In July 1862, Jess McPherson was found murdered at 17 Sandyford Place in Glasgow. The murder weapon was a cleaver, and she had forty wounds on her body from the weapon. John Fleming and his father found the body. "Old Fleming" had been left in the care of Jess whilst his son was away for the weekend. John Fleming returned to find the old man alone, and to be told that she had gone away. Together with a butchers boy who had arrived to deliver meat, John Fleming and his father opened Jess' locked room and found her body. The old man said that the last time he had seen Jess was on Friday, and although he had heard moans in the middle of the night on Saturday, he had not thought to investigate further. Old Fleming had been to church twice on Sunday, and had spoken to people in town on the Saturday, but had not thought to mention that Jess was missing.
The police surgeon found that Jess had been attacked with a cleaver or axe. Parts of the kitchen, which adjoined Jess' bedroom, had recently been washed, as had part of the bedroom floor. There were traces of blood in the kitchen and basement, and some of Old Fleming's shirts had blood on them. Only some silver-plated spoons and forks had been stolen, but Jess' best dresses were also missing. The doctors conducting the post mortem decided, "that the comparatively light degree of strength shown in the blows would point to a female or a weak man having inflicted them."
The police arrested old Fleming, but at the same time a pawnbroker read of details of the murder in the paper, and remembered that plate had been pawned bearing the letter F. It turned out that the details given by the woman pawning the plate were false. On information received, the police became interested in Jessie McLachlan, who had been a servant in the Fleming household, and who was a close friend of Jess McPherson.
Jessie McLachlan was taken twice to speak to the Procurator Fiscal, but denied any knowledge of the murder, or of the pawning of the plate. The description given by the pawnbroker of the woman involved was uncannily like Jessie. On July 13th 1862, both Jessie and her husband were arrested. Her husband had been away at sea and so was quickly eliminated from enquiries. Jessie was examined by Sheriff Strathern, on one occasion for four and a half hours, and in all made five statements. Much of what she said was contradictory or even lies. Eventually Old Fleming was released, although Jessie told her fellow inmates at the prison that he was the murderer, and that he had given her the silver to pawn. Some bloodstained ripped clothing was found at Hamilton, and it was discovered that they had been the clothes Jess McPherson had been wearing on the day of her murder. Other sections of the clothing were eventually found at Jessie McLachlan's house.
The trial was fixed for the Glasgow Autumn Circuit. There was intense newspaper interest, taking the side of Jessie or Old Fleming. If the case had been sent to Edinburgh it might have been fairer, and would have been heard by three judges rather than one. Jessie eventually told her law agents that she
was at 17 Sandyford Place on the night of the murder, but they obviously did not want to reveal this at the trial. Jessie continued to insist that Old Fleming was the murderer, and was convinced she would be acquitted.
The trial began on 17th September. The main witness was Old Fleming who denied that he had asked Jessie to pawn silver items, as she had claimed in one of her statements. The prosecution said that shortage of money had led to Jessie pawning a number of items recently. The prosecution also had various witnesses who showed that Jessie had lied, and that there was proof that she had been out of her house on the night of the murder and had sent bloodstained clothes to Hamilton. There was little hope of the defence succeeding, and the judge Lord Deas delivered a rather one-sided address to the jury. The jury delivered a guilty verdict after 15 minutes - Lord Deas had already brought his black cap into court.
Jessie's agent then read a remarkable statement. This revealed that she had gone to 17 Sandyford Street on the night of the murder. After a while she had gone out to buy alcohol. On her return, Old Fleming eventually let her in, and it was then that Jess McPherson was found lying severely injured and bleeding. As Jessie tried to help Jess, the old man started mopping up blood. Having got Jess into bed, Jessie sat with her through the night. Eventually Jess revealed that the old man had been trying "to use liberties with her" when drunk. Jessie had wanted to get the doctor for Jess, but the old man had wanted to wait till morning. When it became clear that Jess had spoken of his behaviour towards her, the old man made Jessie promise she would never tell anyone. Jess gradually became worse, and on returning to the room where Jess was, after going to the front of the house, Jessie was appalled to see Old Fleming hacking at her with a meat chopper. In fear for her own life, Jessie did not know what to do, but was persuaded by the old man that she would be seen as guilty as he if they were caught. He continued to clear up the blood, but Jessie did not help him. He told her to take the clothes that he brought from Jess' room, and send them away by railway to an address that could not be traced. He also gave her plate to pawn under an assumed name, and promised to give her further money if she would keep quiet.
Despite this statement, Lord Deas went on to pass sentence, and Jessie McLachlan was sentenced to hang on October 11th. Such was the public feeling against the injustice of the sentence, that following a public meeting in the City Hall in Glasgow, 50,000 Glaswegians had signed a petition asking for a delay in the execution until further enquiries could be made. Old Fleming continued to brazen it out. On September 30th Sir Archibald Alison started a private investigation on the instructions of the Lord Advocate. A week before the execution was due to take place, the Home Office put the execution back until 1st November. An official enquiry was then held by the Sheriff of Haddington and shortly after that Jessie was reprieved. Opinions in the newspapers were divided, and there was some disquiet that the decision of a jury should be questioned in this way. However Jessie was not freed, and served 15 years at Perth Prison.
Jessie was released from Perth Prison on October 5th 1877. Old Fleming was now dead and her husband had disappeared. She had earned £30.00 in prison, she met her now 18-year-old son, and went to Greenock where she hoped she would not be recognised. However, she was discovered and so escaped to America, where she remarried. She died at Port Huron, Michigan in 1899.
Reference: Jack House - Square Mile of Murder, Molendinar Press, 1975