, Jeannie Donald was allowed to remain free under an assumed name. She never admitted her guilt or publicly explained how and why Helen Priestly was killed.