M'Lachlan, Jessie (c. 1834–1899)

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M'Lachlan, Jessie (c. 1834–1899)

Scottish servant convicted of murder. Born c. 1834 in Scotland; died in Huron, Michigan, Jan 1, 1899.

Worked in household of Glasgow accountant John Fleming; when a fellow servant, Jessie M'Pherson, was found hacked to death with a cleaver (July 7, 1862), was arrested for the murder, after pawning some silver which had been stolen from the household around the time of the killing; was found guilty in a trial noted for its bias and lack of hard evidence; sentence commuted to life imprisonment; released after 15 years (1877); died in America (1899). She claimed that the dying M'Pherson, whom she had tended, had accused John Fleming's father of attempted sexual assault.