Benbecula murders took place during a ‘maniacal paroxysm’

The child had been troublesome and was teething and I thought the laudanum would make her sleep. ELIZABETH GILCHRIST

One of the most violent cases to be highlighted in the exhibition is that of Angus McPhee – a manic depressive who was “absolutely crazy” and bludgeoned his aunt and parents to death.

Born on Christmas night 1832, Angus was 26 years old when he was admitted to Perth Criminal Lunatic Department (CLD) after committing the murders “in a maniacal paroxysm” in an isolated community on the island of Benbecula leaving their bodies “mangled and bloody”.

During his first three months at the CLD Angus was more or less continuously deranged, experiencing sudden episodes of violent insanity.

Liable to “periods of exaltation and destructiveness with recurrent attacks of mania” when “furiously maniacal”, Angus was put in a straight-jacket and anklets and in handcuffs when less so.

In more placid periods he suffered from persistently held delusions.

Reported in 1877 to be in love with one of the female attendants, Angus was a “chronic” self-abuser who was given potassium bromide, a sedative and anti-convulsant which also calmed sexual excitement.

Another murderer featured is Elizabeth Gilchrist or Brown, who was admitted in 1868.

She was 21 when she killed her six-month-old daughter Jessie by giving her laudanum because “the child had been troublesome and was teething and I thought the laudanum would make her sleep”.

Yet moments later she admitted: “I did mean to destroy her”.

Then there’s John McFadyen, admitted in 1872, for the drowning of two-year-old Alexander Shields in the River Clyde at Glasgow.

He abducted “Sandy” from the street while the boy was waiting to greet his father’s return from work, stripped him and threw him in the water, holding him down with a stick.

The child’s distraught mother caught him running away with her son’s clothes.

A map shows where the department was located on the Perth Prison site.