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Hilda Blake was the only woman to be executed in Manitoba and was put to death on December 27th 1899 in the Brandon Jail on Redeau Street, and Victoria Avenue.  
 
She was a 21-year-old housekeeper who was convicted of murdering her Masters wife Mary Lane on July 5th 1899. Hilda was an immigrant worker who was reportedly jealous of the treatment Mrs Robert Lane gave to her children. Hilda purchased a handgun from someone in Winnipeg and shot her employers wife.  
 
At first Ms. Blake claimed the Murder was committed by a Tramp who was begging for food at the home, and when Mrs Mary Lane refused to supply food he pulled the gun and shot her.  
 
Hilda changed this story after a police officer discovered the gun in a garbage can down the road from the murder scene. Hilda admitted that she alone had committed the crime.  
 
At a Preliminary hearing she refused representation from Legal Council. She pleaded Guilty and requested, ‘the most severe punishment possible’. She was fully aware that she was asking to have her life terminated on the Gallows  
 
Hilda Blake’s case generated a certain amount of public sympathy, not presumably because of the crime she committed, but because she was a woman sentenced to death by the Crown.  
 
One of her Guards, Mrs. Strippe attempted to help Hilda escape from the Brandon Jail, but the attempt failed and Mrs. Strippe was herself imprisoned in the Brandon Jail for her part in the scheme.  
 
An appeal for Clemency was made to the Minister of Justice to have her sentence commuted, but the request was denied. Hilda walked to the Gallows just four days before the birth of the 20th century.  
 
John Radclive was her executioner. She is still buried in an unmarked Grave somewhere in the grounds of Rideau Park Personal Care Home, 525 Victoria Avenue East.  
 
Descendents of Robert and Mary Lane still reside in Brandon.  
 
Source: http://www.gov.mb.ca/rearview/blake/index.html  
 
http://www.ecclectica.ca/issues/2002/2/gallows.asp