"I never shall say you done any such thing again - if I have to die for it."

Early in the morning of July 15, 1871 a Nissouri farmer named George Campbell was brutally hacked to death.

His wife, Phoebe, claimed that two men with blackened faces had broken into the family's log cabin near Thorndale and had threatened to shoot Campbell if he did not hand over a large sum of money.

When their gun misfired, Campbell allegedly tried to defend his family. During the scuffle, he was horribly bludgeoned about the head with an axe. On the basis of Phoebe's testimony, six local men were arrested, including Thomas Coyle, her father's hired man.

However, questions began to circulate about Phoebe's part in the crime. Why did she stand by and do nothing while two men chopped her husband to pieces? Why was she so unemotional in the days following the funeral? Why was she seen talking to Thomas Coyle the day after the murder? A subsequent coroner's inquest laid the blame for George Campbell's death at the feet of his wife and Coyle.

"I don't care," said Phoebe. "I'm innocent and I don't care."

But she cared enough to save her own skin. She accused Coyle of the murder but later recanted her testimony and accused her own cousin. By this time the public had little sympathy for the widow. It now appeared that Phoebe's story about the two burglars had been a lie to cover up an affair she had been enjoying with Coyle.

Campbell's murder trial, which began on April Fool's Day 1872, was sensational in the extreme. Phoebe accused her late husband of having an affair with her cousin's wife. The prosecution produced a letter Campbell had written to Coyle. In it, Phoebe wrote, "I never shall say you done any such thing again - if I have to die for it."

When questioned on her changed testimony, Phoebe claimed the ghost of her dead husband had visited her to declare Coyle and herself innocent of the crime. The crown attorney exploded at Campbell. "You can hardly expect any one to believe such nonsense!" he snorted.

The jury took only one hour to arrive at a guilty verdict. Phoebe burst into tears as the judged sentenced her to hang on June 20th. In a confession published after the verdict, Phoebe claimed she and Coyle conspired to murder George Campbell so the two could marry. Coyle also faced trial for the crime but was acquitted. Afterwards, he moved to England.

Campbell was the first woman to be executed in post-confederation Canada and the only woman in Middlesex County to pay for a crime with her life. The newspapers, determined to depict her as a heartless killer, noted that "she went to the gallows without a trace of emotion, and held a lace handkerchief in her hand for a minute after the trap had been sprung." Souvenir postcards depicting the crime were quickly snapped up by onlookers.

In a final open letter, Campbell wrote that "it is a solemn thing to die if not prepared."

George Campbell must have known how she felt.

Dotydocs.theatreinlondon.ca

The Lone Axe Murderess

Although I don't have any Black Sheep ancestors in my family, the murder of George Campbell would likely have been a topic of conversation around the dinner table in the homes of my Ryckman and Irwin ancestors in the early 1870's.

West Nissouri Township, 1818 - 2000: our heritage recounts the events of the most notorious crime in township history.

On the night of 14 July 1871, George Campbell of Thorndale, Middlesex County, Ontario was murdered.  His wife, Phoebe (McWain) Campbell claimed they couple and their two small children had been sleeping when two black men, dressed in dark clothing, entered their log cabin and demanded money.  When George claimed he did not have any, the two men tried three times unsuccessfully to fire a pistol at him.  George told Phoebe to get him the axe, which she did.  One of the men wrestled the axe away from George and hit him over the head with it.  George then yelled to Phoebe to get the carving knife.  She retrieved the knife from the bureau but one of the assailants snatched it away from her, and continued beating George until he fell to the floor.  The men told Phoebe not to alert anyone until the next morning,.  They dashed out the door and over the fence into the darkness of night.  Phoebe immediately ran outside screaming.  Neighbours quickly came to her aid.

What followed was an investigation of these events reported by Phoebe Campbell regarding George's murder.  At first, people believed Phoebe's story.  However, over the course of the summer, Phoebe's innocence became doubtful. Following George's funeral, Phoebe seemed unemotional.  Her sister -in-law, Annie Campbell, acknowleged that Phoebe "did cry a little once," but then claimed, "I think she did not appear to be so much distressed as she ought to be."  Neighbour, Mary Freed claimed she had seen the widow talking with one of the suspects, Thomas Coyle in the field in front of the house at dusk the day after the murder.  But what seem to have puzzled people the most was Phoebe's helplessness while her husband was being attacked.

During July 16-22, 1871 there were a number of local suspects and arrests, including Thomas Coyle and Phoebe Campbell.  The coroner's inquest deliberated for only 45 minutes on August 4, 1871 before concluding that "George Campbell had been murdered by two persons whom we believe to be Thomas Coyle and Phoebe Campbell."  During the coroner's inquest, the jurors had adjourned at the Campbell cabin where they found George, dead on the floor, "covered in gore, his head beaten to pieces with both ends of an axe...".  Blood covered every part of the cabin.

Phoebe spent the fall of 1871 and the winter of 1872 incarcerated.  Her trial began on April 1, 1872 in London, Ontario.  On April 6, 1872, the jury had reached their verdict: guilty.  Phoebe still insisted she was innocent.  The judge pronounced his sentence.  Phoebe was to be hanged by the neck on June 20, 1872. 

In May of that year, according to an article in the London Advertiser, Phoebe had written an eight page confession that she and Thomas Coyle had murdered her husband.  Coyle and Phoebe had wanted to get married.

On June 21, 1872, in the London gaolyard, Phoebe Campbell was executed by hanging. 

The Ontario Death Registrations for George Campbell and Phoebe Campbell can be found on Ancestry.com. 

I wonder what happened to their children.

Much was written about the trial and execution of Phoebe Campbell.  Articles appeared in newspapers as far away as Chicago and Los Angeles.