The TRUE story of Darkey Kelly: Myths Debunked
Listen to my take on the Dorcas ‘Darkey’ Kelly case here on the Sunday World Crime World post cast.
The story of Dorcas (Darkey) Kelly is one that is shrowded in mystery, witchcraft, Satanic panic and allegations of serial killing. I believe that she was possibly none of the above, based on the evidence (or lack thereof) below.
Dorcas (Darkey) Kelly, the witch. The story pre-2011
The date of Dorcas Kelly’s birth is unknown, but is suspected to be around 1720-1730. At some point in time, Kelly began running the operation of the Maiden Tower brothel at Copper Ally, Fishamble Street, County Dublin.
Dorcas (Darkey) Kelly allegedly became pregnant with the child of Simon Luttrell, the 1st Earl of Carhampton, also nicknamed the ‘King of Hell’ due to his rakish behaviour. He received this nickname by frequenting Dublin’s brothel district, which was nicknamed ‘Hell’. It was also rumoured he was a member of the Hellfire Club (Donaldson, 2020).
The Dublin branch of the Hellfire Club was founded in 1737/1738, a few years after the establishment of such an organisation in England. However the Dublin Hellfire Club was not founded in the notorious Mountpelier structure amongst the Dublin mountains. Instead, the Hellfire Club was established in the Eagle Tavern pub where the Irish Film Institute and the Quakers building on Eustace Street lies. Members of the Hellfire Club obtained an ill-reputation for their drinking, debauchery and attitudes towards organised religion, as well as members individuals misgivings. This resulted in rumours and myths beginning to surround its members, such as members preforming Satanic rituals, sacrificing animals and people (Ryan, 2012).
It is said that when Dorcas Kelly demanded financial support after falling pregnant with Simon Luttrell’s child, he denied her request. Luttrell then accused Kelly of witchcraft, claiming that she murdered their baby during one of her Satanic rituals. Aside from the Irish Witchcraft Act 1586 that forbade the practice of witchcraft (Sneddon, 2022), under the petit treason laws, which included viricide, the murder of one’s master, and ‘barbarous murder’ (which included a serious felony such as infanticide), Kelly would have been liable to be sentenced to death by burning (Dublin, 1755). The body and of the baby was never found and it was believed that Dorcas Kelly was thus burned at the stake in 1746 (O’Keeffe, 2011).
There has never been proof of an intimate relationship between Dorcas Kelly and Simon Luttrell, a child, or a crime of infanticide to honour Satan (Donaldson, 2020). But the dark, mysterious and macabre lore around this story has haunted Irish legends for decades, inspiring tales told on walking tours of Dublin, and ghostly stories shared over pints in a pub named after Kelly, allegedly where her Maiden Tower brothel once stood.
Dorcas (Darkey) Kelly, the serial killer. The story post-2011
In January 2011, new evidence was discovered by radio researchers/presenters, Eamon McLoughlin and Phil O’Grady, that showed through historical newspaper documentation that Kelly was executed on the 7th of January 1761 by a partial hanging, then burning at Gallows Road (modern Baggot Street) (O’Keeffe, 2011). Her remains were taken by thirteen sex workers to be waked back at Copper Alley. However, a commotion broke out and the sex workers were sent to New Gate prison, and Kelly’s remains were ceased.
During the early 18th century, the common form of public execution of women in England was burning. Towards the mid 1770s, public attitudes towards women began to change the role of women as wives and mothers was strengthened. This caused many to view death by burning as barbaric and offensive to the delicacy of the feminine nature. This became such a public outrage, that it caused some English people to view the ‘savages’ in Ireland as more compassionate in their execution of women, as in Ireland, and as seen in the case of Dorcas Kelly, women were hung until they were unconscious before being burned alive (Devereaux, 2005).
While examining newspaper archives, O’Grady found a newspaper article that indicated Dorcas Kelly was executed not for infanticide, but for the murder of shoemaker John Dowling on St Patricks Day in 1760. Further, according to reports from 2011, newspaper archives alleged that the remains from five men were found within the vaults of the Maiden Tower brothel, indicating that Dorcas Kelly may have been a serial killer (O’Keeffe, 2011).
The narrative of Dorcas Kelly as a serial killer quickly replaced the Dorcas Kelly as a witch storyline, continuing to cast a cloud of mystery and darkness over this Irish woman’s life.
Dorcas (Darkey) Kelly, a new narrative, 2022
Serial killer reports
In order to substantiate the serial killer claims, I searched for the newspaper report referenced by O’Grady but could not find it, as it was not specified. However, through other sources (Donaldson 2020 and Murden 2018) I was able to learn that it may have stemmed from the English World newspaper on Wednesday, August 27, 1788, pictured below.
After searching through newspaper archives (British Newspaper Archive and Irish Newspaper Achieve), I was unable to find another similar report. So much so, the World newspaper report did not appear and I emailed someone who mentioned the newspaper article to request a copy, which they sent me (pictured above). Newspapers from the 18th century are not always digitised and must be accessed through visiting national archives and organisations which maintain them. Therefore it must be recognised that a lack of newspaper reports is not sufficient evidence that Kelly was not a serial killer. However, the lack of newspaper reports of the discovery of bodies in her brothel is worth noting, when compared with the several newspaper reports covering her public execution, which can easily be found by searching Dorcas Kelly in the newspaper databased listed previously. An example of such is pictured below from the Chester Courant newspaper on Tuesday the 20th of January 1761.
In order to investigate the serial killer claim further, due to insufficient reporting of the alleged discovery of bodies, I believed it was vital to consider the context at the time of the World publication. The World reported the discoveries of bodies on Wednesday, August 27, 1788, one month after the trial of Dorcas Kelly’s ‘sister’, Maria Llewellyn.
The Maria Llewellyn trial
It is unclear if Maria Llewellyn was a biological sister of Kelly’s or was called her sister for also operated the running of a brothel. Regardless, Llewellyn also found herself on trial almost thirty years after Kelly.
According to Fleming (2005) Llewellyn allegedly procured a 12/13 (reports differ) year old girl, Mary Neil, into her house in Blackmore Yard in Dublin in November 1787 under the pretense of delivering a letter. There, a man was waiting for her, allegedly Henry Luttrell, the 2nd Early of Carhampton and son to Simon Luttrell, the 1st Earl of Carhampton (Kelly’s alleged and since debunked baby’s father). Although Henry Luttrell had a complex relationship with his father, they had similar reputations as womanisers. Once Mary Neil was in the house, the man, allegedly Henry Luttrell raped Mary Neil. The incident shocked Dublin. Llewellyn was charged with aiding and abetting the ‘unknown man’ and her trial took place in July 1788. Further, it was alleged against Llewellyn that she had had the parents of Mary Neil arrested for robbery, resulting in them being sent to the New Prison, where Mary Neil’s pregnant mother miscarried and died due to the abusive treatment from the gaoler. Llewellyn was found guilty and sentenced to death.
The public waited between July and November 1788 to see if Llewellyn would be granted a reprieve. As Llewellyn’s date of execution came closer, newspapers began to highlight that the last sex worker and brothel owner that was executed was Dorcas Kelly in 1761. (Dublin Chronicle, 17 April, 3 July, 14 August, 1788). In November 1788, Llewellyn was granted a pardon and ordered to pay a fine. It is also worth noting that Henry Luttrell was not charged or convicted with the rape of Mary Neil, and the next year in 1790, he re-entered as a member of the British Parliament.
The scapegoating of Dorcas Kelly
With newspapers and the wider public beginning to draw connections between Kelly and Llewellyn, it is not a reach to suggest that one month after the beginning of Llewellyn’s trial in July 1788, that a report in August 1788, of the alleged discovery of five bodies in Kelly’s brothel, the last brothel owner to be executed before Llewellyn, may have been an attempt by the local justices to save face from having supported the barbaric public execution of Dorcas Kelly almost thirty years prior, by portraying her as a serial killer, with the evidence being conveniently discovered just one month after the trial of Llewellyn began.
As there is no trial records available, we cannot know for sure if Kelly was guilty of killing John Dowling on St. Patricks Day 1760, but we do know that she was convicted and executed for the crime. We know Kelly wasn’t a witch, and we know now that there is a severe lack of evidence to indicate that she was a serial killer.
Even if five bodies were discovered within the vaults of the Maiden Tower, it was thirty years after Kelly’s death. Who is to say that Kelly was the one who put them there and not someone else in the almost three decades since her death? That is of course, if one believes the bodies were there to begin with, and the publication of such a discovery was not part of an attempt to justify the barbaric murder of someone whose contemporary (Maria Llewellyn) was believed to receive a pardon.
If the serial killer claim against Kelly was fabricated to justify the changing regulations and public opinions on executions, it seems that the morbid story of Dorcas Kelly is much darker than anyone could have ever imagined, darker than made up tails of Satanic sacrifices and serial killing. Perhaps the story of Dorcas Kelly is truly macabre as it is arguably reflective of many Irish women’s stories from history; that of sacrifice and scapegoating.
We are a country that has never treated women well. The least we can do is tell their stories as accurately as possible based on the evidence and data available to us.
Sources
Devereaux, S. (2005) ‘The Abolition of the Burning of Women in England Reconsidered’, Crime, History and Societies 9, 73.
Donaldson, K. (2020) DARKEY KELLY: WITCH, SERIAL KILLER, OR WRONGED WOMAN?, SYFY, [ONLINE] AVAILABLE AT: https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/darkey-kelly-witch-serial-killer-or-wronged-woman
Everyman his own Lawyer, or a Summary of the Laws now in Force in Ireland (Dublin, 1755), pp 346-7; Taylor to Perceval, 20 January 1731
Fleming, D. (2005). PUBLIC ATTITUDES TO PROSTITUTION IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY IRELAND. Irish Economic and Social History, 32, 1–18.
Kelly, J. (1992). INFANTICIDE IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY IRELAND. Irish Economic and Social History, 19, 5–26.
Murden, S. (2018) ‘Darkey Kelly’, Brothel Keeper of Dublin, All Things Georgian [online] Available at: https://georgianera.wordpress.com/2018/02/15/darkey-kelly-brothel-keeper-of-dublin/
O’Keeffe, A. (2011) Truth about Darkey Kelly, burned as a ‘witch’ 250 years ago … but who was really a serial killer, Independent, [online] Available at: https://www.independent.ie/regionals/herald/news/truth-about-darkey-kelly-burned-as-a-witch-250-years-ago-but-who-was-really-a-serial-killer-27970534.html
Ryan, D. (2012) Uncovering the origins of Dublin’s Hellfire Club, Irish Times [online] Available at:https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/uncovering-the-origins-of-dublin-s-hellfire-club-1.534025
Sneddon, A. (2022) Representing Magic in Modern Ireland Belief, History, and Culture, University Printing House, Cambridge