white-capped brother stood. ‘Have you given your heart to God?’
For a moment there was no response, then in a muffled whisper his brother replied: ‘Yes.’
As the drop fell Harry thought of how, at the very jaws of death, the younger brother’s thoughts were more for his brother than for himself.
Harry paid his first visit to Maidstone Gaol on 1 August, when he was engaged as number one for the execution of an Algerian who had killed a fellow countryman in a Kent field. It was to be his first engagement as a chief on the mainland for 20 months.
In the spring of 1905, five Algerians had taken lodgings at a house in a village in Kent. They had earned a living as travellers, selling various goods and items. Some of the group had moved on to the village of Robertsbridge; the rest had travelled on to Tenterden, where on the morning of 17 June, the body of Hadjou Idder was discovered. He had been beaten about the head with a large stick and his throat had been cut. Nineteen-year-old Ferat Mohamed Benali was arrested and confessed to the crime. He said they had travelled from Ashford and had looked for somewhere to sleep. Idder had suggested the field and though Benali preferred to make other arrangements, money was tight and he went along with the plan. In the early hours he awoke to find Idder was sexually molesting him. In a rage, he drew his knife and lashed out. He then picked up a branch and battered Idder until he lay dead. As on all his previous jobs aschief in England, Harry had John Ellis as his assistant. They worked as an efficient team and Benali was dispatched without incident in a brisk and professional manner.
On 9 August 1905, Harry worked as an assistant for the last time when he helped John Billington at the execution of William Hancocks at Knutsford. Hancocks lived with his wife and young children in Birkenhead. The eldest daughter, 15-year-old Mary, was in service elsewhere in Birkenhead and, although she no longer lived at home she often returned to spend some time with her family. On one such visit she was attacked by her father and stabbed several times in the head. She died a few days later. No motive was ever clearly established for the killing and at his trial Hancocks’ defence was manslaughter – that the wounds had been caused accidentally, during a struggle with his daughter. The jury disagreed, finding him guilty of murder, but adding a recommendation for mercy on account of him being drunk at the time of the attack.
William Hancocks had lost an arm many years previously in an accident on the railways and this caused a problem for the executioners when it came to pinioning his arms behind his back. In the days of James Berry, the condemned men’s arms were often secured to a body belt. Nowadays, with speed an important part of the executioner’s duties, clumsy body belts were no longer used, but the resourceful Harry modelled a strap on the principle of the body belt and was able to secure the man’s arm on the following morning. Hancocks spent his final hours writing and left two letters in cell. He was a bigamist, and left a letter for each of his wives.
When two executions were scheduled for the same day in August 1905, prison officials found they had a shortage of assistants, as William Billington was serving a short prison sentence for failing to pay maintenance monies to his wife andfamily after a separation. Of the seven names on the official list of hangmen and assistants when Harry had joined the list in 1901, there now remained just three. Both James Billington and his son Thomas had passed away; Robert Wade hadn’t assisted at an execution since the previous century; William Warbrick had only assisted at one execution in 1900 before his career had come to an end; and Thomas Scott hadn’t carried out any work since March 1901 and was deemed unsuitable to be retained on the official list.
This presented a problem when the governor at Leeds prison needed an assistant to
For a moment there was no response, then in a muffled whisper his brother replied: ‘Yes.’
As the drop fell Harry thought of how, at the very jaws of death, the younger brother’s thoughts were more for his brother than for himself.
Harry paid his first visit to Maidstone Gaol on 1 August, when he was engaged as number one for the execution of an Algerian who had killed a fellow countryman in a Kent field. It was to be his first engagement as a chief on the mainland for 20 months.
In the spring of 1905, five Algerians had taken lodgings at a house in a village in Kent. They had earned a living as travellers, selling various goods and items. Some of the group had moved on to the village of Robertsbridge; the rest had travelled on to Tenterden, where on the morning of 17 June, the body of Hadjou Idder was discovered. He had been beaten about the head with a large stick and his throat had been cut. Nineteen-year-old Ferat Mohamed Benali was arrested and confessed to the crime. He said they had travelled from Ashford and had looked for somewhere to sleep. Idder had suggested the field and though Benali preferred to make other arrangements, money was tight and he went along with the plan. In the early hours he awoke to find Idder was sexually molesting him. In a rage, he drew his knife and lashed out. He then picked up a branch and battered Idder until he lay dead. As on all his previous jobs aschief in England, Harry had John Ellis as his assistant. They worked as an efficient team and Benali was dispatched without incident in a brisk and professional manner.
On 9 August 1905, Harry worked as an assistant for the last time when he helped John Billington at the execution of William Hancocks at Knutsford. Hancocks lived with his wife and young children in Birkenhead. The eldest daughter, 15-year-old Mary, was in service elsewhere in Birkenhead and, although she no longer lived at home she often returned to spend some time with her family. On one such visit she was attacked by her father and stabbed several times in the head. She died a few days later. No motive was ever clearly established for the killing and at his trial Hancocks’ defence was manslaughter – that the wounds had been caused accidentally, during a struggle with his daughter. The jury disagreed, finding him guilty of murder, but adding a recommendation for mercy on account of him being drunk at the time of the attack.
William Hancocks had lost an arm many years previously in an accident on the railways and this caused a problem for the executioners when it came to pinioning his arms behind his back. In the days of James Berry, the condemned men’s arms were often secured to a body belt. Nowadays, with speed an important part of the executioner’s duties, clumsy body belts were no longer used, but the resourceful Harry modelled a strap on the principle of the body belt and was able to secure the man’s arm on the following morning. Hancocks spent his final hours writing and left two letters in cell. He was a bigamist, and left a letter for each of his wives.
When two executions were scheduled for the same day in August 1905, prison officials found they had a shortage of assistants, as William Billington was serving a short prison sentence for failing to pay maintenance monies to his wife andfamily after a separation. Of the seven names on the official list of hangmen and assistants when Harry had joined the list in 1901, there now remained just three. Both James Billington and his son Thomas had passed away; Robert Wade hadn’t assisted at an execution since the previous century; William Warbrick had only assisted at one execution in 1900 before his career had come to an end; and Thomas Scott hadn’t carried out any work since March 1901 and was deemed unsuitable to be retained on the official list.
This presented a problem when the governor at Leeds prison needed an assistant to
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