Willie Phelan

A Mary Olsen also states that she had given a child named Willie Phelan to Minnie Dean aud never saw or heard of it again. She received a letter from the latter, the substance of which was as follows :—" Dear Mrs Olsen— The skeleton of the child found in my garden at the Larches, is that of your child, Willie Phelan. He fell accidentally into the well. I believe he was chasing fowls. I did all I could to restore animation, but could not succeed. I shed bitter tears over, him, as bitter as any mother." Source: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=CHP189508...

Mrs Dean did not treat this child well. She would knock him down, and seizing him by the hair would bump his head on the floor. She had a dislike of the child. Mrs Dean was in the habit of getting drunk, but was always sober when she abused the children. Some children she treated well, others not so well. Source: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=OAM189506...

Continuing in the same vein, Margaret described the disappearance of five-year old Willie Phelan. Here Margaret's testimony revealed something of the nature of her mother's treatment towards some of her adopted children. She claimed that Minnie had an active "dislike‟ of Willie Phelan, whose mental disabilities had become evident early on. She deposed that Mrs Dean "did not treat the child well, but would knock him down and, seizing him by the hair, bump his head on the floor‟. Willie‟s sudden absence was explained by the news that, despite his mental impairment and "dirty habits‟, Willie had been "adopted‟ by a woman in Invercargill. Esther Wallace corroborated Margaret‟s evidence, confirming that she had been told to take all the children with her "into the bush‟ on the days in question, and "only the one that disappeared was left behind in the house on each occasion‟. She also disclosed the information that she had found clothing belonging to the missing children after their alleged adoptions. One of those items, she claimed, was Willie Phelan‟s new velvet suit. Source: http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/7349/th...

Court records showed that Minnie Dean had petitioned Willie Phelan‟s birth mother for further maintenance costs as the child was "an imbecile‟. Willie‟s mother claimed that he had been born with „water on the brain‟ and was not expected to live beyond seven years (Hood, p. 155). Source: http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/7349/th...