The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Insight into faces of criminal past
CRIME: Braco murder features in Rogues Gallery exhibition in Edinburgh
As a one-time whaler and then vagrant who sang on the streets for money, George Chalmers of Fraserburgh might have faded from memory had he not visited Perthshire in December 1869.
A brutal and bloody murder in Braco and a date with the hangman in the country’s first ever private execution have ensured his notoriety endures almost a century and a half later.
His story is one of a number to feature in the Rogues Gallery: Faces of Crime exhibition staged by the National Records of Scotland.
It offers an insight into Scotland’s criminal past and pairs some of the earliest police mug shots with extracts from trial records.
Chalmers is one of the most notorious of those featured as his crimes threw a nationwide spotlight on Braco.
He was found guilty of bludgeoning tollbooth keeper John Miller to death in his home on December 21 1869.
A set of “vagrant’s clothes” were left at the scene, with the killer assumed to have stolen Mr Miller’s finer outfit.
Local vagrants were rounded up but prison guards at Alloa recognised the clothing left behind as belonging to Chalmers, who had been released days earlier.
The killing shocked the community, with a generous reward of £50 offered for information leading to Chalmers’ arrest.
A reward poster described him as “a native of Aberdeenshire who carried out casual farm work and was known for falling foul of the law”.
His mug shot was taken around Perthshire, the police having coloured in his beard and cheeks.
The efforts proved successful as witnesses recognised his stoop, stammer and red beard and he was arrested on May 25 1870.
As the authorities sought to strengthen the case against him, Chalmers was paraded through towns and villages in his stolen clothes to see if people recognised him.
Chalmers maintained his innocence until the end but was hanged at 8.08am on October 4 1870 at Perth Prison, his body obscured from view by a screen.
It was the first private execution to take place in Scotland, the House of Commons having decided the public events were “degrading” and led to “scandalous and revolting scenes”, with a committee criticising the “lawlessness and brutality” of the crowds that gathered to view them.
Chalmers was buried in the prison grounds in an unmarked grave.
His details and those of other criminals, were discovered in a series of photograph albums in the National Records of Scotland archives.
The Faces of Crime exhibition runs at the General Register House in Edinburgh’s Princes Street until December 1.