John McFadyen
Admitted 1872. Murder and theft
John was convicted of drowning a two-year-old boy called Alexander Shields in the river Clyde at Glasgow. He had abducted 'Sandy' from the street while the boy was waiting to greet his father's return from work, stripped him and threw him in the water, holding him down with a stick. The child's distraught mother caught him running away with her son's clothes under his arm.
John stated matter-of-factly: 'I drowned said child for the sake of its clothes.'
The jury found him guilty of murder and theft, recommending mercy because of his 'weakness of intellect...almost completely an imbecile'. The judge decided otherwise and sentenced him to hang in January 1861, subsequently commuted to penal servitude for life.
Victorians favoured institutions as a cure for social problems. John had spent the years 1855 to 1860 in the House of Refuge (Reformatory Institution), Duke Street, after his first conviction for theft (also stealing clothes from a child). The chaplain-superintendent described him as 'mentally, morally & physically stunted or undeveloped'. Despite three hours of lessons a day, he could only read a little, hardly do any arithmetic, and was unable to write. His memory was poor, as was his impulse control. 'A very slight temptation to ordinary minds would appear to him a strong temptation.'
John was aged 20 when he committed the murder in 1860, but doctors judged he had a mental age of just six. He was barely 4 feet 9 inches (1.5m) tall and weighed 7 stone (45kg). Born in Belfast, John was transferred from Broadmoor to Perth in 1872.
Awaiting trial, a cell-mate for nine weeks spoke of McFadyen's mental state. 'He was a very childish companion. Very mischievous, taking away anything that was left, singing all day, constant talking, jumping on bed occasionally, singing snatches of songs. In talking he jumps from one subject to another. When speaking about his dinner he would jump to what happened at Reformatory School. He is passionate, very irritable, cannot read; and when I read he interrupted me...He is a great mimic, and the least thing makes him laugh immoderately. I do not think he understood his position. I have tried to make him sensible of it, and tried to make him pray, but he did not understand what I meant and asked if praying would bring him back to life. I had told him he might be hanged. When I told him how people were hanged, he laughed at it and said it would be all one to the grave digger. I think him of unsound mind.'
'Form of insanity: imbecility'. Victorians classed intellectual disabilities as either imbecility or idiocy; the terms had both legal and medical meaning, the former involving less extensive incapacity. The Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913 was the first systematic attempt to revise traditional categories of impairment, which have been fine-tuned ever since.
Aged 50, John was unconditionally discharged from Perth Criminal Lunatic Department (CLD) in 1891.
Photograph of John McFadyen taken from the Criminal Lunatic Department Case Book
Credit: Crown copyright, NRS, HH21/48/1 page 425
Post mortem undertaken by George Macleod M.D. and James Stewart M.D. of the body of Alexander Shields, 28 August 1860
Credit: Crown copyright, NRS, JC26/1860/265
John McFadyen’s declaration, 27 August 1860, p1
Credit: Crown copyright, NRS, JC26/1860/265
John McFadyen’s declaration, 27 August 1860, p2
Credit: Crown copyright, NRS, JC26/1860/265
John McFadyen’s declaration, 27 August 1860, p3
Credit: Crown copyright, NRS, JC26/1860/265
John McFadyen’s declaration, 27 August 1860, p4
Credit: Crown copyright, NRS, JC26/1860/265
A map showing the location of Alexander Shield’s murder
Credit: Crown copyright, NRS, JC26/1860/265
A key for the plan listing where Alexander’s body was found and where John was first observed
Credit: Crown copyright, NRS, JC26/1860/265
Post-mortem examination of the victim's body
Glasgow Aug[us]t 28th 1860
"In fulfilment of a Warrant signed by James Milford Morrison Esq. Sheriff Substitute of Lanarkshire, the Undersigned, this day, made a "Post Mortem" examination at no.29 Commercial Road, of the body of Alexander Shields, son of John Shields living there.
The body was identified by Sarah Fullerton living at 29 Commercial Road and Anne Kerr or Gallagher residing at 135 Nelson Street, Gorbals.
The body was that of a well grown and well nourished child of about two years of age. A slight abrasion on the left cheek was the only mark of violence seen on the body. The surface was pale and clear fluid flowed from the mouth and nose. The hair of the head was filled with sand, which appeared to have been applied in a damp condition as it strongly adhered to the hairs. The hands were clenched.
The trachea was free from obstruction. The lungs filled the chest, they were quite crepitant and free from disease, tho' congested. On opening the larger bronchial tubes frothy fluid exuded copiously.
There was black blood on both sides of the Heart. The abdominal viscera were all free from disease. The liver and kidneys were congested. The stomach was full of clear miodorous [malodorous] water. The Brain and its membrane were congested with venous Blood. There was little fluid in the ventricles.
The reporters are clearly of the opinion that this child died by suffocation and that the presence of fluid in the stomach and frothy fluid in the air passages would indicate drowning as the mode in which this condition was brought about. This is truth on soul and conscience.
Geo[rge] W. Macleod
James Stewart M.D."
At Glasgow the twenty seventh day of august eighteen hundred and sixty years.
In the presence of James Mitford Morison, Esquire, advocate, Sheriff Substitute of Lanarkshire.
Appeared a prisoner who being judicially admonished and examined Declares and says my name is John McFadyen, I am a native of Belfast in Ireland, twenty years of age. I have never been at any employment. I reside with my father and mother in Rose Street Hutchesontown. My father’s name is John McFadyen and he is a shoemaker. About six years ago I was tried and convicted for the crime of theft, before the Police Court and I suffered thirty days imprisonment, and thereafter confinement for five years in the Glasgow House of Refuge from which I was liberated about a year ago and have since been residency with my father.
I admit that on Saturday last the twenty fifth august current on or near the bank of the Clyde near the [puntwork?] occupied by messrs Hiffenbotham Sons and Gunnies, I stole from. The person of a child, a little boy, whose name I do not know the frock, two petticoats and flannel shirt, which are now shown to me with a sealed label attached.
After taking these articles from said child I hove him into the Clyde with my hands. The water was deep there, and when he rose to the surface I took the stick, which is now shown me with a sealed label attached, and held him down with it under the water. After I pressed him with the stick, he did not rise to the surface.
I then ran away towards the suspension bridge, where I met a woman who, when she saw the child’s clothes in my possession. Saw that she was the child’s mother, and asked me what had become of said child. I replied that a man had thrown it into the river; and thereafter a man took hold of me, and charged me with throwing the child into the water, and I went with him and pointed at the place.
I drowned said child for the sake of its clothes. I know that I was committing a crime punishable by death; but I did not think of the consequences at the time. I can neither read nor write, though an attempt was made to teach me in the house of refuge. The labels before referred to, are docquetted and subscribed as relative hereto and all this I declare to be truth
Signed by James Milford Morrison
At Glasgow the twenty seventh day of august eighteen hundred and sixty years.
In the presence of James Mitford Morison, Esquire, advocate, Sheriff Substitute of Lanarkshire.
Appeared a prisoner who being judicially admonished and examined Declares and says my name is John McFadyen, I am a native of Belfast in Ireland, twenty years of age. I have never been at any employment. I reside with my father and mother in Rose Street Hutchesontown. My father’s name is John McFadyen and he is a shoemaker. About six years ago I was tried and convicted for the crime of theft, before the Police Court and I suffered thirty days imprisonment, and thereafter confinement for five years in the Glasgow House of Refuge from which I was liberated about a year ago and have since been residency with my father.
I admit that on Saturday last the twenty fifth august current on or near the bank of the Clyde near the [puntwork?] occupied by messrs Hiffenbotham Sons and Gunnies, I stole from. The person of a child, a little boy, whose name I do not know the frock, two petticoats and flannel shirt, which are now shown to me with a sealed label attached.
After taking these articles from said child I hove him into the Clyde with my hands. The water was deep there, and when he rose to the surface I took the stick, which is now shown me with a sealed label attached, and held him down with it under the water. After I pressed him with the stick, he did not rise to the surface.
I then ran away towards the suspension bridge, where I met a woman who, when she saw the child’s clothes in my possession. Saw that she was the child’s mother, and asked me what had become of said child. I replied that a man had thrown it into the river; and thereafter a man took hold of me, and charged me with throwing the child into the water, and I went with him and pointed at the place.
I drowned said child for the sake of its clothes. I know that I was committing a crime punishable by death; but I did not think of the consequences at the time. I can neither read nor write, though an attempt was made to teach me in the house of refuge. The labels before referred to, are docquetted and subscribed as relative hereto and all this I declare to be truth
Signed by James Milford Morrison
At Glasgow the twenty seventh day of august eighteen hundred and sixty years.
In the presence of James Mitford Morison, Esquire, advocate, Sheriff Substitute of Lanarkshire.
Appeared a prisoner who being judicially admonished and examined Declares and says my name is John McFadyen, I am a native of Belfast in Ireland, twenty years of age. I have never been at any employment. I reside with my father and mother in Rose Street Hutchesontown. My father’s name is John McFadyen and he is a shoemaker. About six years ago I was tried and convicted for the crime of theft, before the Police Court and I suffered thirty days imprisonment, and thereafter confinement for five years in the Glasgow House of Refuge from which I was liberated about a year ago and have since been residency with my father.
I admit that on Saturday last the twenty fifth august current on or near the bank of the Clyde near the [puntwork?] occupied by messrs Hiffenbotham Sons and Gunnies, I stole from. The person of a child, a little boy, whose name I do not know the frock, two petticoats and flannel shirt, which are now shown to me with a sealed label attached.
After taking these articles from said child I hove him into the Clyde with my hands. The water was deep there, and when he rose to the surface I took the stick, which is now shown me with a sealed label attached, and held him down with it under the water. After I pressed him with the stick, he did not rise to the surface.
I then ran away towards the suspension bridge, where I met a woman who, when she saw the child’s clothes in my possession. Saw that she was the child’s mother, and asked me what had become of said child. I replied that a man had thrown it into the river; and thereafter a man took hold of me, and charged me with throwing the child into the water, and I went with him and pointed at the place.
I drowned said child for the sake of its clothes. I know that I was committing a crime punishable by death; but I did not think of the consequences at the time. I can neither read nor write, though an attempt was made to teach me in the house of refuge. The labels before referred to, are docquetted and subscribed as relative hereto and all this I declare to be truth
Signed by James Milford Morrison
At Glasgow the twenty seventh day of august eighteen hundred and sixty years.
In the presence of James Mitford Morison, Esquire, advocate, Sheriff Substitute of Lanarkshire.
Appeared a prisoner who being judicially admonished and examined Declares and says my name is John McFadyen, I am a native of Belfast in Ireland, twenty years of age. I have never been at any employment. I reside with my father and mother in Rose Street Hutchesontown. My father’s name is John McFadyen and he is a shoemaker. About six years ago I was tried and convicted for the crime of theft, before the Police Court and I suffered thirty days imprisonment, and thereafter confinement for five years in the Glasgow House of Refuge from which I was liberated about a year ago and have since been residency with my father.
I admit that on Saturday last the twenty fifth august current on or near the bank of the Clyde near the [puntwork?] occupied by messrs Hiffenbotham Sons and Gunnies, I stole from. The person of a child, a little boy, whose name I do not know the frock, two petticoats and flannel shirt, which are now shown to me with a sealed label attached.
After taking these articles from said child I hove him into the Clyde with my hands. The water was deep there, and when he rose to the surface I took the stick, which is now shown me with a sealed label attached, and held him down with it under the water. After I pressed him with the stick, he did not rise to the surface.
I then ran away towards the suspension bridge, where I met a woman who, when she saw the child’s clothes in my possession. Saw that she was the child’s mother, and asked me what had become of said child. I replied that a man had thrown it into the river; and thereafter a man took hold of me, and charged me with throwing the child into the water, and I went with him and pointed at the place.
I drowned said child for the sake of its clothes. I know that I was committing a crime punishable by death; but I did not think of the consequences at the time. I can neither read nor write, though an attempt was made to teach me in the house of refuge. The labels before referred to, are docquetted and subscribed as relative hereto and all this I declare to be truth
Signed by James Milford Morrison
John McFadyen. Report of medical examination, 3 December 1880 (NRS, JC26/1860/265). Voices: Calum Philp and Craig Smillie
John McFadyen. Declaration, 27 August 1860 (NRS, JC26/1860/265). Voices: Richard Burns