Earlier this week  I blogged about the Federal Census Mortality Schedules and specifically the 1860 listing of deaths in Ramsey County, Minnesota. When I couldn't find any record of the Irish ancestors I was researching, I happened upon the entry for a woman named Ann Bilansky who was hanged in March 1860 for murdering her husband. I have now learned the rest of her story.

Matthew Cecil wrote a comprehensive article about the alleged crime,"Justice in Heaven: The Trial of Ann Bilansky,"  which was published in the Minnesota History Magazine, Winter 1997-1998: http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/55/v55i08p350-363.pdf. Here's one paragraph from the article to whet your curiosity for more details:

Notorious in its own time, this case remains significant for several reasons. Bilansky was the first white person and the only woman ever to be legally executed in Minnesota. In addition, the case raised questions about extra-judicial influences: mainly, the power of the press and resulting public pressure to sway a jury and, secondly, the intertwining of politics and justice, which might well have contributed to Governor Ramsey's unwillingness to commute Bilansky's sentence. Finally, the case is notable because it appears possible that Bilansky was innocent and, in any event, she did not receive a fair trial. 

Mary Ann Evards Wright, who went by her middle name, had become the third (or possibly fourth) wife of Stanislaus Bilansky in 1858. His friends and acquaintances described Bilansky as "an unlovable, melancholy, abusive and unpleasant man." A heavy drinker, he suffered from a stomach ailment. After his death on 11 March 1859, the coroner's jury ruled that Bilansky died of arsenic poisoning, and Ann Bilansky was indicted for the murder of her husband.

Did she kill him? Read Matthew Cecil's excellent account in the Minnesota History Magazine and draw your own conclusion. The unhappy story of Stanislaus and Ann Bilansky also warranted a chapter in Walter N. Trenerry's book, Murder in Minnesota. At the gallows, Ann Bilansky made this declaration:

I die without having had any mercy shown me, or justice. I die for the good of my soul, and not for murder...Your courts of justice are not courts of justice -- but I will get justice in heaven."