Ellen Scanlan

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Ellen Scanlon, born Ellen Hanley, was an Irish murder victim. Born to a Limerick farming family in 1803, her murder at age 15 became the subject of books, plays, films, songs, and an opera,^[1] using the nickname given to her locally, "the Colleen Bawn," (an Anglicized spelling of the Irish Cailín Bán), which translates literally to "white girl," with "white" symbolically meaning purity, innocence, gentleness, or beauty. Thus the name can be interpreted as "the innocent maiden."