EXECUTIONS

See Also: ASSASSINATIONS & ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS; MURDERS; PRE-TWENTIETH-CENTURY CRIME; PLACES OF EXECUTION; PRISONS, DISAPPEARED; THE TOWER OF LONDON The Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula

Beheading

In 1685 Lady Alice Lisle became the last woman to be executed in England by beheading.

The Death Penalty

The execution of Ruth Ellis in 1955 prompted the American writer Raymond Chandler to write a letter to the Evening Standard newspaper. This was followed by one by the publisher Victor Gollancz. The writer Arthur Koestler (1905-1983) contacted Gollancz, suggesting that a national campaign to abolish the death penalty should be launched. With Canon John Collins they set up The National Campaign for the Abolition of Capital Punishment. At its inaugural meeting Koestler offered to write a book that would set out the case for abolition. He secured the backing of David Astor, the editor of The Observer, who put the newspaper s resources at his disposal in exchange for the right to serialise the book. Reflections On Hanging was published. The book's contents were serialised in the paper over five successive Sundays, providing a boost for paper's circulation.

Gollancz returned from a business trip to the United States to discover that Koestler had become the dominant figure in the Campaign. The two men's relationship broke down.

The House of Commons voted 293-262 in favour of the abolition of the death penalty. Prime Minister Eden decided that the proposed abolition should be a Private Members Bill. This considerably reduced the likelihood of it passing into law. In protest Koestler resigned from the Campaign although he continued to work for the cause.

In 1956 the Abolition was killed off in the House of Lords.

In 1965 Parliament suspended the death penalty for murder for an experimental period of five years. Four years later hanging was abolished as a punishment for murder. It became limited to a small number of specific acts such as high treason, arson in Her Majesty's dockyards, and piracy upon the high seas.

Koestler committed suicide in 1983.

Periodically, the House of Commons votes on whether or not to reintroduce hanging. The question is usually put in such a way that it is far from being a blanket restoration. Rather, a restitution is proposed in the Parliamentary motion would almost certainly be extended with time. M.P.s are always allowed a free vote on the matter so that they can act according to their own consciences. There is near total opposition to restitution from the Labour and Liberal parties and there are always enough liberal Conservatives to ensure that the penalty is not restored. Support for the return of the death penalty within Parliament peaked in the late 1980s when Thatcherism was its height and subsequently went into decline. In 1993 an unarmed policeman was shot dead in Clapham, south London. There followed a division in the Lower House about whether or not the death penalty should be restored. The majority against the proposal was so overwhelming that the issue was removed from the political agenda. A factor in this outcome was that a number of high-profile miscarriages of justice had been recently righted by the courts. In these cases, several innocent people had been saved from the drop only by the penalty's highly restricted nature.

Location: 8 Montpelier Square, SW7 1JU. Koestler s home. (red, yellow)

24 St Ann's Terrace, NW8 6PJ. Astor's home.

The Magdala, 2a South Hill Park, Hampstead, NW3 2SB. The pub outside which Ellis shot David Blakely dead.

See Also: DAYLIGHT SAVING; THE HOUSE OF COMMONS; PIRACY Execution Dock

Website: www.themagdala.co.uk

Dream Pharma

Dream Pharma sold doses of sodium thiopental (to render unconscious), panuronium bromide (to paralyse), and potassium chloride (to induce a heart attack) that were used by prisons to administer lethal injections. In 2011 the information was exposed by means of American court documents.

The anti-execution charity Reprieve stopped it.

Location: Elgone Driving Academy, 176 Horn Lane, Acton, W3 6PJ. Mehdi Alavi ran Dream Pharma from the building.

The Executed

See Also: THE MACARONI PARSON; THE REAL FALSTAFF

Butchers' Apprentices

Butchers apprentices made up a tenth of the people who were hanged over the period 1700-50.

See Also: MEAT Butchers

King Charles I

King Charles I lost the Civil Wars. On 30 January 1649 he was beheaded on a platform in front of the first floor of Whitehall Palace's Banqueting House. A bust of the monarch on the building's exterior marks the approximate point from which he stepped out onto the scaffold on which he was dispatched.

Until 1859 the execution was an event that was marked officially. Each 30^th January there is still an unofficial ceremony during which a wreath is lain at the foot of the Charing Cross equestrian statue of the sovereign. It is followed by a High Mass that is conducted at the Church of St Mary-le-Strand.

Location: Charing Cross, WC2N 5DS (purple, orange)

The Banqueting House, Whitehall, SW1A 2ER (purple, turquoise)

See Also: THE GUNPOWDER PLOT The Celebration of November 5th; HALLS The Banqueting House; ROYAL STATUES King Charles I Charing Cross; TIMEPIECES Horse Guards Clock

Website: www.hrp.org.uk/banqueting-house/whats-on/charles-i-s-execution-site

Jack Sheppard

In 1724 the charismatic, youthful highwayman Jack Sheppard was sentenced to be hanged at Tyburn. On the day of his execution, some of his criminal associates planned to rescue him by cutting him down before he was dead. However, when the group tried to carry out their plan, the crowd thought Sheppard's body was being taken down to be used for anatomical dissection, and so fought off his would-be rescuers. The highwayman died from his own popularity with those who had come to watch him be dispatched.

See Also: PRE-TWENTIETH CENTURY CRIME

Executioners

Jack Ketch

During the 18^thC Jack Ketch was a term for a hangman; it became the name that was attached to the executioner puppet in Punch & Judy shows. John Ketch (d.1686) was the common hangman of London.¹ As such, he performed numerous executions by hanging. Beheading was a socially privileged form of dispatch since, when performed correctly, it furnished a near instant death. It was customary for the person who was about to be decapitated to pay the executioner a sum of money to make a good job of it.

During his career, Ketch was only called upon to perform two beheadings. His first was of Lord Russell, who had been a member of the Rye House Plot conspiracy that had sought to kidnap King Charles II. His lordship duly paid his fee. It took Ketch three hacks to sever the man s head. Two years later, the monarch s eldest illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, was found guilty of having led a rebellion against King James, who had been Charles's brother and successor. His grace paid Ketch and stated his hope that his own dispatch would proceed more smoothly than Russell's. It took five blows. After the first three Ketch tried to stop. However, the sheriffs, who were presiding over the event, made a series of threats against him that were sufficiently menacing that he completed the job.

Location: Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2A 3AA. The site of Lord Russell's execution. (red, yellow)

Trinity Square Gardens, Tower Hill, EC3N 4EE. The site of Monmouth's execution. (orange, turquoise)

See Also: CLASS The College of Arms, Gentlemen Executioners; ENTERTAINMENT Punch & Judy; GALLERIES The Royal Collection, The Duke of Monmouth

¹. Ketch was given to terming himself an Esquire. This was because one of his predecessors, Gregory Brandon, had been granted a coat of arms in 1616. It is believed that the responsible official at the College of Arms had been unaware of Brandon's trade and character.

Albert Pierrepoint

The people whom the hangman Albert Pierrepoint executed included the murderers John Christie (d.1953) and Ruth Ellis (d.1955). In retirement, Mr Pierrepoint became an opponent of capital punishment.

An Opinion On Niceness

The comic actor, writer, and traveller Michael Palin has expressed the opinion that being the nicest man in England should be a capital offence. He claimed not to know such a person but he did encourage the broadcaster Jeremy Paxman to keep on striving to achieve the distinction.

Post-Execution

See Also: GRAVEYARDS St Albans Wood Street

Traitors' Heads

It was a practice to display the heads of executed traitors on the Great Gatehouse at Southwark end of London Bridge. They were heavily salted in order to discourage birds from consuming the tastier portions. In 1661 the custom came to an end. From 1684 to 1746 the bonces were mounted on Temple Bar.

Location: London Bridge, c.SE1 9RA

See Also: BRIDGES London Bridge; WALLS & GATEWAYS Temple Bar

Tyburn Martyrs

During the 16^thC and 17^thC a number of Roman Catholics were executed at Tyburn. Many of them had been found guilty of plotting against the state.

In 1681 Oliver Plunket was the last Roman Catholic to be executed at Tyburn for political reasons.

The Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmatre were founded in Paris in 1898 by Mother Marie-Ad le Garnier. Anti-religious legislation prompted her to relocate the order to Britain. She settled it at Tyburn.

Plunket was canonised in 1975.

Location: Tyburn Convent, 8 Hyde Park Place, Bayswater Road, W2 2LJ (orange, yellow)

See Also: THE GUNPOWDER PLOT

Website: www.tyburnconvent.org.uk/martyrs-shrine

William Wallace

The head of the Scottish warlord William Wallace (c.1270-1305) was placed upon a spike above London Bridge. The portions of his quartered body were sent to Aberdeen, Berwick Upon Tweed, Newcastle Upon Tyne, and Stirling for public display.

David Backhouse 2024