THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG.

NZ Truth, Issue 143, 14 March 1908, Page 7

THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG.

JOHN LEE, THE BABBICOME

MU

DERER.

Free at Last.

Convict's Awful Ordeal-^Three^Times the Gallows Drop Refused fo Act.

John Lee, who was convicted of the murder of Miss Emma Keyse, at Babbieonibe, Devonshire, m 1884, condemned to death, and whose penten.ee was commuted under extraordinary circumstances, was released from Portland m December last, says an English* exchange, and at once proceeded to his mother's home at Abbots Kerswell, near Newton Abbot. How three attempts were made to hang Leej and how each time the drop refused tor work, will always remain one' of the most amazing chapters m. criminal annals. This remarkable occurrence was the sequel to an equally remarkable crime. Miss Keyse, who had been a maid of • honor to- the late , Queen Victoria, was found brutally murdered m her quiet Devonshire home on the morning of November. 15, 1884. She had hot only been battered to death, but kn- attempt had been made to set her boujse on .fire, and her body was considerably burned. Many cir* jcumstances pointed to Lee as the ! criminal. He had been seen outside j hii mistress's door, blood-stains were found on him,

A BLOOD-STAINED KNIFE

was m one of the drawers m his room, and it ascertained that the oil m which Miss Keyse's body had been soaked had been taken from a > can which was m such a position tliat no one apparently could have touched it. .without awakening Lee.. At the inquest a blood-stained hatchet was produced, which the medical evidence showed was the weapon With which. Miss. Keyse's head had been battered m. One of the points against Lee was that" he bore a grudge against his' mistress, and as evidence of. this it was quoted against him that be had said: "If the missus ; don't get me a goad place she will soon wish that she had done so. ? ' Lee's half-sister gave some very damaging evidence against him. _=.;'<;." Before the. trial took place- the country was fairly. jilive with the case. Mr Justice Manisty was the. judge, and the assize . was held at Exeter. ■ .<• Lee behaved with extraordinary coolness throughout his ordeal m tne court. lie pleaded "Not guilty" in* a clear and steady voice. The prosecuting counsel presented a most deadly oase against the prisoner, the maids of the murdered woman supplied many serious facts, and, altogether, the police, case against Lee, had been put together with great cleverness and precision. On behalf of Lee, the defence put forward was that the murderer was a lover of his half-sister, Elizabeth Harris, but no evidence was forthcoming m support of this theory. When sentence of death had been passed. Lee, looking ealmlv into the face of the iudge, said : "The reason, mv,lord, why lam so calm and collected Is because I trust ininy Lord, and ' ho knows lam innocent." TERRIBLE SCAFFOLD SCENE. Lee's behavior m the dock and his solemn protestation of innocence made a great impression on the public mind, and this was intensified when he was brought out for execution, and despite all the efforts of engineers, hangman, . and carpenters,

the drop .thrice failed to act, and Lee was taken back to his cell. Many people bearing m mind Lee's earnest protestations, looked upon this failure of the gallows apparatus as a direct interposition of Pre. vidence. Perhaps the best description of the awful scene on the fateful morning of February 23. 1885, has been supplied by the chaplain, . the Rev. John Pitkin, who officiated on the occasion. The condemned man was placed on the drop, and the white cap drawn over his face. .The chapel bell was tolling, and two warders were on the roof" of the gateway m readiness to hoi§'t the black flag.' As soon as the chaplain had said the grace, Berry , (the executioner')' pulled ithe lever, but there was no response. A. shiyer pass-? Ed through the circle of onlookers. Berry and the warders stamped upon the drop. It Would not work. Six minutes elapsed ; the boards gave way a little to the violent stamping and the prisoner's weight, and Lee had the sensation of being slowly strangled ; but the drop clung persistently to the surface. Lee was taken off the scaffold, while the en?;ineers and warders chopped away at he woodwork. The drop was tried again, /and this time seemed to v#ork satisfactorily. Lee was placed upon the scaffold once more. The chaplain repeated the words of the burial service the second time, and the second time the drop refused, tp act. Berry pulled "the '.' lever ■ backwards and forwards with all the force at his command. It was all to no purpose. The onlook* ers were by this time wrought up to

a PITCH OF THE MOST INTENSE EXCITEMENT. .

The governor was pacing up and <lown the yard m the g'rea/test bewilderment. The shetiff was "apparently paralysed" by .. isens'e -Of .despair, while Ut Jytfcin says' he himself felt his own powers of ettdurahce giving Way under .the great strain,, and would have fallen down had the schoolmaster not supported him. Lee was taken to' the basement of the prison, attended by the' chaplain and two warders. He seemed to be. m a cataleptic condition ; he spoke „to no one, and looked upon the scene with a Vacant gaze. In a few more minutes the wretched man was sum* moned, for the third time to the scaffold, when once again the terrible ordeal was gone through. • In describing the last phase of _ths terrible affair /Mr Pitkin says : "The lever was pulled again and again. A gjreat noise was "heard which sounded like the falling of the drop. UuV, to my horror, /when 1 turned my eyes Upon the scaffold I SaW the poor convict standing on the- drop as I hadseen him twice before. Thtee times they had tried to take away his life, This seemed to me enough, and that I ought to interfere. The surgeon ADVISED ME TO STOP THE EXECUTION, and I refused to stay any longer. "The under-sheriff thereupon ordered Lee to be taken back to prison* He Was removed to his cell m my presence. I stayed with him for some time, until, m fact, ho had recovered m some measure from the mental shock. ..He inquired when they were going .to, hang him, as. he wanted to be executed. 'Not to-day,' I said .; 'we must wait the Home Secretary's decision !'. '■' During the interview, Lee told the chaplain of a dream he' had had on the night previous to his attempted execution. He had related this dream to the two warders who had charge of him, adding, "So I shall not be hanged to-day^-' In this dream Lee saw himself being pinioned, taken out of his cell, and led down the reception cell to the scaffold. He saw himself placed on the drop, which would not work, and then taken back to his cell because they could not carry out the sentence of the law. For a whole hour Lee had stood oh the brink of death, with the hangman's rope around his neck. He behaved with wonderful fortitude, and even refused .stimulants. Sir, William Harcourt, m commuting the sentence, gave as his reason, -not any suggestion of Lee's innocence, but the humanitarian ground that "it would shock the feelings "of everyone, if a man had four times .to bear the pangs of imminent death." So, it comes about that at the age of 43, -She. convict, after 22 years m priison, is now once again a free man.