HM Prison Leicester

Executions at Leicester Prison were originally carried out publicly, typically attracting many thousands of spectators.

On 20 April 1829, a triple execution was carried out in front of the newly opened prison when Charles Forrester (21), John Hinton (25) and William Varnam (24) were hanged for horse stealing. In reporting the incident, the Leicester Chronicle newspaper noted that after the executioner had pulled caps over the faces of the condemned men, "a short but painful suspense took place, owing to some difficulty in removing the bolt which causes the platform on which they stood, to fall". It was also noted that about half of the huge crowd that had assembled to watch the event were women and children.[11]

On 7 April 1830, John Watkins (28) was hanged for highway robbery.[12]

On 26 March 1832, a particularly large crowd attended the hanging of Sarah Smith, a 28 year old woman from Mountsorrel. She had killed Elizabeth Wood, a woman in her care, by adding arsenic to her tea.[13] This was the only execution of a female to be carried out at Leicester Prison.

Also in 1832, a prisoner hanged at Leicester became one of the last two men in England to be gibbeted. James Cook (21) was a bookbinder, convicted of the murder of his creditor Paas, a manufacturer of brass instruments, in Leicester. He was executed on Friday 10 August 1832 in front of the prison. Following his execution it was noted: "The head was shaved and tarred, to preserve it from the action of the weather; and the cap in which he had suffered was drawn over his face. On Saturday afternoon his body, attired as at the time of his execution, having been firmly fixed in the irons necessary to keep the limbs together, was carried to the place of its intended suspension."

His body was displayed on a purpose-built gallows, 33 ft high in Saffron Lane near the Aylestone Tollgate and, according to The Newgate Calendar, "thousands of persons were attracted to the spot, to view this novel but most barbarous exhibition; and considerable annoyance was felt by persons resident in the neighbourhood of the dreadful scene. Representations were in consequence made to the authorities, and on the following Tuesday morning instructions were received from the Home Office directing the removal of the gibbet."

Gibbeting was soon after abolished in England, in 1834[14]

William Hubbard (23) was hanged on 1 April 1846, for the murder of his wife at Leicester, having cut her throat with a butcher's knife.[15]

John Fowkes (45) was hanged on 19 March 1856 for the murder of his 20 year old nephew, John Acres Fowkes, at Snarestone.[16]

The last public execution at Leicester Prison took place on 25 July 1856, when an estimated crowd of 25,000 gathered to watch the hanging of William ("Peppermint Billy") Brown, aged 33, for the murder of Edward Woodward, a 78 year old tollgate keeper of Thorpe Arnold and his ten year old grandson.[17][18]

Following the Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868 public executions were abolished and all hangings thereafter were carried out inside the prison, behind closed doors.

For a short period between 1876 and 1877, executions at Leicester appear to have been carried out at the Borough Gaol on Highcross, where two hangings are recorded as having been carried out - those of John Thomas Green (41) on 20 December 1876[19] and John Henry Starkey (28) on 31 July 1877.[20] Both men were hanged for the murder of their wives.

Hanging was resumed at the County Gaol on Welford Road on 27 November 1877, when the last triple execution to be carried out at the prison took place. James Satchwell (28), John Swift (19) and John Upton (32) were executed for the murder of Joseph Tugby, a 65 year old pedlar. Tugby had been drinking with the three men at the Stamford and Warrington public house in Coalville before they had followed him and kicked him to death at a nearby railway bridge. The scaffold upon which Satchwell, Swift and Upton were hanged was specially strengthened for the job by the executioner, William Marwood.[21]

On 16 August 1886, James Banton (27) was hanged for the murder of PC Thomas Barratt at Breedon-on-the-Hill by the executioner William Berry.[22]

On 11 February 1887, Thomas Bloxham (62), was hanged for the murder of his 48 year old wife, Ann, at their home in Fairfax Street, Leicester. Bloxham, who believed his wife had been unfaithful, first attempted to shoot her with a revolver but missed, after which he cut her throat, almost severing the head. Bloxham then tried to commit suicide by turning the revolver on himself, but the gun misfired, at which point he gave up and called the police.[23]

On 10 December 1894, John William Newell (42), was hanged for the murder of his wife at Loughborough. Newell had beat his wife to death with a coal hammer at their grocer's shop on Woodgate, believing that she had been sleeping with a lodger. After killing her, Newell went into the street and confessed of his deed to a patrolling policeman. His executioner was James Billington.[24]

There were eight executions at Leicester Prison during the twentieth century, between 1903 and 1953.

At 8 am on 21 July 1903, a double hanging took place in the prison's "execution shed", when Thomas Porter (29) and Thomas Preston (24) were hanged for the murder of PC William Adiel Wilkinson of Sileby. Both men protested their innocence before the trapdoor fell, after which the gaol bell was tolled and a black flag was flown from the roof of the prison to signal to the public that justice had been served.[25] The executioner on this occasion was William Billington.[26]

William Henry Palmer (50), a painter from Manchester, was hanged on 19 July 1911 for the murder of 72 year old Ann Harris at Walcote, near Lutterworth. The executioner was James Ellis.[27]

Arnold Warren (32) was hanged on 12 November 1914 for the murder of his young son, James Warren.[28]

Thomas William Thorpe (61) was hanged 23 December 1941 for the murder of his wife, Nellie. This was the first execution at the prison for 27 years.[29]

A further double hanging was carried out at the prison on 8 August 1944. William Alfred Cowle (31) was hanged for the murder of Norah Payne in the city's Springfield Road, alongside William Frederick George Meffen (52), who had been sentenced to death for the murder of his stepdaughter in Derby. Their execution was performed by Thomas Pierrepoint, assisted by his nephew Albert.[30]

The last execution was that of Joseph Christopher Reynolds (31), convicted at Leicester Assizes for the murder of Janet Warner, and hanged by Albert Pierrepoint on November 17, 1953.[31]