Elizabeth Margaret McNally, known as Lizzie Halliday, terrorized 19th-century America as the first woman sentenced to death by electric chair. Discover the dark history of a killer whose violence knew no bounds.
At the turn of the 19th century, a woman from County Antrim became infamous across the United States as the “worst woman on earth.” Elizabeth Margaret McNally, later known as Lizzie Halliday, etched her name into criminal history through a relentless series of murders and arson that left a trail of destruction from New York to Pennsylvania.
Born in 1859, McNally emigrated to New York City as a young child.. Her life was defined by a volatile temperament that severed ties with her own family before she reached adulthood.. By 1879, she had embarked on a nomadic life, entering into a series of marriages that consistently ended in mystery, sudden death, or attempted murder.. Whether she was poisoning husbands with arsenic or disappearing weeks after a wedding, McNally moved through the eastern states like a ghost with a lethal agenda.
A Trail of Arson and Murder
Her transition into the figure history remembers as Lizzie Halliday began in 1890 when she married Paul Halliday, an elderly farmer in Sullivan County, New York.. Her time on the farm was marked by escalating acts of terror, including multiple suspicious fires.. The situation turned lethal in 1893 when she burned down a mill, killing her husband’s disabled son, John.. This act was merely the beginning of the end for the “worst woman on earth.”
When authorities searched the Halliday farm following the disappearance of Paul Halliday, they discovered the bodies of Margaret and Sarah McQuillan, two sisters McNally had befriended years earlier, buried under hay.. Soon after, the mutilated remains of Paul Halliday himself were unearthed beneath the floorboards of the farmhouse.. The discovery shocked the nation, marking the start of a sensational legal battle that would change American jurisprudence regarding female criminals.
The Legal Sensation and Life Behind Bars
During her trial, McNally’s behavior was erratic, ranging from speaking in gibberish to physically attacking the sheriff so severely that he required an arm amputation due to infection.. In 1894, she became the first woman in the United States to be sentenced to death by electric chair.. However, due to the intense public outcry and the complexities of her mental state, New York Governor Roswell Flower commuted her sentence to life at the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
Even within the confines of an asylum, McNally’s violent nature remained uncontained.. In 1906, she launched a frenzied attack on a nurse named Nellie Wicks, stabbing her 200 times with a pair of stolen scissors.. This act cemented her reputation as a woman whose capacity for violence was absolute, regardless of her environment..
Misryoum notes that the legacy of Lizzie Halliday continues to fascinate historians as a case study in 19th-century criminology.. While tabloids of the era frequently indulged in sensationalist claims—such as fictional connections to Jack the Ripper or alleged crimes in Belfast—the verified facts of her life are chilling enough.. Her existence serves as a grim reminder of how an individual can operate in the shadows of a rapidly changing society, leaving devastation in their wake.. When she finally died in 1918, she was buried in an unmarked grave, leaving behind a legacy of terror that remains one of the darkest chapters in American true crime.