La Corriveau

Marie-Josephte Corriveau was hanged in 1763 for the murder of her second husband, and her body was displayed in an iron cage. Ghost stories about her followed.

Marie-Josephte Corriveau, known as La Corriveau, received a death sentence in 1763 from a British court martial, which found her guilty of murdering her second husband, according to Wikipedia. Wikipedia gives her execution date as 18 April 1763. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography places the hanging at the Buttes-à-Nepveu, close to the Plains of Abraham, and calls 18 April 1763 the probable date. Executed Today says she was convicted together with her father, and that her body was gibbeted after death.

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography records that an iron cage stood at Pointe-Lévy, also called Lauzon. It remained visible to people passing by until 25 May at the earliest, when an order from Governor James Murray authorised its removal. Wikipedia says the cage was dug up in 1851 in the cemetery at the Saint-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-Lévy church while a pit was being dug. It was then stolen from the church cellar and bought by the American showman P. T. Barnum, who displayed it as a macabre object. It later went on show at the Boston Museum, where its museum slip read "From Quebec".

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography says the story turned into legend, still told in oral tradition. Aubert de Gaspé, in his 1863 novel Les Anciens Canadiens, wrote of La Corriveau appearing at night inside the cage, and pleading with a late traveller heading toward Beaumont to carry her to a witches' sabbath at Île d'Orléans. Executed Today says her corpse fed ghost stories and popular belief.