 |
1874 - 1932 |
|
Period in office - 1901 - 1923
Notable Hangings and more details
John Ellis was a notably mild mannered man who
ultimately committed suicide possibly through the
stresses incurred by his job as hangman and possibly
through the effects of the slump on his business as a
barber. He had a particular dislike of hanging women for reasons that will become apparent. He executed several famous criminals notably: Herbert Rowse Armstrong who he hanged on the 31st May 1922 at Gloucester prison for the murder by arsenic poisoning of his wife. There is some doubt now over Armstrong's guilt and new evidence has been unearthed by another, present day solicitor, who acquired Armstrong's practice in Hay on Wye and works in his old office and bought his house. Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen is perhaps the most famous criminal to come Ellis's way. 
He was hanged on the 23rd November 1910 at
Pentonville prison for the murder of his wife Cora
Crippen. Crippen was the first person to be caught by
the use of the new wireless telegraph system allowing
him to be arrested aboard the S. S. Montrose on which he
had sailed to Quebec in Canada with his lover Ethel Le
Neve. At the time it was seen as the "Crime of the
Century" and has held a fascination for many ever
since.George Smith was the famous "Brides in the Bath" murderer whom Ellis hanged on the 13th August 1915 at Maidstone prison. He had drowned Alice Burnham, Beatrice Constance Annie Mundy and Margaret Elizabeth Lofty for financial gain. Sir Roger Casement was unusual in that he had been convicted of treason, having tried to get the Germans to send arms and equipment to Ireland to start a rebellion. He was hanged at Pentonville on the 3rd of August 1916. In 1923 Ellis had the worst job of his career when he and Robert Baxter hanged Edith Jessie Thompson aged 28 on the 9th January at Holloway for her part in the murder of her husband Percy who was stabbed to death by Frederick Bywaters. She had to be carried to the gallows and it was reported that her underwear was covered in blood after the hanging. After this all other women were made to wear canvas underpants. He also hanged Susan Newell at Duke Street prison Glasgow on the 10th October 1923. 30 year old Newell had strangled newspaper boy John Johnston who would not give her an evening paper without the money. She was the first woman to hang in Scotland for over fifty years and on the gallows refused the traditional white hood. He resigned due to poor health in March 1924 having executed 203 people. Before his suicide Ellis wrote his memoirs "Diary of a Hangman" which have been reprinted recently. |