EXECUTIONER'S FATE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 381, 16 November 1932, Page 6

EXECUTIONER'S FATE

NERVES UPSET BY HANGING WOMAN IN 1923. EXECUTED 203 PERSON S. Joh nEllisfi for 23 years the public haugman in England, was found dead at his home in ICitchen Lan»e, Rochdale, Lancashire, with deep wounds in his throat. A razor lay near him. Ellis, who was 58, was hangman from 1901 to 1924. During that period he hanged 203 persons, being paid £10 each. It is stated that after tea Ellis became strange in his manner, tore off his collar and threatened his wife and daughter with a razor, and was later found dead in the house by his son. Hanging of Mrs. Thompson. When he retired he stated that his nerves had been upset by having to hang Mrs. Edith Ahompson. Mrs. ihompson was executed at Holloway on January 9, 1923, after being found guilty with By water s. of the murder of her husband at Ilforl. Ellis is said to have told friends afterwards that he could never hang another woman. — mong those he hanged were: — Sir Roger Casement, who was condemned during the war fortreason; Major Armstrong, who poisoned his wife at Hay ■ Brecon, 1922; Dr. Crippen, wh'o lulled his wife at Hilldrop Crescent, N., in 1910; Henry Jacoby, an 18-year-old pantry boy, who' lulled Lady White in a London house in 1922; George Smith of the "Brides in the Bath" case in 1915. In 1927 some controversy was aroused by his appe'arance at Gravesend and other places in a play entitled "The Adventures of Charles Peace," in which he piriioned the notorious

murer and "executed" him on the stage. Could Not Kill Chickens. Although he onoa had a large poultry farm, he could never bring him- • self to wring the neclcs of his own chickens. During the Irish^ rebellion Ellis frequently went to Ireland to cai-ry out executions, and on many occasions his life was threatened. For a number of years ha had to be attended by detectives and was himself armed at the time. He stated that in Ireland he once hanged six men before 9 o'clock one morning. In August, 1924, five months after he retired, Ellis was found at his home with a bullet wound in the neck and ;iaw, and a revolver by his side. He lay^ in hospital for some time in a serious conditions. On his recovery he was charged with attempted suicide and was bound over for 12 months.