Sandyford murder case

The Sandyford murder case was a well-known proceeding of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United Kingdom. The case revolved around the brutal murder of one Jessie M'Pherson, a servant, in Sandyford Place, Glasgow, Scotland, in 1862. M'Pherson's friend Jessie M'Lachlan discovered the body, and stood accused of having murdered M'Pherson.

The Sandyford case was the first Scottish police case in which forensic photography played a role, and the first case handled by the detective branch of the Glasgow Police.ref|100years

The case went to the Glasgow Circuit Court in September 1862. During the trial, M'Lachlan resolutely declared her innocence, and accused the women's employer, one James Fleming, age 87, of having committed the crime, perhaps in a fit of passion when M'Pherson refused his amorous advances. The jury found M'Lachlan guilty of murder and sentenced her to death, which was to be carried out by hanging on October 11, 1862.ref|Calcraft

However, in an unprecedented action, a Court Commission was appointed to investigate the evidence in the case. The commission did not declare her innocent, but did commute her sentence to life imprisonment.

The case is given a passing mention in the last chapter of E.C. Bentley's 1913 detective novel "Trent's Last Case". It was recounted by Jack House in his 1961 book "Square Mile of Murder", which was dramatised by the BBC in 1980.

References

# "The First 100 Years". http://gphs1800.tripod.com/First100Years.html
# "The Life of Calcraft: An Account of the Executions in Scotland for the Past 200 Years". http://www.nls.uk/resources/pdf/74412493.pdf