Rumour of John Lee’s Imminent Release – October 1904

JOHN LEE, WHO THRICE ESCAPED EXECUTION.
TO BE RELEASED ON LICENSE.

One of the most dramatic stories in the annals of crime is recalled by the impending release on license, after nearly twenty years’ penal servitude, of John Lee, who, sentenced to death for murder, stood three times on the scaffold, which on each occasion would not act.

John Lee, who was a native of Abbotskerswell, was at that time a young man just over 20 years of age.

Lee was tried at the Devon and Exeter Assizes in the early part of 1885 and found guilty of murdering Miss Keyse, an elderly lady who lived in a lonely thatched cottage at Babbacombe, near Torquay. He was one of the servants, and the motive for the crime was said to exist in the fact that his wages had been reduced by sixpence a week.

Miss Keyse’s body was discovered in the early morning. The head was nearly cut off, she had terrible wounds on the skull, and her clothes were smouldering.

Lee persisted in declaring his innocence, but the jury thought otherwise.

Whilst the jury were considering their verdict Lee was removed below and was offered refreshments, which he partook of as though it was an ordinary meal. Before he had finished eating the jury returned into Court with their verdict. Lee had hastily to repair to the dock again, and as he did so he was still masticating his food. This had a marked impression, not only on Judge Mainstay who tried the case, but on the jury, and in fact all who were in Court. He received the verdict of the jury with much apparent indifference. The Judge, in passing sentence, commented on his apparent indifference. When the sentence had been passed and profound silence prevailed, Lee, before leaving the dock said, “Please my Lord the reason I am so calm is because I am innocent, and I trust my Lord, and my Lord knows I am innocent.” He then quitted the dock with a smile on his face.

Three weeks later Lee was brought out for execution in Exeter Gaol. The gallows was erected in an open brick building, about 20ft. square, and the platform which had been used on several occasions, was fitted over a deep pit, in which the criminal at the moment of execution would fall. Berry, the executioner, quickly placed the condemned man on the scaffold, and after adjusting the rope stepped back and pulled the lever. The drop refused to act. For eight minutes Berry and the warders stamped on the platform and did everything they could to make it move. They could not do it. Meanwhile Lee prayed in a loud voice, but showed no signs of fear.

Lee was then placed in a corner of the shed, with the white hat still over his face, and hammers and saws were produced in the hope of getting the drop to work. The rope was once more adjusted round his neck, but again the drop refused to work. Once more was the wretched man taken off the scaffold and placed some few yards away while the hammering and sawing went on. “This time it is sure to go down,” was the general comment as Lee again took his stand on the platform. “Oh God, help me!” cried Lee, and a third time the gallows refused to act.

The Recorder of the gaol would have no more. He ordered Lee to be taken to his cell, simply remarking to the prisoner that the execution would not take place that day.

The most extraordinary fact in connection with the horrible scene is, says the “Daily Express,” that an eye-witness afterwards stated that after each attempt to hang Lee, and when he had been removed from the scaffold, the drop worked satisfactorily. When Lee got to his cell he fell down on his knees, thanking God for what he termed the miracle He had wrought. Three days later he wrote the following remarkable letter to his sister:—

“H.M. Prison, Exeter.

Dear Sister,—The last letter I wrote to you I thought would be the last. It was the Lord’s will that I should not die yesterday at the time appointed by man. I did not fear to walk into death with a firm foot, because I knew the Lord was with me.
I have been dead to this world three times. I believe what has happened was a miracle. I had a dream on Sunday night that the scaffold was not ready, and that they had to make another one. I told the warders my dream, but did not think it was coming true.—Your loving brother,
John Lee.”

According to an ex-convict, who has just been released from Portland, Lee is in good health and looking forward with great joy to his forthcoming freedom. “I knew Lee very well,” said the ex-convict, “and found him to be a quiet, decent fellow. He always protested his innocence of the murder, and said it was God’s wish that he should not die. He told me that those awful twenty-five minutes when they tried to hang him are always in his thoughts, and that he can never forget it. Sometimes he wakes up suddenly during the night shaking nervously. ‘It is when I dream of the execution,’ he says. At Portland he is known as the man they could not hang, and he is quite a hero among the convicts.”

The Under-Sheriff, who witnessed the attempted execution, went post-haste to London, to see the Home Secretary, vowing that he would go down on his knees before him rather than that the culprit should be subjected to such a painful ordeal again. The interview had the desired effect, for John Lee’s sentence was commuted to one of penal servitude for life.

At his trial a letter from Lee’s sweet-heart was read. It ran: “If it was your lot to crack stones in the street, and you would still take me to be your wife I will not say no. I shall never be tired of waiting for you, Jack. … Perhaps if I had loved you less you would have loved me more.”

The most extraordinary fact in connection with the horrible scene is, says the “Daily Express,” that an eye-witness afterwards stated that after each attempt to hang Lee, and when he had been removed from the scaffold, the drop worked satisfactorily. When Lee got to his cell he fell down on his knees, thanking God for what he termed the miracle He had wrought. Three days later he wrote the following remarkable letter to his sister:—

“H.M. Prison, Exeter.

Dear Sister,—The last letter I wrote to you I thought would be the last. It was the Lord’s will that I should not die yesterday at the time appointed by man. I did not fear to walk into death with a firm foot, because I knew the Lord was with me.

I have been dead to this world three times. I believe what has happened was a miracle. I had a dream on Sunday night that the scaffold was not ready, and that they had to make another one. I told the warders my dream, but did not think it was coming true.—Your loving brother,
John Lee.”

According to an ex-convict, who has just been released from Portland, Lee is in good health and looking forward with great joy to his forthcoming freedom. “I knew Lee very well,” said the ex-convict, “and found him to be a quiet, decent fellow. He always protested his innocence of the murder, and said it was God’s wish that he should not die. He told me that those awful twenty-five minutes when they tried to hang him are always in his thoughts, and that he can never forget it. Sometimes he wakes up suddenly during the night shaking nervously. ‘It is when I dream of the execution,’ he says. At Portland he is known as the man they could not hang, and he is quite a hero among the convicts.”

The Under-Sheriff, who witnessed the attempted execution, went post-haste to London, to see the Home Secretary, vowing that he would go down on his knees before him rather than that the culprit should be subjected to such a painful ordeal again. The interview had the desired effect, for John Lee’s sentence was commuted to one of penal servitude for life.

At his trial a letter from Lee’s sweet-heart was read. It ran: “If it was your lot to crack stones in the street, and you will still take me to be your wife I will not say no. I shall never be tired of waiting for you, Jack. . . . Perhaps if I had loved you less you would have loved me more.”

That letter was written nearly twenty years ago. It is not known whether the writer is still living.

It is, however, believed, if she is living, she is residing in some foreign country. Her name was Miss Kate Farmer, and she was for some time barmaid at the Bradley Hotel, Newton.

It is somewhat singular, but Miss Farmer later on was associated with another tragic scene. She happened to be married to the steward on board the ship which conveyed Carey, one of the party who was connected with the murder of Lord Cavendish and Mr Burke, better known as the Phoenix Park murders, and who had received a free pardon through giving evidence on behalf of the Crown to South Africa. Just before the ship reached Capetown Carey was shot by another Fenian, who had been told of by the Secret Society to do the job. Miss Farmer’s husband was present and actually caught Carey in his arms as he fell mortally wounded.

On January 22nd, 1898, an earnest appeal was made to the Home Secretary to get Lee’s sentence commuted to one Released on License. It was to the effect that the applicant had been requested by the parents of John Lee, and a large and influential number of the public to seek a remission of the sentence. The Home Secretary, however, at that time declined to entertain this application.

John Lee, when brought acquainted with the death of his father in September, 1903, felt it most keenly. Writing to a relative at this time he said:
“My dear father is no more. I am so very very sorry. I did think it would have pleased God to spare him until it pleased Him to deliver me from prison. But we must thank God that He has been pleased to spare dear father for nineteen years since the doctors gave him up. We know what he has been through during that time. It is hard to be shut up in prison when your dearest friends are dying first. I do pray to God to spare you until I am delivered from prison. God has been very good and gracious to me all through my life. He hears us when we call on Him through prayer and what is for our good He grants. No one calls upon Him in vain; that is if they try to serve Him by doing what is right according to His Holy Word the Bible. It is only through troubles and trials that we properly know the true meaning of the love of God.
He knows how unjustly I have been dealt with, but God was my deliverer, and when He would not let them do that they cast me into prison. But He knows that I am innocent of the crime, and I am very glad to say the greatest part of my countrymen believe that I am innocent.”

The “Torquay Times,” last evening, referring to John Lee’s probable release, says there is no official confirmation of the report, but that the story emanated from an ex-convict recently liberated from Portland.