Title: The damnation of John Donellan
Description: In August 1780 Sir Theodosius Boughton, a dissolute Old Etonian twenty-year-old and heir to a Warwickshire fortune, died in painful convulsions after taking his medicine. The following year after an inquest and trial which became a cause celebre, his brother-in-law, Captain John 'Diamond' Donellan, Irish soldier of fortune and man about town, was hanged for his murder. The trial was a shambles. And was Donellan guilty?
Subjects: Death and burial, Trials, litigation, Investigation, Murder, History, Murder, great britain, Homicide investigation
Places: Great Britain
People: John Donellan (d. 1781), Theodosius Boughton Sir (d. 1780)
Time periods: 18th century