Canada

ROSS
Mary

Active in 1887 in Caraquet, New Brunswick

THE DISPATCH

The Village of Caraquet

The small village of Caraquet (Mi’kmaq for “the meeting of two rivers”) is located about 255km (158mi) from Moncton, New Brunswick. The first Europeans arrived in 1730, and by 1758, and additional 34 Acadian families—fleeing the Deportation of 1755— in the area. By 1877, Ville de Caraquet became famous for something else.

The Confirmed Murder

As early as July 19, 1887, newspapers were reporting about the murder. Mary (perhaps Jane) Ross was an unmarried woman who once had three children to care for. Ross was arrested for murdering her infant child. She had tried first to kill her child by suffocation by wrapping it in blankets. Upon failing, she rammed a spoon down the child’s throat. The child’s screams drew the attention of the landlady who rushed into the rented room to find Ross with the wailing child on her knees. The spoon broke apart before it could be pulled out, resulting in an agonizing death. 

The Inquest

A local doctor, Dr. Meahar, testified at the hastily held inquest and declared Ross to be insane. Despite local sentiment that Ross should be criminally prosecuted for the death, she was instead taken to an insane asylum.

The Insane Asylum

The Provincial Lunatic Asylum, located in Lancaster (near Saint John), more than 380km away, was possibly Ross’s destination. The Asylum was a rebuild of the first mental health facility constructed in British North America.

Speculation

It was speculated at the time that Mary Ross had also recently murdered her two other children.

WHERE IT HAPPENED

An interactive map of approximately where things happened