Luisade Jesus, born in 1750, was a Portuguese “baby farmer.” She would take in abandoned babies and receive a fee 600reisplus clothesfor the child and afterwards poison them so that she could keep the expense money for herself. She operated Coimbra(the archaic name of Lisbon). Caught in her crimes, she was arrested and confessed to killing 28 of the 33 children she had taken in. She was executed onJuly 1,1772,at the age of 22 years. She was sentenced to death and carried through the streetsof Lisbon,whipped, hangedand then publicly burnt. Luisade Jesuswas, reputedly, the lastwoman to beexecutedwasin Portugal.
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Sources:
Violenza Donne, Centro documentazione
Diccionario Bibliographico Portuguez, Estudos De Innocencio Da Silva, Applicaves A Portugal E Ao Brasil, Volumes 7, 1862, Lisbon, p. 237
Johnann Peter Frank, A Complete System of Medical Police, Johns Hopkins UP, 1976, p. 120 (footmote citing Meissner)
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