Patrick Higgins

Patrick Higgins was convicted of the murder of his two sons William Higgins 6 and John Higgins 4 and sentenced to death. He drowned them at Hopetoun Quarry, Abercorn in West Lothian on 25 October 1911. However, their bodies were not discovered until June 1913 by a ploughman and his friend who were walking by the quarry. The charge against Patrick Higgins at court was of having between 25 October 1911 and 1 January 1912, at a disused quarry known as Hopetoun Quarry, in the parish of Abercorn, Linlithgowshire, in which there was then a large quantity of water, assaulted William Higgins and John Higgins, his children, and tied them together with a cord, and thrown them into the quarry and murdered them. The case was notable for the fact that the bodies in the lake had been well preserved through a rare but natural process, and the food in their stomachs could still be identified. It was found that they had eaten Scotch broth only an hour before their deaths and that the vegetables in their stomachs were known to be grown locally. Laundry marks were also found on the remains of their clothing that allowed the police to track down a woman who said that she had given William Higgins and John Higgins Scotch broth on the last day they were seen in the village. It was heard that suspicion had already fallen on Patrick Higgins before the bodies were found after he had told people various stories to account for the absence of his children, saying that he had given them away to a couple of women on a train, that they had gone off to Canada, that they were with an aunt and also that they had had an accident. A miner who lived in Winchburgh who knew Patrick Higgins said that one Monday or Tuesday night in early November 1911, he saw Patrick Higgins with his boys passing along the road towards Winchburgh. He said that it was a wet and stormy night and that it was between 7pm and 8pm, and that that was the last he saw of the boys. The miner said that later that night at about 9.40pm he saw Patrick Higgins come into the Tally Ho! public house, noting that he was not with his boys and said that Patrick Higgins told him that he had got a good home for his boys, saying that he had met two ladies on the train and that they had taken a fancy to them. The miner said that Patrick Higgins told him that he didn't have the address of the ladies but said that he had given them his address. The miner pointed out that Patrick Higgins didn't have an address, and said that Patrick Higgins said that he did, saying that it was Patrick Higgins, Winchburgh Brickworks. The minor said that Patrick Higgins told him that he had got out of the train at Ratho and had run back to the Tally Ho! in order to be in time for a drink. The miner noted that there had been nothing peculiar about Patrick Higgins's behaviour when he saw him passing along the road, and added that Patrick Higgins had given him no indication by his manner or demeanour when he had seen him in the pub that he had just committed a horrible crime. The Inspector of Poor for the parish of Uphall, said that they had been providing outdoor relief for the boys and that Patrick Higgins had been arrested and accused of deserting his children. The Inspector of Poor said that he had called at the brickworks in October 1911 and had told Patrick Higgins that if he did not take charge of his children, steps would be taken against him by the Parish Council and said that he understood that Patrick Higgins would therefore take steps to do something for his children. The Inspector of Poor said that the Parish Council had nothing further to do with the children and said that he had assumed that Patrick Higgins had procured a guardian for them. A professor who carried out the post-mortems on the children said that both of the bodies had been in an advanced state of decomposition but that their outward forms had been well preserved although their clothing had been partially destroyed. He said that they both appeared well nourished and developed. He said that in the forehead of the taller child there was a hole that might have been the result of an injury but said that there were no other injuries on the bodies or signs of disease and that he was unable to determine their cause of death. He said that he thought that they had both been in the water for about two years. It was noted that the bodies had been preserved by a unique chemical process known as adipocere which was due to the cold water they had been submerged in and the lime from the quarry stone, which had caused the body fat in the boys to take on the consistency of a hard soap. The process was described in context by a forensic scientist that the University of Edinburgh thus: 'When a body is left for a long period in water, or buried in damp ground, it undergoes a distinctive change. Human fat, which is normally semi-fluid, is gradually converted to a fat that is quite firm, like mutton suet. This is adipocere. The conversion is a slow process, but permanent when complete. We were interested from a purely medical point of view, because extensive transformations are rarely come across, and these specimens were quite exceptional'. At his trial, Patrick Higgins's defence stated that he had a history of fits and had a certain amount of mental enfeeblement and that he might have suffered from epilepsy and that he had been insane at the time of the murders. When the judge at the trial summed up he said that there was no doubt that the bodies of the two children were William Higgins and John Higgins, and that it was equally certain that they had drowned, adding that no man had better knowledge of that than Patrick Higgins. He said that no man in their senses would suggest that the two children of tender years would have wandered on a dark night to the lonely, sequestered spot where they were found and to have then fallen into the lake by accident, noting that the cord which bound them attested to the contrary. The judge said that the only question was whose hand had done the deed? The judge noted that the defence claimed that if Patrick Higgins had done the deed in November 1911, then he was probably insane, but noted that no one was claiming that he was insane then, in 1913 at the time of his trial. The judge then said however, that the question of Patrick Higgins's sanity was a question for the jury. It was heard that Patrick Higgins had seen active service in India and that since returning to Scotland he had complained to his doctor of being forgetful and of having suffered frequent headaches. However, it was said that when his wife died in 1910, he struggled with his children. It was later noted that although the Inspector of Poor had been in contact with Patrick Higgins regarding him deserting his children, all they had done was charge him and although he was said to have been earning well, he had struggled to manage his children on his own. The judge then said, 'It is plain beyond dispute that if he did this deed the motive was obvious, although horribly inadequate. The prisoner found that although he was earning a good wage his children were burdensome to him; they were a nuisance. He deliberately made up his mind that he preferred to spend the money which he could well earn, on his own self-indulgence, and that he would not spare a single penny to support his own offspring. There is no insanity about that. He was just a cold, callous, morally depraved creature, who preferred his own self-indulgence to discharging his obligations as a parent to his children. Counsel thought the prisoner would have been well pleased if he could have got rid of the children in any other way than drowning them. The defence that the man's intellect was impaired by epileptic fits or any kind of fits was simply ridiculous'. The judge also scathed the parochial authorities saying that it was scandalous that when the relations between the parochial authorities, the Inspector of Poor for the parish of Uphall, and Patrick Higgins ended, that William Higgins and John Higgins should just be allowed to disappear within the parish with no questions asked. He said that he thought that the matter should be brought before the Local Government Board in order that they could look into it, noting that the parochial authorities had a duty beyond avoiding expenses of child maintenance and recovering small sums they might disperse, he said that they had a duty to paupers, for who they were responsible and most especially for helpless dependents of such a man as Patrick Higgins, especially so when those dependents had been, as they were, so emphatically brought before them. He was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death, however, the jury recommended him to mercy on the grounds of the length of time that had elapsed between the commission of the act and the trial of Patrick Higgins. Before his execution he requested that a priest make it know that he considered that his sentence was just and that drink was the cause of his ruin. It was noted that the trial further held some legal significance after the judge told the jury that they could not consider the partial defence of diminished responsibility which was more commonly being used to reduce murder charges down to manslaughter and culpable homicide. He said, 'I understand irresponsibility, but I cannot understand limited responsibility. I desire very humbly to enter my protest against this doctrine being accepted as part of the criminal law and practice of Scotland until the matter is more deliberately dealt with by a larger Court'. It was noted that the process of adipocere was so rare, that the professors and pathologists at Edinburgh University had taken body parts when the police were not looking to use for research and teaching. However, it was reported that in 2009, after requests by relatives of the children in America, the body parts were collected and cremated in a funeral service. The head of the pathology department at the University of Edinburgh in 2009 said that it had been decades since the children's body parts had been shown to students and since the body parts were taken 100 years earlier, that there had been changes in medical ethics and that it was only right that the body parts be properly put to rest. Higgins, Patrick In a murder case in Scotland to be known as the Hopetoun Quarry case the presence of adipocere was particulary helpful in solving the case. It all happened on a winters evening in November 1911, Patrick Higgins who was a labourer found himself looking after his two children alone after his wife had died the year before. The fact that they were a burden to him was no secret but no-one would have suspected what he would do. He arrived in the local bar without the children on this night and when asked where they were he explained that he had been in to Edinburgh and had met two young ladies who had offered to take and look after the children. He simply said that the boys would be much better off in their new home. Nothing more was seen or heard of the two boys William and John. It was more than eighteen months later that an object was seen floating in the local quarry. The quarry was disused and was constantly flooded. When the object was fished from the water they could see it was a small body. As they landed the body they were shocked to see another body attached by a peice of rope. The bodies still retained there basic shape even though they were badly decomposed and it later was confirmed that the bodies had almost entirely turned into adipocere. The post mortem was carried out by Professor Harvey Littlejohn. Although the bodies had been in the water for nearly two years the stomach contents had been preserved so well that they were able to tell that the little boys had eaten a meal of Scotch broth about an hour before they were murdered. From laundry marks on their clothes the police were able to track down a lady who confirmed that she had given soup to John and William Higgins on the last day they were seen in the village. The police soon arrested Patrick Higgins and charged him with the murder of his own two children. It took the jury one hour and twenty five minutes to return a verdict of guilty with a plea for mercy as so much time had passed since the murders had taken place. The judge at the trial, Lord Johnston did not feel as lenient as the jury and placing the black cap on his head he sentenced Higgins to death. Higgins showed no emotion as he was led below to the cells. On the 2 October 1913 the official Hangman John Ellis was ready to see that the sentence as passed by the court was correctly carried out. VICIOUS monsters lived in the quarry waters. You could die in those waters, parents warned their children. The local myth in Linlithgow frightened kids into staying away from disused Hopetoun Quarry. It was a dangerous place, with no one sure how deep the pool was or what lurked down, there. But two men were about to discover the real horrors of Hopetoun Quarry. It was was a sunny day in June 1913, yet still the quarry's dark pool looked menacing. Not so menacing as to worry ploughman Thomas Duncan and his pal, James Thompson. But that was about to change. As the men walked past the quarry, as they had done throughout their lives, Thomas Duncan thought he spotted something in the water. A dead sheep maybe? If only. When Duncan and Thompson moved closer, their blood froze. Two young boys lay there, their bodies tied together, lifeless eyes staring up at them. Fetching a long branch, Duncan eased the tiny corpses towards dry ground. But when they had almost reached the bank, the branch snapped. Another effort brought one child towards shore but the other floated free. Duncan and Thompson were hardy farming types but this was too much for them. They fetched the local bobbies. An hour later, the two bodies lay on dry ground. They were bloated and covered in algae, but the freezing cold water had done the cops a favour by preserving the corpses very well. Good-looking boys, they had been aged around six and four. They were recognisable as brothers, even in death. Unaccustomed to major crime, even the local police knew it was murder. The rope tying the bodies together was a giveaway. It didn't take the cops long to suss that only two kids had moved from the area in the past few months. Or had they? Some neighbours said the boys had gone to a relative in Canada. Others said they were with an aunt in Edinburgh, or had died in some accident. Maybe if Patrick Higgins had stuck to one story he would have avoided suspicion. Maybe not. Either way he was arrested and jail, just prayers and charged with murdering his sons, William, six, and four-year-old John. Those who knew Higgins were shocked. They saw him as a decent enough man fallen on bad times. He'd seen active service in India, and since returning to civvies he'd complained to his GP of being forgetful and suffering frequent headaches. The doctor was sympathetic but could do little to help. Higgins, like so many of that time, just had to grin and bear it. Then disaster struck. In 1910, Higgins's wife died. He had no extended family to help care for the children and the welfare state had not even been conceived of. He would just have to struggle on. Higgins was a labourer and had to travel around the Linlithgow area searching for work. If he didn't work, they didn't eat. In those dark days his two boys had no choice but to go with him. A labourer's measly wages couldn't feed the three of them properly, never mind provide a decent home. They often slept rough and ate stolen potatoes roasted in camp fires. At one point, someone reported Higgins to the police and he was charged with child neglect. The boys were taken into care and placed with a woman in Broxburn. But back then, a parent - even a neglectful one - had to pay for his children's keep. Higgins fell behind with the payments. His sons' foster mother couldn't have that and promptly delivered them back to their father. Nobody seemed to notice that the two young boys were again being cared for by a man who had been judged incapable of caring for them. By turning a blind eye, they were signing the boys' death warrant. Loneliness, the constant struggle to earn a crust, and now the burden of caring for two needy young boys had driven Patrick Higgins to booze, which, of course, just made his problems worse. One rainy night in November 1911, Higgins was seen out walking with his boys. Locals were used to the bedraggled threesome trailing the streets, and paid no attention. But this time Higgins wasn't looking for shelter. He knew exactly where he was going. Down by Hopetoun Quarry, he took a rope from his coat pocket and tied the two youngsters together. Then the father picked his sons up and threw them as far as he could into the murky water. Did Higgins feel a pang of remorse? It is now impossible to say. But what we do know is that after killing his boys, he went to a pub in nearby Winch-burgh. To drown his sorrows? Higgins pled not guilty to the murders. Not that he denied killing his sons, but he claimed he was insane at the time. Scotland's most eminent neurosurgeon was called to assess if Higgins had epilepsy. It didn't wash with the judge, Lord Johnston, who declared that the accused's "callousness, cold-bloodedness and deliberate cruelty were not insanity." Higgins was unanimously found guilty but the jury took a most unusual step. They felt some sympathy for Higgins and asked for mercy. The judge sympathised but was compelled to sentence him to death. Lord Johnston pronounced the death penalty but did not don the customary black cap. A symbolic statement of his unhappiness at events and Higgins's fate? It seems so. The judge wasn't finished. He slated the lack of professionalism of those paid to protect the two children. Wee William and John would have still been alive, he said, if those officials had done their jobs when the boys were given up by the foster parent. His words echo many a modern child care tragedy. When the murders of the wee boys first became public, the people of Scotland were horrified. Gradually, some began to see the boys and their killer as victims. A larger crowd than usual gathered outside Edinburgh's Calton Jail on October 2 1913 for the execution by hangman John Ellis. The usual drunkenness and frivolity were not evident. Many held prayer vigils round bonfires. When the black flag was hoisted telling the world that Higgins was dead, there were no cheers. Instead, there were prayers and weeping. Was this the start of a public mood in favour of taking more care of our vulnerable? Maybe the sad lives and sadder deaths of wee William and John Higgins were not in vain. Maybe the hanging of their father had a greater purpose than punishment. IT is the final chapter in a remarkable story involving murder, deception, two bodies never properly laid to rest and Edinburgh's Sherlock Holmes. The horrific discovery in 1913 of the bodies of John Higgins, seven, and his brother William, four, in a flooded quarry near West Lothian eventually led to their father being hanged for their murder – Edinburgh's first execution of the 20th century. The story did not end there however, as the uniquely preserved bodies were considered so startling a find by pathologists at Edinburgh University that they decided to "steal" body parts for future study. Almost a century later and the final remains of the boys have now been cremated in a funeral service, after a request from relatives in the United States. Professor David Harrison, head of pathology at the University of Edinburgh, said it had been decades since the body parts were last shown to students. "These events took place almost 100 years ago and clearly there has been a major change in medical ethics since then," he said. "In the 11 years I have worked here, and before that when I was a student here, we never used these remains in classes, although we have used photographs. "It is only right that they be properly put to rest, and there was a large number of staff from the pathology department at the service." In a case which made headlines at the time, the bodies were found floating in the deep, cold waters of Hopetoun Quarry, near Winchburgh, where it emerged they had been drowned two years earlier. The cold water, along with lime from the quarry stone, had led to the bodies undergoing an extremely rare post-mortem change called adipocere, where the fat takes on a consistency rather like hard soap, preserving the body. The examination of the bodies was carried out by Sir Sydney Smith, a forensic pathologist known as the Scottish Sherlock Holmes, who later gave evidence that led to the prosecution of the boys' father Patrick Higgins. He worked with colleague Sir Harvey Littlejohn, and the pair felt that the remains would provide valuable insights for future students of forensic medicine. Years later Sir Sidney admitted in a book that he and Prof Littlejohn had distracted police officers before removing limbs and internal organs from the boys to use in teaching. These have remained in the care of the university ever since. Yellow - "be aware" - severe warnings in force overnight. Picture: Met Office Scotland's weather: Blizzards warning with up to 15cm of snow forecast Last year Maureen Marella, an American resident who is believed to be the last living relative of the boys, contacted the university asking for the body parts to be put to rest. In accordance with the family's faith, the University held a requiem mass at the University's Catholic chaplaincy, followed by a cremation ceremony at the Mortonhall Crematorium. The ashes will now be held by the university for Ms Marella, who is understood to want to scatter them in Scotland. HIGH-PROFILE CASE THE high-profile discovery of the bodies in Hopetoun Quarry and the subsequent court case was reported in the Evening News of the day, pictured. In 1910 Patrick Higgins had been given custody of his sons after the death of their mother. He had been unable to cope with raising them and in 1911 was jailed for child neglect. On his release he continued to struggle and eventually left the boys in the care of a friend. One night in October 1911, the boys left to find their father at his work. Witnesses said they saw Higgins leading the boys towards the quarry. The pair were never seen alive again and their bodies were found in the quarry in June 1913. After Higgins identified them he was arrested and tried for murder. Despite a plea of temporary insanity, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Read more at: https://www.scotsman.com/news/murdered-boys-final-remains-laid-to-rest-1-1206016 A prosecution thanks to preservation In 1913 two small bodies were discovered in a disused quarry. The waterlogged bodies were found at post mortem to be those of two little boys, whose ages were put at seven and four years old. Barely recognisable as human, the bodies had been converted to a substance called adipocere. Home Office Pathologist Dr Dick Shepherd talks about the extent of the adipocere which meant that the pathologist Sydney Smith, who on this case began a legendary career in forensic science, could put the time of the boys’ death at about eighteen months prior to discovery. The adipocere had also preserved their stomach contents and it was established that they had eaten just an hour before their deaths, and that the meal had been of vegetables known to be grown locally. With this information the identity of the boys was quickly established and their father, a drunk who worked at a local brickyard, was arrested. An interview with a local historian depicts the poverty of the time and the sort of man Patrick Higgins was. In the end he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Patrick Higgins In a murder case in Scotland to be known as the Hopetoun Quarry case the presence of adipocere was particulary helpful in solving the case. It all happened on a winters evening in November 1911, Patrick Higgins who was a labourer found himself looking after his two children alone after his wife had died the year before. The fact that they were a burden to him was no secret but no-one would have suspected what he would do. He arrived in the local bar without the children on this night and when asked where they were he explained that he had been in to Edinburgh and had met two young ladies who had offered to take and look after the children. He simply said that the boys would be much better off in their new home. Nothing more was seen or heard of the two boys William and John. It was more than eighteen months later that an object was seen floating in the local quarry. The quarry was disused and was constantly flooded. When the object was fished from the water they could see it was a small body. As they landed the body they were shocked to see another body attached by a peice of rope. The bodies still retained there basic shape even though they were badly decomposed and it later was confirmed that the bodies had almost entirely turned into adipocere. The post mortem was carried out by Professor Harvey Littlejohn. Although the bodies had been in the water for nearly two years the stomach contents had been preserved so well that they were able to tell that the little boys had eaten a meal of Scotch broth about an hour before they were murdered. From laundry marks on their clothes the police were able to track down a lady who confirmed that she had given soup to John and William Higgins on the last day they were seen in the village. The police soon arrested Patrick Higgins and charged him with the murder of his own two children. It took the jury one hour and twenty five minutes to return a verdict of guilty with a plea for mercy as so much time had passed since the murders had taken place. The judge at the trial, Lord Johnston did not feel as lenient as the jury and placing the black cap on his head he sentenced Higgins to death. Higgins showed no emotion as he was led below to the cells. On the 2 October 1913 the official Hangman John Ellis was ready to see that the sentence as passed by the court was correctly carried out. Post-mortem retention of body parts, nearly a century on CriminalLetters.blogspot.com Thursday, 10 January 2008 According to the BBC News website yesterday, a relative of the victims in one of Scotland’s most notorious murder cases has called for the return of body parts which were taken by the two pathologists in the case, Sir Sydney Smith and Harvey Littlejohn, and are held by Edinburgh University. Patrick Higgins stood trial for the murder of his two sons in September 1913, the case against him being that he had assaulted them and thrown them into the water-filled Hopetoun Quarry. He was found guilty, was not reprieved, and was hanged on Wednesday, October 1, 1913. His trial is of some legal significance, because the judge, Lord Johnston, told the jury that they could not consider the partial defence of diminished responsibility, which was gradually coming to be recognised as a basis for reducing murder to culpable homicide. Lord Johnston told the jury that he could “understand irresponsibility, but I cannot understand limited responsibility… I desire very humbly to enter my protest against this doctrine being accepted as part of the criminal law and practice of Scotland until the matter is more deliberately dealt with by a larger Court” (HM Advocate v Higgins (1913) 7 Adam 229, at 233). Interestingly, Sir Sydney Smith wrote quite openly about the “body-snatching” (as he termed it) in his popular 1959 book, Mostly Murder, which sheds some light on the decision to retain specimens from the post-mortem. This was not, it seems, the arbitrary retention of body parts which simply happened to be available to the pathologist. The bodies of Higgins’ children had been in the water for almost two years before they were found, which meant that an unusual process had taken place. As Smith later explained: “When a body is left for a long period in water, or buried in damp ground, it undergoes a distinctive change. Human fat, which is normally semi-fluid, is gradually converted to a fat that is quite firm, like mutton suet. This is adipocere. The conversion is a slow process, but permanent when complete. We were interested from a purely medical point of view, because extensive transformations are rarely come across, and these specimens were quite exceptional.” According to Smith, a university magazine “at the time” went so far as to describe Smith and Littlejohn’s actions in verse: “Two bodies found in a lonely mere, Converted into adipocere. Harvey, when called in to see ‘em, Said, “Just what I need for my museum.”” Despite what this might suggest, the retention was hardly open and honest. At the post-mortem in Linlithgow, Smith arranged with Littlejohn for the latter to distract the attention of the two police officers present by asking them to leave the mortuary so that he could confer with them. While they were outside, Smith packed up a substantial part of the bodies (the heads, internal organs and half of the limbs), put the remains in a coffin and screwed down the lid. Smith and Littlejohn then took the train back to Edinburgh with the body parts parcelled up and placed on the luggage rack, in a crowded carriage on a day so hot that the pair feared that the smell would give their plot away. Although the children’s mother had died a year before them, their grandmother was still alive and gave evidence at Higgins’ trial, as did two of his sisters and his brother in law (see The Scotsman, 11 September 1913, p7). From Smith’s account, it seems that none of them would have had any reason to doubt that the coffin contained the complete remains of their relatives. In 1959, according to Smith, the specimens were still on display at the university and used to illustrate adipocere formation to students. Interesting legal questions might well arise in this situation, but in any event they have been forestalled by a statement from the University that it will return the remains provided that the relative who has made the request (Maureen Marella) can provide proof of her relationship to the two boys and that other surviving relatives agree. (As the case involves Edinburgh University, I should point out that I have no knowledge of the request and the current circumstances beyond what has been reported by the BBC.) Dad couldn't cope... so he drowned his sons aged six and four By Reg McKay - DailyRecord.co.uk October 17, 2007 VICIOUS monsters lived in the quarry waters. You could die in those waters, parents warned their children. The local myth in Linlithgow frightened kids into staying away from disused Hopetoun Quarry. It was a dangerous place, with no one sure how deep the pool was or what lurked down, there. But two men were about to discover the real horrors of Hopetoun Quarry. It was was a sunny day in June 1913, yet still the quarry's dark pool looked menacing. Not so menacing as to worry ploughman Thomas Duncan and his pal, James Thompson. But that was about to change. As the men walked past the quarry, as they had done throughout their lives, Thomas Duncan thought he spotted something in the water. A dead sheep maybe? If only. When Duncan and Thompson moved closer, their blood froze. Two young boys lay there, their bodies tied together, lifeless eyes staring up at them. Fetching a long branch, Duncan eased the tiny corpses towards dry ground. But when they had almost reached the bank, the branch snapped. Another effort brought one child towards shore but the other floated free. Duncan and Thompson were hardy farming types but this was too much for them. They fetched the local bobbies. An hour later, the two bodies lay on dry ground. They were bloated and covered in algae, but the freezing cold water had done the cops a favour by preserving the corpses very well. Good-looking boys, they had been aged around six and four. They were recognisable as brothers, even in death. Unaccustomed to major crime, even the local police knew it was murder. The rope tying the bodies together was a giveaway. It didn't take the cops long to suss that only two kids had moved from the area in the past few months. Or had they? Some neighbours said the boys had gone to a relative in Canada. Others said they were with an aunt in Edinburgh, or had died in some accident. Maybe if Patrick Higgins had stuck to one story he would have avoided suspicion. Maybe not. Either way he was arrested and jail, just prayers and charged with murdering his sons, William, six, and four-year-old John. Those who knew Higgins were shocked. They saw him as a decent enough man fallen on bad times. He'd seen active service in India, and since returning to civvies he'd complained to his GP of being forgetful and suffering frequent headaches. The doctor was sympathetic but could do little to help. Higgins, like so many of that time, just had to grin and bear it. Then disaster struck. In 1910, Higgins's wife died. He had no extended family to help care for the children and the welfare state had not even been conceived of. He would just have to struggle on. Higgins was a labourer and had to travel around the Linlithgow area searching for work. If he didn't work, they didn't eat. In those dark days his two boys had no choice but to go with him. A labourer's measly wages couldn't feed the three of them properly, never mind provide a decent home. They often slept rough and ate stolen potatoes roasted in camp fires. At one point, someone reported Higgins to the police and he was charged with child neglect. The boys were taken into care and placed with a woman in Broxburn. But back then, a parent - even a neglectful one - had to pay for his children's keep. Higgins fell behind with the payments. His sons' foster mother couldn't have that and promptly delivered them back to their father. Nobody seemed to notice that the two young boys were again being cared for by a man who had been judged incapable of caring for them. By turning a blind eye, they were signing the boys' death warrant. Loneliness, the constant struggle to earn a crust, and now the burden of caring for two needy young boys had driven Patrick Higgins to booze, which, of course, just made his problems worse. One rainy night in November 1911, Higgins was seen out walking with his boys. Locals were used to the bedraggled threesome trailing the streets, and paid no attention. But this time Higgins wasn't looking for shelter. He knew exactly where he was going. Down by Hopetoun Quarry, he took a rope from his coat pocket and tied the two youngsters together. Then the father picked his sons up and threw them as far as he could into the murky water. Did Higgins feel a pang of remorse? It is now impossible to say. But what we do know is that after killing his boys, he went to a pub in nearby Winch-burgh. To drown his sorrows? Higgins pled not guilty to the murders. Not that he denied killing his sons, but he claimed he was insane at the time. Scotland's most eminent neurosurgeon was called to assess if Higgins had epilepsy. It didn't wash with the judge, Lord Johnston, who declared that the accused's "callousness, cold-bloodedness and deliberate cruelty were not insanity." Higgins was unanimously found guilty but the jury took a most unusual step. They felt some sympathy for Higgins and asked for mercy. The judge sympathised but was compelled to sentence him to death. Lord Johnston pronounced the death penalty but did not don the customary black cap. A symbolic statement of his unhappiness at events and Higgins's fate? It seems so. The judge wasn't finished. He slated the lack of professionalism of those paid to protect the two children. Wee William and John would have still been alive, he said, if those officials had done their jobs when the boys were given up by the foster parent. His words echo many a modern child care tragedy. When the murders of the wee boys first became public, the people of Scotland were horrified. Gradually, some began to see the boys and their killer as victims. A larger crowd than usual gathered outside Edinburgh's Calton Jail on October 2 1913 for the execution by hangman John Ellis. The usual drunkenness and frivolity were not evident. Many held prayer vigils round bonfires. When the black flag was hoisted telling the world that Higgins was dead, there were no cheers. Instead, there were prayers and weeping. Was this the start of a public mood in favour of taking more care of our vulnerable? Maybe the sad lives and sadder deaths of wee William and John Higgins were not in vain. Maybe the hanging of their father had a greater purpose than punishment.