The internet will tell you that Catherine Hayes was a monster who slept with her son and convinced him to murder her husband, John Hayes, but the internet is wrong. This is the true story of the life and death of Catherine Hayes.
Sources:
“A Narrative of the barbarous and unheard of murder of John Hayes…” 1726.
“Broadside: A true copy of the paper, which Mrs. Catherine Hayes deliver'd to a particular friend, on Sunday last, the 8th day of May, which was the day before her execution,” Kent State University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives, accessed September 16, 2026, http://omeka.library.kent.edu/special-collections/items/show/11482.
“Catherine Hayes Burnt for Petty Treason.” Capital Punishment UK. 3 June 2025. https://capitalpunishmentuk.org/catherine-hayes-burnt-for-petty-treason/
Enright, Mairead. “Catherine Hayes: ‘The sexual predatorburnt at the stake for her life of sin’” University of Birmingham. 18 March, 2018. https://blog.bham.ac.uk/legalherstory/2018/03/18/catherine-hayes-the-sexual-predator-burnt-at-the-stake-for-her-life-of-sin/
Gribble, Leonard. Queens of Crime (London: Hurst & Blackett, 1932).
Lane, Brian. The Butcheres: a casebook of macabre crimes and forensic detection. (London: BCA, 1991).
Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 9.0) Ordinary of Newgate's Account May 1726 (OA17260509). Available at: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/OA17260509 (Accessed: 16th September 2026).
Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 9.0) April 1726. Trial of Katharine Hays (t17260420-42). Available at: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t17260420-42 (Accessed: 16th September 2026).
Saxton, Kirsten. Narratives of Women and Murder in England, 1680-1760. (Surrey: Ashgate, 2009).
Newspapers:
London Journal
Mist’s Weekly Journal
Weekly Journal, or the British Gazetteer
Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston
