Pioneering Executioner

The pioneer of the long drop¹ William Marwood hanged almost 180 people – some well known in their day, such as the notorious burglar and murderer Charles Peace. A small man Peace was a resourceful man. While on the run for murder from Sheffield, Peace committed a series of daring burglaries in London. When caught Peace admitted to the murder of a police officer two years earlier.

William Horry is perhaps Marwoodʼs most famous client – he was the first to suffer the long drop. He also hanged the National Irish Invincibles (NII)² responsible for the assassination of the Chief Secretary for Ireland Frederick Cavendish and his Under-Secretary Thomas Burke – they were stabbed in Dublinʼs Phoenix Park. Less known of those Marwood executed is another Irishman – the last man to be hanged in Omagh Prison – Thomas Hartley Montgomery.

Deterrence Failed

In 1950 James Robinson was not deterred by the fate of William Ennis, who had the infamous distinction of being the first police officer to be sent to the electric chair in 1903. Robinson was the only serving police officer executed in Britain in the twentieth century. If capital punishment worked as a deterrent then surely police officers, who knew the consequences of serious crimes should be deterred. But neither Robinson nor Ennis were the first.

A Royal Irish Constabulary Sub-Inspector, Thomas Montgomery was everything wrong with a police officer. Montgomery had previously worked at a bank. He knew his victim William Glass. Montgomery always needed money. He murdered Glass in a particularly vicious fashion on June 29^th 1871. He even led the investigation into his own crime briefly. Montgomery stabbed Glass from ear to ear with a filing spike.

Discovering his financial problems and that he had been seen by witnesses leaving the scene of the crime just before the victimʼs body was discovered, Montgomeryʼs colleagues in the force faced the unpalatable truth – the Sub-Inspector was the prime suspect. After two inconclusive trials, Montgomery, the son of a police officer was finally convicted of the robbery and murder.

On August 26^th 1873 Montgomery became the last person to be hanged in Omagh Prison. Knowing the penalty for murder, especially such a brutal one, was death and that there would be little hope if any for a reprieve in such circumstances failed to deter the Sub-Inspector, whose father had also been a police officer. Montgomery went to his death aged 33. Capital punishment had failed to deter him.

The Road to Oblivion

Nearly a quarter of a century after John Billington despatched the once aspiring executioner Samuel Dougal, who was not deterred by capital punishment from committing murder, Thomas Pierrepoint, who was persuaded to become a hangman by his brother Henry, put the noose around the neck of another who should have been deterred if it worked – a corrupt former police officer.

James Power was hanged in Winson Green Prison in Birmingham in January 1928. The jail overlooked the site of the crime that cost Power his life. While walking by a canal at around 9.45 on July 2^nd 1927 in Hockley, Charles Broomhead and 18-year-old Olive Turner were approached a man claiming to be a police officer.

He told them that he was arresting them for trespass, although other couples were left alone, but then he raised Broomheadʼs suspicions by demanding money to let them off. Broomhead told Turner to run off and tried to give her a head-start, but Power turned and thumped him before chasing the defenceless Turner, whose body was discovered in the canal the following day.

Broomhead came round to see Power abduct Turner. Fortunately for him others had too. Her watch had stopped at 11.41 indicating the time of the attack. Turner had been raped before being thrown unconscious into the canal. Broomhead was an initial suspect, but other witnesses supported his claims that another man had dragged Turner away.

The description fitted Power and he quickly emerged as a suspect to former colleague Detective Sergeant Albert Edwards. Police knew that he had still been masquerading as a police officer – he had previously been a policeman, but was dismissed for corruption. A street identification was arranged and Broomhead confirmed Edwardsʼ suspicions. Other witnesses identified him as well. Power insisted that they had all been mistaken, but Turnerʼs murder was only one of his crimes.

A Disgrace in Uniform

Born in Ireland in 1894, Power emigrated to England. After the police struck for better pay and conditions in 1919 – the last time they went on strike in Britain – Power joined the force in March 1920. Trained officers, some of whom were exemplary, were dismissed over the strike. That had unfortunate repercussions.

It created vacancies that were exploited by people who were not fit to wear the uniform. Power undoubtedly belonged to that category of officer and soon abused his authority. Just over a year after joining the force he failed to complete his beat. Six months later he was punished – his pay was reduced for a year.

It was a comparatively minor offence, but his next was not – it cost him his career and revealed the character flaw that would lead him to destruction. Within six months of being disciplined over his beat offences his conduct towards a servant named Clara Hammersley marked the beginning of the end.

Her employer, Frederick Taylor, insisted on making a complaint, but had the misfortune of making it to Power who promised to pursue the matter, claiming to know who the miscreant was. The incident occurred on December 14th 1922. Just over a week later Power was suspended. His police career was all but over.

On January 10^th 1923 the Joint Standing Committee dismissed him instantly. His career as a police officer was over, but Power was not averse to impersonating an officer, a trait that helped to send him to the gallows.

A Menace

Power had been a menace to the society he had sworn to protect just a few years earlier. The former police officer had been terrorising courting couples on the tow-path: demanding money with menaces from them along with committing more serious offences as well.

A young woman came forward claiming that Power had raped her. His reign of terror relied on his ability to impersonate a police officer, but finally his luck ran out. In December 1927 Power appeared in court in Birmingham, charged with Turnerʼs murder – the lesser offences lay on the file. He was prosecuted by the eminent barrister Norman Birkett KC¹. Power was rapidly convicted of Turnerʼs murder after a two-day trial. He was sentenced to death by Mr Justice Swift.

Powerʼs appeal failed and the 32-year-old former police officer was hanged by Thomas Pierrepoint, assisted by Robert Wilson on January 31^st 1928. He was the first former police officer to be executed in Britain in the twentieth century. If capital punishment could not prevent a former police officer from committing murder, despite knowing what the penalty was and that a shameful death on the gallows (in his case) was the likely result, can the death penalty really be the ultimate deterrent?

It is often said that capital punishment is the ultimate deterrent. The Fitted-In Project is not convinced. No matter how harsh the punishment it cannot deter criminals who do not think that they will ever be brought to justice. Executions occurred and the crimes they were intended to deter continued.

The last executions in Britain happened just over 50 years ago. Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen were hanged on August 13^th 1964 for the robbery and murder of John West. Just two months later Labour came to power and fulfilled a manifesto promise. Capital punishment was suspended and ultimately abolished for murder five years later. It was abolished for all offences in 1998.

Wretched

For 64 years of the last century people were hanged. Hanging women was rare, but not unheard of. More often than not it was controversial. The execution of Ruth Ellis was certainly hotly debated and remains contentious even now, but three decades earlier, the execution of Edith Thompson was worse – she was petrified of the prospect of execution and cut so wretched a figure that it traumatised the executioner. John Ellis tried to kill himself a year later. Attempting suicide was then a serious criminal offence. Ellis succeeded in taking his own life in 1932.

The use of capital punishment was debated and agonised over a few times during that period. Then, as now, it had supporters – usually slamming opponents as soft on crime, but who did it protect? Did actually deter at all? We don’t think so for the following reasons:

Deterrent Tales

Satish Sekar examines some unusual stories from the last century, mainly from Britain, but not limited to that jurisdiction. Law enforcement officers knew the consequences of murder fully, yet Britain is not the only country to have executed a police officer in the twentieth century. The USA was first and Morocco put a senior officer to death – a serial rapist.

Ernest Moss may even have used the death penalty to commit suicide by proxy. John Reginald Halliday Christie – one of Britainʼs most notorious serial killers – was fully aware of the consequences of his crimes. In addition to several murders, he chose to send an innocent man to the gallows and continued killing after Timothy Evans was wrongfully convicted and hanged. How hanging the wrong man can deter anyone has yet to be explained.

Rogues Undeterred

Among the gallery of those who should have been deterred if indeed capital punishment worked were the following: a solicitor, a would-be executioner and a friend of the chief executioner – all of whom committed murder knowing that the penalty was death.

A serving police officer went to the gallows along with two former officers, and a special constable. All of them knew full well the punishment for murder was hanging. It failed to stop them. If capital punishment can not deter people such as these, can it be considered a deterrent at all, let alone the ultimate one?

Nothing Special

At first glance there is nothing special about December 16^th 1950, but it proved to be one of the most important dates in the history of British justice. It was the day that the veneer of deterrence was stripped away from capital punishment in Britain once and for all. James Ronald Robertson was not just another prisoner who paid the ultimate price for his crime – he was a special category of person who suffered capital punishment.

Robertson was hanged that morning in Barlinie Prison in Glasgow, but he was unique in the annals of people executed in Britain in the twentieth century. If ever a person should have been deterred from committing murder by the death penalty, it should have been Robertson. He was perhaps the most important guilty person executed in Britain in the twentieth century.

Why? Because James Robertson was the only serving police officer to be hanged in Britain in the twentieth century. So what brought a law enforcement officer to face the long drop at the hands of Albert Pierrepoint and his assistant Steve Wade?

The Road to Infamy

Catherine McCluskey died on July 29^th 1950. She had seemingly been the victim of a callous hit and run driver. Her body was left where she fell in the road. It soon became clear to Constable William Kevan that there was more to this than met the eye at first glance. There were no tyre-marks in the road indicating a screeching halt. There was no glass in the road from a sudden stop and McCluskey’s injuries were not consistent with an accidental hit and run.

It was a deliberate murder, which had been badly staged to look like an accident. The killer had not only hit McCluskey, but reversed over her. It could not have been an accident. The woman was soon identified as McCluskey when a friend reported that she had failed to return home to pick up her baby after reports of the death was published. Kevan was told that McCluskey had been having a relationship with a police officer named Robertson.

Investigations established that Robertson was supposed to be on duty on July 29^th, but between 11.15 and 1.30 that night he absented himself from his beat with Constable Dugald Moffat. The lack of an alibi soon became the least of Robertson’s problems. His car was a stolen vehicle with false number plates: the exhaust was damaged and the under-carriage was stained with blood and human hairs. He had run over McCluskey twice.

Disgrace

Charged with vehicle offences and murder, Robertson denied everything at his trial in November 1950. His defence on the car theft charges defied credibility. He claimed to have found it and driven it. A few days later he found the log elsewhere as well. Quite why a police officer would think this behaviour, even if true, was acceptable seems to have escaped him. They were still crimes.

His explanation of McCluskey’s death defied belief. He had met her that night. They argued and he drove off, abandoning her in the road. He then thought better of it and went back for her accidentally reversing into her. This explanation fails to explain how he managed to accidentally run over her twice. It took the jury just over an hour to decide that Constable James Robertson was a murderer.

The Ultimate Punishment

Robertson’s week long trial ended in Lord Justice Keith having the dubious distinction of sentencing a serving police officer to death. The execution was scheduled to take place on December 4^th, but a stay was granted while Robertson appealed. After the appeal was dismissed a new date was set, less than two weeks after the original date.

There was no reprieve, so Robertson became the only serving police officer to face the gallows in Britain in the last century. He was just 33 years-old when he demonstrated that capital punishment was not even a sufficient deterrent to prevent a police officer abandoning his beat to commit murder.

The allegedly ultimate deterrent had failed to stop a serving police officer unlawfully cutting short the life of a woman he was sworn to protect. Could it ever be taken seriously as a deterrent again after such a monumental failure?