Yorke's Peninsula Advertiser and Miners' News (SA : 1872 - 1874), Tuesday 6 January 1874, page 3, Trove

Elzabeth Woolcock, convicted on the 4th December of the murder of her husband at Moonta, underwent the dread sentence of the law at the Adelaide Gaol on Tuesday, December 30, at 8 o'clock. The Sheriff of the Province, Mr. W. Boothby, read the warrant for the prisoner's execution in the presence of the principal officers of the Gaol, the Colonial Surgeon, several other medical men, and the representatives of the press. A few other persons were present, at the execution. At 8 a.m. the bell of the gaol tolled, and the condemned prisoner came from a cell about the centre of the prison, and proceeded to the outer and west side of the inner enclosure, where the scaffold was erected. She was attended by the Rev. Jas. Bickford and the Head Turnkey. She walked firmly, and, through apperently not insensible to her terrible position, was calm and collected, and mounted the scaffold without the least sign of trepidation. She was attired in a plain white dress, and carried in her hand a bunch of flowers. On the fatal platform, the Rev. Mr. Bickford, who had been administering the consolations of religion delivered a brief prayer, and then, having bidden the unhappy woman farewell, retired to the steps. The executioner adjusted the halter, drew the cap over the criminal's head, she not showing the least indication of fear or moving a muse'e in agitation, and then the bolt was drawn, and the woman dropped several feet. She struggled for some minutes, but this action must have been purely muscular, as it was afterwards found that the neck was dislocated, so that her sufferings must have been over instaneously upon the fall of the platform. Two hours later Mr T. Ward, J. P., held a formal inquest on the remains and having heard the evidence of the Sheriff, the Colonial Surgeon, and the Keeper of the Gaol, the Jury returned a verdict to the effect that the sentence of the Supreme Court had been duly crrried out upon the body of deceased. Elizabath Woolcock was a native of the colony having been born in 1847, at the Burra ; but she resided for some years at Ballarat in Victoria. Since her trial she has displayed penitence, and has been most attentive to, and grateful for the ministrations of her spiritual adviser. She left with him a long written statement, which he handed over to the Government, containing a history of her life, and a full confession of the crime for which she has suffered death. Respecting the causes which led her to the commissian of the murder, she states that she was ill-treated, and Satan tempted her. She was buried within the precincts of the Gaol at 11 o'clock, the Rev. Jas Bickford conducting the funeral service.—Advertiser.