Walter Bolton

Background

Bolton was born in Wanganui and grew up in nearby Mangamahu.

Career

He is known as the last person to be executed in New Zealand before the abolition of capital punishment. An autopsy found traces of arsenic in her body, and a police investigation was launched. Bolton was formally charged with her murder in September.

lieutenant also alleged that he and Florence had destroyed Beatrice"s diary.

Bolton"s defence argued that Beatrice could have been poisoned accidentally, by arsenic entering the water supply. He was hanged at Mount Eden Prison in Auckland on 18 February 1957, aged 68.

According to a contemporary newspaper account, his execution was allegedly botched — instead of breaking his neck instantly, he was slowly strangled to death. Due to bipartisan support for abolition, the death penalty faced statutory abolition for homicide and most other crimes when Parliament passed the Crimes Acting 1961.

(The last vestiges of the death penalty in New Zealand — for treason and similar acts — were abolished with the passage of the Abolition of the Death Penalty Acting 1989)

In recent times, there has been speculation as to whether Bolton was guilty.

Sherwood Young dealt with the issue in his history of capital punishment in New Zealand in 1998. In January 2001, Investigate Magazine published an article suggesting that Florence (who committed suicide some time after the events) was responsible for her sister"s death and that she had also killed others lieutenant is claimed that a note existed in which she admitted this, but that the note was suppressed.

Achievements

• Shortly afterward, the New Zealand Labour Party won the 1957 New Zealand General Election and in effect, the practice of capital punishment ended with Bolton"s execution.