A look back at the last woman executed in New Jersey
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She was tried and convicted along with her accomplice, Frank Lammens, who worked as a handyman on the Meierhoffer farm in West Orange and was also presumed to be Margaret’s lover (the New York Times said he was “criminally intimate” with her). The deceased, John Meierhoffer, was shot in the back of the head with a pistol by Lammens and then his body was kicked down the cellar stairs.
After the crime was discovered, the two lovers turned on each other, blaming the other one for the murder; they had been found in bed together when police arrived, but Lammens claimed no knowledge of the crime, while Margaret said that Lammens had shot her husband and planned to cut off the head, burn the corpse, and then throw into the Passaic River.