Wright Square

In Savannah's Wright Square, colonists hanged Alice Riley on January 19, 1735, for the murder of her indentured master, William Wise, who court records suggest had repeatedly raped her. Alice was pregnant at the time of her sentencing, and her execution was delayed until she gave birth to a son, James; the baby died just two weeks after his mother's hanging. Alice Riley was the first woman executed in the Georgia colony, and her ghost is said to still wander Wright Square searching for her lost child — reaching for any baby she sees, believing it might be her own.