This 23-Year-Old Woman Was the Last to Get the Death Penalty
Luísa de Jesus was only 23 years old when she was condemned to death. The judges made her walk the streets with a rope around her neck, while her crimes were proclaimed. When getting to the gibbet, her hands were cut off. After being killed, her body was turned into ashes.
The children abandoned on the wheel
On the 1st of April 1772, Luísa did what she had done many times before. She went to the wheel and asked for two children to give to couples who were longing to care for them.
The wheel was created in Italy and later expanded to other European countries. It was a round wooden device, divided in half and rotating, that existed in hospitals and convents. People could place their babies there and ring a bell to let the person on the other side know a baby needed help. Nurses and nuns would care for the child until they could find an adoptive family.
The idea was intended to prevent cases of infanticide. Back then, people who couldn’t feed their babies would give them up. The birth…
