The British Execution: 1500–1964 (Shire Library) by Stephen Banks Read Free Book Online

women whom I have faced at that final moment convince me that in what I have done I have not prevented a single murder’. Whereas an offence such as armed robbery might be considered one of calculation, many murders are, in fact, committed in a heat of passion wherein the culprit does not consider future consequences at all. It need hardly be pointed out that European states that have abolished the death penalty have very much lower homicide rates than many jurisdictions that retain it.
    Moves to limit the use of capital punishment had begun much earlier in other European jurisdictions than in Britain. For example, as early as 1794 Prussia had restricted the death penalty to murder alone. In the twentieth century, the Scandinavian countries led the way towards complete abolition. The death penalty was abolished for all offences in peacetime in Norway in 1902 and there were no executions in Sweden after 1910. British colonies sometimes proved more amenable to abolition than the mother country and Queensland was one of the first, abolishing hanging in 1922. At home, however, British public opinion remained in favour of capital punishment, as did a significant constituency within the police and judiciary. Notorious killers retained, as they do today, a species of celebrity and there was much public satisfaction at their judicial disposal.

    Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen. ( The Sketch , 1910.)
    Hawley Harvey Crippen was one such. A Michigan-born homeopath and distributor of patent medicines, Crippen married a music-hall singer, Corrine ‘Cora’ Turner, in the United States in 1894. The marriage was unhappy, Cora was unfaithful and when they came to England Crippen met a typist, Ethel Le Neve. The girl became his mistress in 1908 and Crippen plotted Cora’s demise. Cora disappeared in January 1910 and Crippen claimed that she had returned home. Unfortunately for him, another music-hall entertainer who knew Cora became suspicious and she happened to be married to a superintendent at Scotland Yard. Crippen’s house was searched but nothing was found. The matter would probably have rested there had Crippen not panicked. He and Le Neve, disguised as a boy, fled to Antwerp and boarded a liner, the Montrose , bound for Quebec. The authorities then conducted a more thorough search and found the remains of Cora’s body in the cellar. On board the Montrose the captain had, meanwhile, become suspicious and while just within range of the new radio transmitters, was able to send a message to London. Chief Inspector Walter Drew was able to board a faster liner, the Laurentic , and so arrive in Canada ahead of Crippen. Returned home, Crippen was found guilty in just twenty-seven minutes and executed on 23 November 1910 at Pentonville Prison. Le Neve was charged with being an accessory after the fact, but remarkably was acquitted.
    It seems fair to assert that there was some sympathy for women in the criminal justice system; after all, the ideology of the time suggested that they were the weaker sex and prone to be led astray. Certainly, there was a reluctance to execute women and between 1907 and 1922 no woman was executed in England. Then came the disturbing case of Edith Thompson. Born of respectable family, by 1922 Edith was a buyer for a millinery firm and settled in one of the better streets of Ilford with her husband Percy. Percy did not treat her well and in 1920 she met Freddy Bywaters, an eighteen-year-old seaman. They had an affair, which Percy discovered. On 3 October 1922, Percy was set upon and fatally stabbed after returning from the theatre. Edith had been present and subsequently named Freddy as the assailant. However, a search of Freddy’s possessions revealed a collection of love letters from Edith. It was alleged that Edith had had a common purpose to procure the death of Percy and she was charged with murder. The case was circumstantial and in court the judge dwelt heavily on the immorality of adultery, as though that was