The Ghost of Mary Gallagher - 1879

Now it all makes sense! At first glance, the articles dated June and July don't seem to have anything to do with the articles dated October and December. At first I had come across the June articles and went in search for more information. I couldn't find anything on the names of the people, so I tried to find out more about the area. Eventually I found "Griffintown", badly misspelled in all but one of the articles, which was an Irish district of Montreal for over a century starting in the 1820s. The Wikipedia article for this district mentioned a documentary of a ghost story of "Mary Gallagher" - a prostitute that was murdered in 1879 on Williams Street and is still searching for her head. I knew this couldn't be a coincidence, there had to be some connection between this old ghost story and the articles that I had found.

Believed to be the scene of the crime
cor of Williams and Murray Sts.

Then I found the October and December articles which mentioned Mary Gallagher, Susan Kennedy and Michael Flannagan, the names there were mentioned in the ghost story, but with no details to confirm it was the same as my June articles of if the two had some how gotten confused with each other over the decades. Finally I found "The Dominion: An Annual Register and Review" which detailed the entire incidence and confirmed that they were the same story - and that the American newspapers had butchered the facts.

The name "Mrs. McCormick, alias Conway" is a version of Mary's married named of "Connolly". "Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs" are really "Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Mears". The rest is the same with the exception of the American newspaper omitting all information regarding Michael Flannagan and the reason for the crime.

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The articles:

Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas) - June 29, 1879

MONTREAL, June 28. - At a late hour last night the mutilated body of a women named McCormick, alias Conway, was found in a house on William street, Graffinton. The house, which is in a low part of the city, is occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs, and is frequented by dissipated characters. When the police visited the place at midnight a horrible scare presented itself. The body of the unfortunate woman was lying in a pool of blood, while her head, completely severed from her body, was placed in a basket close by, in which was found her right hand. A drunken brawl had been going on during the early part of the day, and it is supposed the murder was committed in the afternoon. Mrs. Jacobs has been arrested, all the circumstances so far pointing to her as the murderer.

Daily Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) - June 29, 1879

MONTREAL, June 23 - At a late hour last night the mutilated body of a woman named McCormick alias Conway, was found in a house on William street, the Grafferton house, which is in the low part of the city occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs, and is frequented by dissipated characters. When the police visited the place at midnight a horrible scene presented itself. The body of the unfortunate woman was lying in a pool of blood, while her head, completely severed from her body, was placed in a basket close by, in which was found her right hand. A durnken brawl had been going on during the early part of the day, and it is supposed the murder was committed in the afternoon. Mrs. Jacobs has been arrested, all the circumstances so far pointing to her as the murderer.

Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Ind.) - July 2, 1879

Montreal, June 28. - Mrs. McCormick, alias Conway, was murdered last night in a low house in Griffintown. The body was lying in a pool of blood. The head and hand, severed from the body, were in a pail.

Daily Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) - October 5, 1879

Mrs. Susan Kennedy Miars, in Montreal, has been found guilty of the murder of Mary Gallagher and sentenced to the banged on the 5th of December next.

Daily Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine) - October 6, 1879

Susan Kennedy Mars was found guilty of the murder of Mary Gallagher, and sentenced to be hanged on the 5th of December.

Sedalia Daily Democrat (Sedalia, Missouri) - Dec. 7, 1879

Michael Flannigan, who was acquitted of the charge of the murder of Mary Gallagher, was accidently drowned in the canal basin, at Montreal, on Friday. A singular circumstance connected with the drowning is that he was drowned on the same day and same hour on which Susan Kennedy was to have been executed. She was convicted of murder, and her sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life.

Stevens Point Journal (Stevens Point, Wis.) - Dec. 13, 1879

Michael Flannagan, acquitted of the charge of complicity in the murder of Mary Gallagher, was accidentally drowned on the 6th instant, in the new canal at Point St. Charles, Canada. It is remarked that the hour and day on which Flannagan was drowned are the same as appointed for the execution of Susan Kennedy, whose sentence has been commuted to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life.

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Documents:

The Dominion - Annual Register and Review - 1879

October 1st - Susan Kennedy, wife of Jacob Mears, is placed on trial before the Court of Queen's Bench, Montreal, His Honor Judge Monk presiding, charged with having murdered Mary Gallagher, wife of James Connelly, on the 27th June. The murder was commited in the upper portions of the tenement house No. 242 William street, in the portion of the city commonly called "Griffintown"; and appears to have been the result of a drunken quarrel between the two women about a man named Michael Flannagan, who had come into the house early in the morning with the deceased. Both the women were known to the police as loose and disorderly characters. The murder appears to have been committed about midday, but it was not until nine o'clock in the evening that the police heard of it and visit the house. The body of the murdered woman was then found lying on the floor, with the head and one hand cut off and placed in a tub by the side of the body; and the woman Mears lying half drunk on a bed in a back room. It appeared that when the woman Gallagher and the man Flannagan came in together in the morning they sent Mrs. Meare for a bottle of whiskey which the three of them drunk; Flannagan then went to sleep and the two women got quarreling when Mrs. Mears murdered her companion by striking her with an axe. Fourteen cuts were found on the head and neck. The defense endeavoured to show insanity, but failed; and the jury brought in a verdict of willful murder, which a recommendation to mercy. Susan Kennedy was sentenced to be hanged on the 5th of December; but her sentence was commuted for imprisonment for life. Flanagan was also tried for murder and acquitted; but, by a curious coincidence, he was drowned in the Lachine Canal on the very day Kennedy was to have been hung, 5th December.