‘It just seems wrong’: Author seeks justice for woman hanged in Sarnia 150 years ago

Bob McCarthy still hopes there can be justice for Elizabeth Workman.

The Sarnia writer is marking Monday’s 150th anniversary of the hanging of Workman, a Mooretown woman convicted of murdering her abusive husband, at a memorial church service and local readings.

McCarthy released his book, Case 666 – A Travesty of Justice, in 2013 about Workman’s conviction and hanging in Sarnia a century and a half ago and he has a new publication about her case, Why?

Workman was hanged June 19, 1873, at the former Lambton County jail after being convicted of the murder of her husband, James Workman, who was said to have abused her.

“Elizabeth Workman remains to this day the only woman ever convicted and executed under Canadian law following a trial at which the jury recommended mercy,” McCarthy said.

He’s currently circulating a petition to Gov. Gen. Mary Simon seeking a review of Workman’s case, and is holding events on the anniversary.

McCarthy will speak about the case during a commemorative service at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church at 9 am Monday, then at the Mooretown Library at 11:30 am and The Book Keeper book store in Sarnia at 7 pm

Copies of both books will be available at those events for anyone donating $10 or more to the Women’s Interval Home in Workman’s memory.

McCarthy, a retired high school teacher who has written several books about local history, was working on a story about a man hanged in Sarnia when he discovered Workman’s case, and later ordered a transcript of his trial.

“When I opened the package, the first thing I saw was ‘Case 666,’ ” McCarthy said. “It was almost to me like a spirit was calling out from that file saying, ‘Somebody tell my story.’”

With funding from Lambton’s Creative County fund, McCarthy was able to print and send copies of his first book about Workman to every Canadian MP and senator, though only three responded and it didn’t result in any action to revisit his case, he said.

“I was very disappointed,” McCarthy said.

“But I was still held by Elizabeth’s story.”

Workman’s lawyer was appointed just a day before her trial in Sarnia and no witnesses or evidence were presented on her behalf, McCarthy said.

After the trial, many in the community called on the government to reconsider the death sentence, but Workman was executed and buried in an unmarked grave on the jail grounds.

McCarthy said he believes, based on his research, Workman’s sentence should have been commuted to a prison sentence.

“Nobody has ever acknowledged that it was wrong that she should be executed,” he said. “It just seems wrong.”

He continued to research the story and at one point contacted a woman descended from Workman.

“She had been abused by a stepfather,” he said. “The last time I talked to her, she was on her own living in a car with two cats.”

Workman’s son was nine at the time of the trial and made to testify against his mother, said McCarthy, who hasn’t been able to track down what became of the boy after the trial. “He disappeared.”

McCarthy made several community presentations about the case after writing Case 666, and women often approached him with their own stories of abuse.

“That made her story more important to be told,” he said. “I decided on the 150th anniversary, I would try to re-publicize the story.”

He approached St. Andrew’s about holding a service on the anniversary of the hanging because his minister at the time had written to the government seeking clemency for Workman. He also stood by Workman as she was led to the gallows.

McCarthy said his latest book, Why?, is told from the imagined point-of-view of the minister.

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