The Man They Couldn’t Hang

It is February 23rd, 1885.

The place is the the coach house of Exeter Prison, Devon, England.

The time is 8 AM.

Outside the prison, a large crowd has gathered to await the execution by hanging of convicted murderer John Lee, condemned for the brutal murder of his employer, Miss Emma Keyes, the previous year. When the execution has been successfully completed a bell will toll for fifteen minutes and the dreaded black flag will be hoisted over the prison.

At 7:55 AM the execution party, consisting of the prison warden, the chief guard, the prison doctor, the prison chaplain, several guards, the executioner and representatives of the Press, is assembled outside the condemned cell.

At precisely 8 AM, Britain’s chief public executioner, James Berry, receives a signal from the prison warden and enters the condemned cell. He swiftly straps Lee’s arms by his sides and places a white hood over his head. Accompanied by the rest of the execution party, Berry swiftly leads the pinioned and hooded convict on to the gallows, and then equally swiftly straps his legs together and tightens the noose around his neck.

Berry steps quickly off the trapdoors and approaches the lever. He swiftly pushes the lever over as he has done so many times before…
And nothing happens.

The doors drop approximately a quarter inch and then jam solid and will drop no further. Berry is slightly flustered by this but it has been known to happen before so he continues with his grim duty. He unstraps Lee’s legs, removes the noose and takes off the hood. He leads Lee into an adjoining room and quickly returns to examine and test the trapdoors.

They are reset and the lever is thrown.

They work perfectly.

Berry goes into the adjoining room and brings Lee back on to the gallows. Again the hood and noose are applied and Berry throws the lever a second time.

The doors jam solid a second time.

This time Berry has strained the lever by throwing it too hard. Lee is again unstrapped and the noose and hood removed. He is again taken back to the adjoining room. It is suggested by a member of the execution party that the doors fit together too tightly. Two guards are dispatched to fetch a plane and an axe to whittle the doors slightly. When this has been done, Berry throws the lever and the doors jam solid again. Now a part of one door is sawed off and yet the iron catches on the trapdoors still need to be struck hard before the trapdoors will fall.

Lee is then returned to his position atop the gallows. He is strapped, hooded and noosed for a third time. Berry moves swiftly, as if to bring this sorry spectacle to as quick an end as possible. He leaps for the lever and throws it as hard as he can.
And the doors jam solid again.

The prison chaplain now lies unconscious on the scaffold, the grim spectacle having proved simply too much for him. The prison doctor sees this and immediately demands that the execution be halted on the spot and the Under-Sheriff of Devon agrees.

The prison warden, doctor and chaplain (by now partially recovered) go to the doctor’s room to compose and sign a statement bearing witness to the morning’s bizarre events. This statement is immediately taken to the Home Secretary in London for his consideration. The Home Secretary decides that Lee has suffered enough and proceeds to commute the death sentence, instead ordering that Lee face life imprisonment instead.