Dolls in miniature hat boxes are reputed to have been sold as souvenirs outside the Invercargill courtroom during the 1895 trial of Minnie Dean for murdering children in her care. Dean was convicted, and became the only woman to be hanged in New Zealand.
One of the myths that grew up around her was that she killed babies by sticking hat pins through the holes in the hat box.
Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Reference: Lynley Hood, Minnie Dean: her life and crimes. Auckland: Penguin Books, 1994
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