Bertha Scorse
Murderer
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- Gender
- female
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Location
- Cornwall, England, United Kingdom
- Date of birth
- 1931
- Age at first offence
- 21
- Characteristics
- jealousy
- Victim profile
- Joyce Mary Dunstan, 26 (her lesbian lover)
- Method of murder
- Stabbing with a dagger
- Date(s) of murder
- January 12, 1952
- Years active
- 1952
- Date of arrest
- Same day
- Status
-
Released
Sentenced to death on February 22, 1952; commuted to life in prison; released on licence in 1983
Case record: Bertha Scorse
Background
Bertha Mary Scorse was 20 years old and was of Newlyn. She met Joyce Mary Dunstan, who was 26 years old and of Pool, at a tuberculosis sanatorium, and they became lovers. After Dunstan was discharged, she returned briefly to her husband, and then went to live with Scorse at the latter’s mother’s home.
Bertha Scorse was described in defence by counsel as having been “a problem child from the age of two,” and as having grown up “callous, morose, lealous, and selfish.” Bertha Scorse also had a history of being released and confined again for drunken behaviour.
The offence
In January 1952, after Dunstan walked out, Scorse went after her and stabbed her to death with a dagger.
Investigation
A jury, including three women, rejected a plea of temporary insanity.
Trial
Scorse was tried in February 1952. After two suicide attempts, she was carried into court on a stretcher. In court, Scorse was lying on a stretcher propped up so that she was visible to the court. When she was asked if she wished to say anything before sentence was passed, she turned slightly to her nurse, but “her lips did not move.”
The verdict was guilty. The jury returned “a verdict of guilty— with no recommendation to mercy.”
The prosecuting counsel called the case “cold- blooded murder.” After hearing the verdict, the prosecuting counsel “buried his face in his hands.”
The judge put on his black cap, and Scorse’s widowed mother and her 18-year-old sister broke down and wept.
Sentencing
On February 22, 1952, Scorse was sentenced to death. She was “lies in a specially prepared room in Exeter prison under double sentence of death.” The sentences were for “legal execution and from tuberculosis.”
Appeals
Scorse was reprieved. She was later commuted to life in prison.
Outcome
Although Scorse was found guilty and was sentenced to death, her death sentence was reprieved. The status later became: “Commuted to life in prison.” She was released on licence in 1983. It was “thought to have died in prison in 1995.”
Aftermath
The account noted that Scorse had a history of being “released and confined again for drunken behaviour.”
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