Bridget Durgan

Background

Bridget Durgan was an Irish domestic who was hanged on August 30, 1867. She was alleged to have been born to respectable parents in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1843, and she “went wrong” when an employer’s son seduced her. After being paid to leave the area, she sailed to New York and found work as a housekeeper.

Bridget’s mistress ordered her out of the house when “a tryst with an unnamed gentleman left her pregnant.” She wrote: “From that moment, I began to hate everybody,” but “most of all mistresses,” and she “resolved to kill someone if only the chance came my way.”

After giving birth in a charity hospital, Bridget worked for a few months in a slum brothel. One night police raided the resort, and Bridget evaded arrest by vaulting over a fence. She fled to Brooklyn and went back into domestic service, but she and her employer, a Mrs. Horning, “soon hated each other.”

Eventually Mrs. Horning called Bridget “a devilish infernal slut” and fired her. The presence of Mrs. Horning’s husband prevented Bridget from stabbing her on the spot.

Bridget was determined to kill her former employer. She sent poisoned cakes and skulking outside the house with a knife. She only gave up after Mrs. Horning died of natural causes.

Bridget then went to Newmarket, New Jersey, where she found a position in the house of Dr. and Mrs. Coriel.

Bridget also wrote that she had thought about how the household would change if Mrs. Coriel were gone:

“it came into my head that if Mrs. Coriel were only out of the way, that I would have a very good place with the Doctor, as he would no doubt still keep house and have me take care of it and Mamey (the Coriels' baby) who was fond of me. This brought Mrs. Horning into my mind, and instantly, like a flash of lightning, I felt impelled to kill Mrs. Coreil.”

The offence

On the night of February 26, 1867, while the doctor was out, Bridget stabbed and clubbed her mistress to death.

Bridget wrote that she allowed the bloody, dying woman to kiss her baby one last time before finishing her off.

After the killing, Bridget set the house on fire. She grabbed the child and fled to a neighbor’s home, where she wailed that “robbers had killed Mrs. Coreil.”

Investigation

Bridget’s wild behaviour and speech aroused suspicion. Suspicion was also raised by the fact that the house bore no visible signs of a break-in.

Bridget Durgan was arrested and charged with the murder of her employer.

Trial

A jury found her guilty. The judge sentenced her to hang.

Sentencing

The judge sentenced Bridget Durgan to hang.

Appeals

No appeals were described.

Outcome

Bridget Durgan was executed by hanging in the New Bruswick, New Jersey jail yard on August 30, 1867.

Aftermath

Soon after the execution, one of her spiritual advisors published a 30-plus page account of the crime with a confession section that was allegedly dictated by Bridget herself. Bridget had instructed the Reverend Brendan to publish the confession after her death.

Bridget’s confession gave a reason for the killing as revenge for a lifetime of abuse and injustice. She also wrote that she resolved to kill someone if the chance came her way.

Bridget’s confession included statements about her background, her emigration to New York, her work as a housekeeper, the firing by Mrs. Horning, her planned killing of Mrs. Horning using poisoned cakes, her flight to Newmarket, and her decision to kill Mrs. Coriel.

She was described as defiant until her final night on earth, and her final night was characterized by uncertainty about whether she would obtain a last-minute reprieve on account of her gender. When that did not happen, she wrote the confession.