Jeannie Donald

Personal

Passions

Scottish homicide; on trial in July 1934 for the murder of Helen Priestly, age eight when her body was found in a sack under the stairs of the Aberdeen tenement where she lived, 4/21/1934. The child had gone to the store the prior afternoon to buy a loaf of bread for her mom, and never returned. She had dyed of asphyxiation and it was a suspected rape, which was later disproven. The neighbors were investigated, in particular, the Donald family. Helen had persisted in called Mrs. Donald "Coconut" until Jeannie Donald had hit Helen. The two families had maintained enmity since, not speaking. Human hairs were found in the sack with Helen which proved to be those of Mrs. Donald, and a part of a loaf of bread was found in her kitchen, the brand that Mrs. Priestly used. Jeannie Donald was arrested and went to trial in July 1934. It was concluded that she decided to teach Helen a lesson for her impertinence and had jumped out from under the stairs. Helen could have vomited in fright and choked to death. Mrs. Donald could then have simulated rape with some blunt instrument to deflect suspicion from herself before putting the child's body in the sack. Jeannie Donald was found guilty and given the death sentence, but this was later commuted to life. She was released in 1944 and disappeared from the public eye, dying in 1976.