The extent of the social significance of the Dean case is most evident in its role in prompting legislative reform. In May 1896, less than a year after her execution, the Auckland Star reported that “The Government will introduce a Bill next session to deal with the question of infant life protection, so as to more effectually prevent the state of things that prevailed in the Dean case.” Reading of the parliamentary debates for the Bill reveal no doubt as to the role of Minnie Dean in precipitating this reform. In its first reading, Its object was described as “to enlarge the precautions connected with the present law in the matter of baby farming. Its necessity has been shown in a certain notorious case which was familiar to everyone”. In
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Earlier commentary on the topic such as F.G. Hall-Jones’ Historical Southland and John Watt’s The trial of Minnie Dean mirrored the 1890s sentiment and villainous image of Dean. In 1985, came the first shift in the narrative of Minnie Dean, when Ken Catran published Hanlon: A Casebook which included a sympathetic discussion of the case and Minnie Dean’s innocence. John Rawle published Minnie Dean: a hundred years of memory in 1997, in an attempt to revise Dean’s image and argue her innocence. The most notable historical account of Minnie Dean is Lynley Hood’s biography Minnie Dean: Her Life and Crimes. This text presents Dean’s background in immense detail and places it in the social context of early New Zealand, dispelling many of the early myths surrounding the crimes, ultimately leaving the question of her guilt open to the reader. The most recent addition to the historiography of Minnie Dean is Sophie Davis’s dissertation looking the legality of Dean’s conviction. It is clear, that as time has progressed, the sentiment towards Dean and her crimes have softened considerably. In this way, the historiography raises the question as to why historians began to change the perspective and challenge the narrative after 90 years of staunch vilification and hostility. However, the fact that historians are still discussing the murders of two children in a small South Island town, 120 years after the fact, indicates that there is a truly remarkable quality to the
Earlier commentary on the topic such as F.G. Hall-Jones’ Historical Southland and John Watt’s The trial of Minnie Dean mirrored the 1890s sentiment and villainous image of Dean. In 1985, came the first shift in the narrative of Minnie Dean, when Ken Catran published Hanlon: A Casebook which included a sympathetic discussion of the case and Minnie Dean’s innocence. John Rawle published Minnie Dean: a hundred years of memory in 1997, in an attempt to revise Dean’s image and argue her innocence. The most notable historical account of Minnie Dean is Lynley Hood’s biography Minnie Dean: Her Life and Crimes. This text presents Dean’s background in immense detail and places it in the social context of early New Zealand, dispelling many of the early myths surrounding the crimes, ultimately leaving the question of her guilt open to the reader. The most recent addition to the historiography of Minnie Dean is Sophie Davis’s dissertation looking the legality of Dean’s conviction. It is clear, that as time has progressed, the sentiment towards Dean and her crimes have softened considerably. In this way, the historiography raises the question as to why historians began to change the perspective and challenge the narrative after 90 years of staunch vilification and hostility. However, the fact that historians are still discussing the murders of two children in a small South Island town, 120 years after the fact, indicates that there is a truly remarkable quality to the