1895: Our Execution Of Minnie Dean

August 18, 2021

By AHNZ

At 3am, 12 August 1895, Minnie Dean was killed by The State on a wave of moral panic. New Zealand’s mainstream was at such a point as to be deeply agitated and out for scapegoats.

Foster mothers such as Dean were the Oranga Tamariki of their day. Then, as now, there were fatalities and abuse. Several women before Dean were found guilty and sentenced to death for the same crimes against children but were commuted because they lived in less lucky times of our Moral Culture.

“Minnie Dean was executed this morning. She slept from 11.30 p.m. till three o’clock this morning. She took no breakfast, only a sip from a glass of spirits given her by the gaol surgeon. At three minutes to eight the Sheriff demanded her body, and at two minutes past eight Mrs Dean was dead.”

“It is understood that Minnie Dean left a written statement, which will’ be forwarded to the Government, placing a different aspect on the case from that inferred from the trial.” – Press Association Telegram, 13 August, 1895; Press; Papers Past

The last time in our history that New Zealand Victimhood Culture’s wave crested so high as to create a ‘lynching’ moral panic was in our early 1990s. Peter Ellis was the Minnie Dean of his era. In the 2020s we have a very agitated Victimhood Culture that will not pass away quietly without a similar episode unless history has misinformed us. Who’s next for receiving Minnie Dean’s inheritance?

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Note: Author Lynley Hood had sharp vision when she wrote comprehensive books about Dean and Ellis, two major New Zealand episodes of moral panic. Yet, she’s fully on board with the current iteration: the COVID hysteria. Go figure.

Image ref. Minnie Deans, the flowers planted over the dead children’s graves; AHNZ Archives (2020)

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