“Will Die Before I Take the ‘Cat'!"

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 951, 19 April 1930, Page 18

“Will Die Before I Take the ‘Cat'!"

r. ~ AMES EDWARD j spiers, who met his death in Wandsworth IsS \JL/McX Prison by jumping from > ' j the cell tier to the flags L?JEuBr'S below, had been sentenced to ten years’ penal servitude and 15 lashes with the “cat.” He was .”>7 years old. and had numerous previous convictions. He was sentenced at the Old Bailey for an attack upon a cashier. Spiers in the ordinary course of procedure would have spent the first three months of his sentence in Wandsworth, and might have appealed against his sentence of both ’“cat” and penal servitude within ten days. He is said to have thought more of the length of his sentence thau he did of the flogging. Mrs. Elsie Spiers gave evidence before the coroner's court at the inquest on her husband. She said that she was not aware of any insanity in her husband’s family. He was a healthy man. though occasionally he suffered trom nerves. After the trial she had a conversation with her husband. He said, when speaking of the length of his sentence: "Never mind. I cannot possibly get that time. I don’t mind about the flogging. It is the ten years 1 object to.” “A Bit Stiff” The governor of the prison. Lieut.Colonel C. E. Rich, said that he received Spiers on January Jl. He had ten days in which to appeal against the sentence, and up to the time of his death he had not entered an appeal. He was an old prisoner, and would know he had ten days in which to appeal. He also knew that the flogging would not be administered until ten days had transpired. He spoke to the governor about the length of his sentence. and said that ten years was a hit stiff. He did not refer to the flogging. The governor went on to say that at 6.40 a m. on :lie third of the month Spiers was in his cell until he was visited by the ordinary warder who unlocked each cell. This was the ordinary daily routine. Prisoners were allowed to empty slops, and the

Prisoners Threat Put Into Action - . . Dread of Flogging Leads to Suicide . . .

Ttco forms of the dreaded “cat-o-nine-tails.”

officers went along the landing opening doors in succession. The tragedy was described by a prisoner whose cell was on the opposite side of the corridor to Spiers. This prisoner was then outside his cell. No. 23, the cell occupied by Spiers, was opened. He saw Spiers coma to his cell door. The officer who had opened the door turned to talk with another officer. As soon as his back was turned Spiers brought a table from the cell, stepped on it, and caught hold of his ankles. Then he pitched over. James Jelly, a warder, said that he heard a shout and saw Spiers lying at the bottom of the steps just below his cell. Dr. James Walker, assistant medical officer to the prison, said that when he saw Spiers he was dead. Death was duo to a compound fracture of

the skull. Apart from that the deceased had no bones broken. Coroner’s View The coroner remarked that from what he had heard he was of the opinion that Spiers did not so much object to the flogging as to the length of his sentence. The jury returned a verdict that Spiers met his death from jumping from a height, and that he killed himself during temporary insanity, brought on by the thought of his long term of imprisonment. Thus, as far as the world is concerned. ends the tragedy of a man in the prime of life. Wandsworth Prison has three tiers of cells and a basement. The space between the balconies that run the length of the corridors are filled with rope netting, for it is not the first attempt at suicide made in the prison. It is a sort of unwritten law- with prisoners not to acknowledge or express fear of the “cat.” Spiers was not in the prison long enough to make the acquaintance of other prisoners. He was accustomed to hold himself aloof from lags, as old prisoners are termed, but he knew, as well as anyone in the prison, just wijat “15 with the ‘cat’ ” meant. He was well versed in the routine of the establishment, and knew better than anyone that he was doomed to undergo the original sentence. Had that not been the case he would have lodged an appeal at once against the sentence and the flogging. What Spiers Said When Spiers was at Dartmoor some time ago, undergoing a three years’ sentence, he saw the effect of the “cat” on many of his fellow- prisoners and a man who, for over a year, occupied the next cell to Spiers, says that he remarked on many occasions: “If I am ever sentenced to the ‘cat’ I will die before I take the bashing. A man is never the same afterward. It takes the spirit out of the bravest, and reduces him either to a mad criminal or a craven cur.” Behind that statement lies part of the secret of the terrible tragedy of Wandsworth Prison. Spiers knew,

too, that he had no chance of having his sentence reduced, and brooded upon the certainty of having to serve ten years on the “Moor,” a place he knew, and knowing, dreaded. He was a well-conducted prisoner when in Dartmoor, and never exhibited the least sigu of mental trouble. His first crime was perpetrated at Coventry, when he was sent to prison for stealing £I,OOO from the post office where he was employed. He hid the proceeds so well that three separate searches of his house by detectives failed to reveal the money. After one such search a detective returned to his home, and standing in the front bedroom saw that a portion of the ceiling was damp. He pushed his stick through the spot, and was rewarded by a shower of gold. Thus was the first crime of Spiers brought home to him.