Known around her community as the “fierce young savage,” 12- year-old Hannah Ocuish was hanged behind New London’s old meeting house on Dec. 20, 1786.
A fight over some strawberries that summer had prompted Hannah to kill 6-year-old Eunice Bolles, the daughter of a prominent New London family, historians say.
The hanging is the last documented execution of a female in Connecticut. Hannah also bears the unfortunate distinction of being the youngest female ever put to death in this country, says a leading expert on the death penalty.
Victor L. Streib, a law professor at Cleveland State University who has done extensive research on the penalty, said in an interview this month that he and other historians have validated Hannah’s as the last confirmed case of a female execution in Connecticut.
Streib said there are reports another woman, Thirza Mansfield, was executed for murder in 1825, but those accounts have not been verified.
According to Streib’s research, an angry Hannah lured her young victim into a wooded area July 21, 1786, by offering her a piece of calico. Once out of view, Hannah pummeled Eunice with a stone and strangled her to death. She then covered the body with stones from a nearby wall to make Eunice’s death appear to be an accident, according to various historical accounts cited by Streib.
Investigators arrested Hannah the next day. She burst into tears and confessed after being forced to view the young victim’s body.
Abandoned by her mother at an early age and believed to be retarded, Hannah seemed unconcerned about her fate during her trial, according to the historical accounts. While spectators wept, the judge found the heinous nature of Hannah’s crime outweighed any mental incapacity.
“You have killed, and that in a barbarous and cruel manner, an innocent, helpless and harmless child,” said the judge, identified only as Judge Law in Streib’s published account of the case.
Hannah seemed unmoved about her death sentence until the day of her execution when a visitor informed her of her fate. Witnesses reported that Hannah said little as she stood on the scaffold awaiting her punishment.
She “appeared greatly afraid, and seemed to want somebody to help her.”
