This article is from the San Francisco Call, July 6th 1895. Bridget Cleary was an Irish female murdered by her husband in 1895. Her demise is noteworthy for numerous reasons. According to her husband she was murdered because her husband believed that she had been kidnapped by fairies with a changeling left in her place. The murder's grisly nature provoked widespread press coverage.
BURNED WIFE FOR A WITCH
Michael Cleary Convicted of a Most Heinous Crime in Ireland.
Superstitious Relatives Who Participated in the Murder Also Sent to Prison.
DUBLIN, Ireland, July 6.— Michael Cleary, living near the town of Clonmel, was convicted to-day of manslaughter in having burned his wife, Bridget Cleary, to death last March. Cleary believed his wife to be bewitched and upon the advice of Dennis Ganey, the "family doctor," and in the presence of her father and a number of other relatives held her over a fire and afterward stripped her and poured paraffine over the body and set fire to it.
The woman was burned to death without the slightest effort on the part of the spectators to extinguish the flames which were consuming her. Cleary claimed that it was not his wife, but a witch that was burned.
Cleary was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. His accomplices were also convicted. Patrick Kennedy was condemned to live and John Dunn to three years' imprisonment, William and James Kennedy to eighteen months each and Patrick Bolen and Michael Kennedy to six months each.
Please visit these sites for additional information:
True Crime: The Cooper’s Wife is Missing, by Joan Hoff and Marion Yeates
The Legacy of Bridget Cleary
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