death_place death_date children birth_place conviction_penalty charge birth_date spouse article_title name occupation
auckland , new zealand 18 february 1957 james bolton wanganui , new zealand death by hanging murder yes 13 august 1888 beatrice mabel jones walter james bolton
 walter bolton farmer
walter james bolton

walter james bolton -lrb- 13 august 1888 -- 18 february 1957 -rrb- was a new zealand farmer who was found guilty of poisoning his wife .
he is known as the last person to be executed in new zealand before the abolition of capital punishment .
bolton was born in wanganui and grew up in nearby mangamahu .
he married beatrice mabel jones in 1913 , but beatrice died on 11 july 1956 after a long and debilitating illness .
an autopsy found traces of arsenic in her body , and a police investigation was launched .
bolton was formally charged with her murder in september .
the prosecution claimed that bolton was having an affair with beatrice 's sister , florence , who had moved in to help look after beatrice , and that bolton had poisoned his wife with arsenic he possessed for use on his farm .
it also alleged that he and florence had destroyed beatrice 's diary .
bolton 's defence argued that beatrice could have been poisoned accidentally , by arsenic entering the water supply .
water on the bolton 's farm was tested and found to contain arsenic , and traces of arsenic were also found in bolton and one of his daughters despite this evidence , a jury quickly found bolton guilty of murdering his wife , and he was sentenced to death .
he was hanged at mount eden prison in auckland on 18 february 1957 , aged 68 .
according to a contemporary newspaper account , his execution was allegedly botched -- instead of breaking his neck instantly , he was slowly strangled to death .
shortly afterward , the new zealand labour party won the 1957 new zealand general election and in effect , the practice of capital punishment ended with bolton 's execution .
due to bipartisan support for abolition , the death penalty faced statutory abolition for homicide and most other crimes when parliament passed the crimes act 1961 .
-lrb- the last vestiges of the death penalty in new zealand -- for treason and similar acts -- were abolished with the passage of the abolition of the death penalty act 1989 . -rrb-
in recent times , there has been speculation as to whether bolton was guilty .
his son , james bolton , has attempted to clear his father 's name .
sherwood young dealt with the issue in his history of capital punishment in new zealand in 1998 .
in january 2001 , `` investigate magazine '' published an article suggesting that florence -lrb- who committed suicide some time after the events -rrb- was responsible for her sister 's death and that she had also killed others .
it is claimed that a note existed in which she admitted this , but that the note was suppressed .
