John Lee - "The man they could not hang"

John Lee - "The man they could not hang".

One of hangman James Berry’s most famous (non) jobs was the strange case of John Lee at 8.00 a.m. on Monday the 23rd of February 1885 at Exeter prison. All the normal preparations were made on the gallows, set up in the coach house, but when Berry operated the lever, nothing happened.

Berry and the two warders holding Lee, stamped on the trap doors but to no avail, and Lee was then taken back to his cell whilst the release mechanism was tested. It worked perfectly. The process was now repeated but with the same result and yet again the trap worked perfectly after Lee was removed. After the third unsuccessful attempt at 8.10 a.m., the governor stayed the hanging and the Under Sheriff travelled to London where he briefed the Home Office.

As a result Lee was reprieved later that same day by the Home Secretary, Sir William Harcourt and the official document sent by train late that night. The governor immediately conveyed the news to Lee.

After serving a life sentence Lee was released from Portland Prison on the 18th of December 1907 and on the 22nd of January 1909 he married Jessie Augusta Bulled at Newton Abbot.

Various theories abounded as to why the trap would not open with Lee on it, ranging from divine intervention through the wood swelling in the damp weather (given by most newspapers) to the more unbelievable, one of the prisoners who had helped to erect it placing a wedge between the leaves of the trap which he removed again as soon as Lee was taken off and reinserted at each new attempt. The reality was much more prosaic.

When the trap had been erected in the coach house at Exeter, having been previously used at a different location for the hanging of Annie Tooke in 1879, the metal work was not installed correctly and one of the long hinges fouled on the side of the pit when there was weight on the trapdoors but not when there wasn’t.

There were a number of calls for a formal enquiry into the incident but it is not known whether there actually was one, once the real reason for the failure had been discovered.

Twenty year old John Henry George Lee had been convicted of the murder of his employer, 68 year old Emma Anne Whitehead Keyse, for whom he worked as a footman. The crime occurred on the night of the 15th of November 1884. Emma was found battered to death in the dining room by Elizabeth Harris, the cook. The body had been doused in lamp oil and set on fire at her home at “The Glen” in Babbacombe, near Torquay, Devon. Lee was arrested and blood stains were found on his clothes.

He was tried at Exeter before Mr. Justice Manisty commencing on the 3rd of February 1885 and lasting three days.

Comments

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for espionage, 1953.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for espionage, 1953. On this day in 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, are executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. Both refused to admit any wrongdoing and proclaimed their innocence right up to the time of their deaths, by the electric chair. The Rosenbergs were the first U.S. citizens to be convicted and executed for espionage during peacetime and their case remains controversial to this day. Julius Rosenberg was an engineer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps who was born in New York on May 12, 1918. His wife, born Ethel Greenglass, also in New York, on September 28, 1915, worked as a secretary. The couple met as members of the Young Communist League, married in 1939 and had two sons. Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage on June 17, 1950, and accused of heading a spy ring that passed top-secret information concerning the atomic bomb to the Soviet ...

The capture of brave Russian officer Rosinski

The capture of brave Russian officer Rosinski This is a shocking image and I apologize in advance for sharing it, but here’s one that truly got to me… in Belarus, 1918, after WWI had already ended, the brave Russian officer Rosinski was captured by the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks tortured the captain, likely to get information out of the man, which he bravely refused to give. After that, they simply continued with the torture out of some sick sense of innate cruelty. He was ‘the enemy’ and he was at their mercy, so they brutally murdered their captive. The brave captain was emasculated. And anally impaled on a tree branch. All this while still alive. Alfred Savoir, the man who published the picture and was an eye witness to the death of the brave military officer, described "M. B.", who ordered this atrocity, thus: I knew him not long ago; he was a charming teenager with an ironic wit and joker. He was rubbed with French culture, he admired the novels of Barres and he quot...

Jong Sang Thaek’s brutal execution: Stripped naked and eaten alive by Dogs

Jong Sang Thaek’s brutal execution: Stripped naked and eaten alive by Dogs North Korea, Jan 03: Unlike previous executions of political prisoners, the execution of Jang Song Thaek on December 12 was reportedly one of the most brutal ones ever conducted by the North Korean regime. According to a detailed account published in Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong based Chinese newspaper, Jang Song Thaek, Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-Un’s uncle and the second most powerful man in North Korea, was stripped naked and thrown into a cage of 120 hounds who had been starved for three days. During the brutal execution, which was reportedly personally overseen by Kim Jong Un, the hounds were allowed to prey on Jang Song Thaek and five of his closest aides who also had been stripped and thrown into the cage. According to the report, the entire process lasted for about an hour by the end of which they were completely eaten up. This is called "quan je" or "execution by dogs". Political ...

During World War II, millions of people were sent to concentration camps, including women.

During World War II, millions of people were sent to concentration camps, including women. Women in concentration camps were subjected to brutal treatment and often faced more severe conditions than their male counterparts. The conditions in the camps were inhumane, and women were often subjected to forced labor, starvation, and medical experiments. Women were treated differently in concentration camps than men. They were often separated from their families, forced to perform hard labor, and subjected to sexual abuse. Women who were pregnant were also subjected to harsh conditions and medical experimentation. Many women were killed, either as part of the genocide or because they were deemed too weak to continue working. One of the most notorious concentration camps where women were held was Auschwitz-Birkenau. There, women were subjected to forced labor, starvation, and medical experimentation. Many were killed in gas chambers or through other forms of execution. The camp was designe...

15 Most Brutal Rape Punishments Around The World.

15 Most Brutal Rape Punishments Around The World. Rape is considered the most offensive crime in every society. Rape victims are often looked down in the society and had to suffer mental torture without any fault of her/him. This horrific impact of physical and mental assault often ruin the life of a victim. Different governments across the globe came up with strong laws against sexual assault to make their country a safer place for their citizen and to make sure no one who indulged in this heinous crime could roam free. Here are the most brutal rape punishments of different countries around the world. In China, The meritocratic leadership punishes the rapist straight away with a death sentence and in some scenarios rapist are also punished by the mutilation of their genitals. 2. Iran In Iran, the rapist is either hanged or shot to death in public. Sometimes the guilty escapes the death penalty by the premission from the victim but is still liable for 100 lashes or life imprisonm...

Frank Discussion Of Rape And Other Atrocities Committed During War.

WARNING! PHOTO BELOW ARE NOT MET FOR THE WEAK HEART. Please note: The following subject matter is of immense importance, but could be difficult to read. There is a Frank Discussion Of Rape And Other Atrocities Committed During War. After entering a large museum in one of the world’s most ancient cities and the former capital of the Chinese empire, Nanking—or Nanjing as it’s known today—my 18-year-old daughter Sophia and I walked over a glass walkway that allowed us to look down 10 feet of earth and observe an ancient footpath. Lights highlighted the ground under the glass while the room we were in was dark. To our right hung numerous photographs on a black wall showing Japanese soldiers slaughtering Chinese citizens in December 1937 revealed by individual lights, the types one sees on art museum paintings. Dead babies, severed heads, piles of bodies on Yangtze River banks, and helpless prisoners of war were all documented there by photographs taken by the perpetrators themselve...

Mazzatello Method Of Execution (crushing of the head with AXE)

Mazzatello Method Of Execution (crushing of the head with AXE) Mazzatello: crushing of the head with AXE (abbreviated mazza) was a method of capital punishment used by the Papal States from the late 18th century to 1870. The method was named after the implement used in the execution: a large, long-handled mallet or pole-ax. The condemned would be led to a scaffold in a public square of Rome, accompanied by a priest (the confessor of the condemned); the platform also contained a coffin and the masked executioner, dressed in black. A prayer would first be said for the condemned’s soul. Then, the mallet would be raised, and swung in the air to gain momentum, and then brought down on the head of the prisoner, similar to a contemporary method of slaughtering cattle in stockyards. Because this procedure could merely stun the condemned rather than killing him instantly, the throat of the prisoner would then be slit with a knife. DEEDLY RELATED POST The Robe and Ax...

King Edward VII Love Chair

King Edward VII (nicknamed Bertie), had a custom made ‘siege d’amour’ (or love chair), kept at the famous Le Chabanais brothel in Paris. It was built to allow him to have sex with two or more people all at the same time. The chair was the ultimate symbol of Bertie’s voracious sexual appetite, which became a constant headache for the royal family, especially his mother, who believed him utterly untrustworthy and severely limited his Royal responsibilities as a result. However, the more Queen Victoria disapproved, the more extravagant Bertie became in his pursuits of pleasure, the chair being the ultimate testament to his rebellious and irresponsible behaviour. The press gave him the name ‘Dirty Bertie’. It was said that his father had a word with him about his dalliances and then died shortly after their chat. Queen Victoria blamed his death on the stress brought about by “that dreadful business”, or at least a big contributing factor of it. She then arranged his marri...

"Wooden Horse or Spanish Donkey"

"Wooden Horse or Spanish Donkey" The wooden horse, or Spanish donkey, was an extremely painful and gruesome medieval torture device. It was first used by the Holy Inquisition in France and then in Spain and Germany, and then migrated to the Americas, gaining prominence during the colonial period. The main design was the same wherever it was used. It was a triangular wooden box with a very sharp top end (ie where the horse's spine would be). The apparatus was constructed of wood, with planks nailed together to form a long, tapered ridge, which would serve as the horse's back. These were supported by four legs attached to a bracket, about 6 or 7 feet (1.8 to 2.1 metres) high, with wheels fitted to the bottom of the legs so that the entire device could roll across the ground. A head and tail would be attached to make the torture device look like an almost “fun” huge wooden horse. The defendant would be mounted on the horse, with ankle weights...

CLIFFORD HOYT: THE MAN WHO HAS SEEN HELL

CLIFFORD HOYT: THE MAN WHO HAS SEEN HELL I immediately make a premise. Many Paranormal groups report news similar to the one I am about to publish, about a certain Harry Hoyt, aged 31, who died in 1999 a few days after having an accident from which he woke up saying he saw Hell (and they put a scene from the movie “Hellraiser 2” as a photo). Well, what I found in my research is very different, although the common thread is the same. So it's up to you to decide which version is the right one (assuming one of the two is true). Let's go to the facts. The protagonist is Clifford Hoyt (not Harry: Harry Hyot is an American filmmaker to me), 31 who suffered serious injuries in a car accident due to icy asphalt in 1999, on his way home after a long day at work in Maryland. . He remained in a coma for a few hours and when he regained consciousness, he revealed to the nurse that he was looking after him that he had been sucked into a vortex that led him straight to Hell. He told of the p...

THE WORLD FAMOUS HISTORY AND PAST EVENTS

Search This Blog