Walter James Bolton (13 August 1888 – 18 February 1957) was a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

farmer who was found guilty of

poisoning A poison can be any substance that is harmful to the body. It can be swallowed, inhaled, injected or absorbed through the skin. Poisoning is the harmful effect that occurs when too much of that substance has been taken. Poisoning is not to ...

his wife. He is known as the last person to be executed in New Zealand before the abolition of

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. Bolton was born in

Wanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

and grew up in nearby

Mangamahu Mangamahu is a hill-country farming and forestry community in the middle reaches of the Whangaehu River valley, in the Whanganui District and Rangitikei District of Manawatū-Whanganui, New Zealand. It is centred on the village of Mangamahu, which ...

. He married Beatrice Mabel Jones in 1913, but Beatrice died on 11 July 1956 after a long and debilitating illness. An

autopsy An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...

found traces of

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...

in her body, and a police investigation was launched. Bolton was formally charged with her murder in September. The prosecution claimed that Bolton was having an affair with Beatrice's sister, Florence, who had moved in to help look after Beatrice, and that Bolton had poisoned his wife with arsenic he possessed for use on his farm. It also alleged that he and Florence had destroyed Beatrice's diary. Bolton's defence argued that Beatrice could have been poisoned accidentally, by arsenic entering the water supply. Water on the Bolton's farm was tested and found to contain arsenic, and traces of arsenic were also found in Bolton and one of his daughters Despite this evidence, a jury quickly found Bolton guilty of murdering his wife, and he was sentenced to death. He was

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...

Mount Eden Prison Mount Eden Prisons consists of two separate facilities in the Auckland, New Zealand suburb of Mount Eden — the Mount Eden Prison and the Mount Eden Corrections Facility. History The original Mount Eden prison was a military stockade built i ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

on 18 February 1957, aged 68. According to a contemporary newspaper account, his execution was allegedly botched – instead of breaking his neck instantly, he was slowly strangled to death. Shortly afterward, the

New Zealand Labour Party The New Zealand Labour Party ( mi, Rōpū Reipa o Aotearoa), or simply Labour (), is a centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers descr ...

won the

1957 New Zealand General Election The 1957 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament's 32nd term. It saw the governing National Party narrowly defeated by the Labour Party. The 1957 elections marked the beginning of ...

and in effect, the practice of capital punishment ended with Bolton's execution. The death penalty faced statutory abolition for homicide and most other crimes when Parliament passed the

Crimes Act 1961 The Crimes Act 1961 is an act of New Zealand Parliament that forms a leading part of the criminal law in New Zealand. It repeals the Crimes Act 1908, itself a successor of the Criminal Code Act 1893. Most crimes in New Zealand are created by t ...

. (The last vestiges of the death penalty in New Zealand – for treason and similar acts – were abolished with the passage of the ''Abolition of the Death Penalty Act 1989''). In the parliamentary debate on the death penalty in 1961 the Bolton case was referred to (without naming him) by two Labour MPs

Walter Nash Sir Walter Nash (12 February 1882 – 4 June 1968) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 27th prime minister of New Zealand in the Second Labour Government from 1957 to 1960. He is noted for his long period of political service, havin ...

and

Fred Hackett Frederick Hackett (1901 – 19 March 1963) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. He was a minister in both the First and Second Labour Governments of New Zealand and later the deputy leader of the opposition. Early life Hackett w ...

as an executed murder whose guilt was doubted by counsel, his doctor and the clergyman who officiated at the execution. In recent times, there has been speculation as to whether Bolton was guilty. His son, James Bolton, has attempted to clear his father's name. Sherwood Young dealt with the issue in his history of

capital punishment in New Zealand Capital punishment in New Zealand – the process of sentencing convicted offenders to death for the most serious crimes (capital crimes) and carrying out that sentence, as ordered by a legal system – first appeared in a codified form when New ...

in 1998.Sherwood Young (1998) ''Guilty on the Gallows: Famous Capital Crimes of New Zealand'': Wellington: Grantham House: In January 2001, '' Investigate Magazine'' published an article suggesting that Florence (who committed suicide some time after the events) was responsible for her sister's death and that she had also killed others. It is claimed that a note existed in which she admitted this, but that the note was suppressed.

References

External links

Investigate magazine issue containing an article questioning Bolton's guilt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolton, Walter James 1888 births 1957 deaths Executed New Zealand people People executed by New Zealand by hanging New Zealand farmers People executed for murder New Zealand people convicted of murder 20th-century executions by New Zealand People convicted of murder by New Zealand People from Whanganui 1956 murders in New Zealand