Rearview

Timeline

1888: Emily Hilda Blake and her brother, Tommy, are sent to live with the Stewarts at Kola, Manitoba.

1898: Blake begins work in the Lane home as a domestic servant.

20 June, 1899: Blake buys a gun from the Hingston-Smith Arms Company in Winnipeg.

Wednesday 5 July, 1899: Just after 4:00 in the afternoon, Mary Robinson Lane is shot in the back, at close range.

Thursday 6 July, 1899: Blake helps police find the murder weapon and the box of shells.

Friday 7 July, 1899: Blake testifies at an inquest into the death of Mary Lane. She repeats her story about the tramp to a skeptical audience. At the same time, investigators find a brooch wrapped in the same newspaper as the murder weapon in the room of Hilda Blake. Detectives are also able to trace the gun and box of shells to the Hingston-Smith Arms Company in Winnipeg, where the clerk identifies Blake from a photo as the purchaser of the gun and shells.

Saturday 8 July, 1899: Investigators confront Hilda Blake with Walter Sutton, the gun shop clerk who identified Hilda Blake as the woman who bought the murder weapon from him less than a month earlier. Mary Robinson Lane is laid to rest.

Sunday 9 July, 1899: Hilda Blake is arrested for the murder of Mary Lane.

Monday 10 July, 1899: Preliminary hearing held before Brandon Police Magistrate K. Campbell.

15 November, 1899: Preliminary trial held before Justice Killam.

16 November, 1899: Justice Killam hands down guilty verdict.

27 December, 1899: Hilda Blake is hanged before 25 spectators at the Brandon Gaol.

Find out more... search Hilda Blake in the Keystone Archives Descriptive Database.