not later than four o’clock on Wednesday evening, the 21st inst. I think your best and surest route is by Fleetwood and Belfast. You would then arrive in Armagh on Wednesday about 9.30, and could go direct to the prison, where you will be supplied with everything necessary. Let me hear from you as to that arrangement.
Harry confirmed the details and was then surprised to receive another letter a day later endorsed with a capital ‘S’ in the topleft corner and marked ‘Strictly Private’. The letter warned the hangman that the authorities suspected something was afoot to delay or prevent him carrying out the execution and that he was to only respond to any correspondence on this affair from the under-sheriff himself and to stick rigidly to the agenda contained in the previous letter.
Having carried out the execution of Edmund Hall at Leeds on the Tuesday morning, Harry accompanied Billington back to Manchester and caught the boat train to Fleetwood, from where he was sailing later that evening. As Harry was crossing the Irish Sea, over in Armagh a man approached the gate at the prison and told the gatekeeper he had come over from England to carry out the execution. His plan was doomed to failure from the start. The name Pierrepoint had never appeared in the press over in Ireland at this point and the would-be impostor was soon rumbled and taken down to the cells until the execution was over.
The journey across the sea was accomplished without incident, but Harry had taken heed of advice given to him by William Billington and made his way to the prison in a discreet and unobtrusive way. Reaching the town he decided to ask at the local police station as to the location of the gaol and, after satisfying them with his credentials, he was escorted to the nearby building.
Unlike in England and Wales, for executions scheduled in Ireland and in Scotland – and a few years later in Jersey – an assistant was thought to be an expensive luxury and the authorities refused to sanction payment. For the first time, therefore, Harry was to carry out the execution alone.
Having made the usual arrangements and tested the apparatus, he was then given a chance to view the prisoner. Fee was housed in a cell reached by a flight of stone stairs from the prison yard. Spying him in the cell, Harry saw hewas a strapping, well-built fellow and with his details to hand decided on a drop of 6 feet. As he studied the man, Harry heard him repeat to the guards that he was innocent. A strange feeling ran through Harry as he studied the prisoner. Was he looking at an innocent man? But he reasoned that the decision to convict the man was not his and if he refused the task then someone else would do it and collect the fee.
At a few seconds to eight, Harry stood outside the cell to which Fee had been transferred earlier that morning and which stood a short walk from the scaffold. On the stroke of eight he entered and Fee, whose face had turned a ghastly white, submitted to the pinioning without a word. The procession began and moments later it reached the scaffold. Fee didn’t flinch as his ankles were strapped; he was then noosed and the white cap placed over his head.
Realising finally that there was not going to be any last-minute reprieve, Fee called out loudly: ‘Executioner! Guilty!’ Harry darted to the side and yanked the lever. News that Fee had confessed on the scaffold made headlines across the country and Harry felt a little safer as he prepared to travel home knowing he hadn’t been responsible for sending an innocent man to his doom.
The year 1904 ended as it had begun for Harry, with a trip to Leeds, this time to help John Billington hang 44-year-old Arthur Jeffries. Jeffries was part of a gang of poachers who operated in and around Rotherham. Another of the gang was Samuel Barker, a close friend of Jeffries. In October, a row had broken out when others in the gang had gone poaching without Jeffries. The latter was enraged and
Harry confirmed the details and was then surprised to receive another letter a day later endorsed with a capital ‘S’ in the topleft corner and marked ‘Strictly Private’. The letter warned the hangman that the authorities suspected something was afoot to delay or prevent him carrying out the execution and that he was to only respond to any correspondence on this affair from the under-sheriff himself and to stick rigidly to the agenda contained in the previous letter.
Having carried out the execution of Edmund Hall at Leeds on the Tuesday morning, Harry accompanied Billington back to Manchester and caught the boat train to Fleetwood, from where he was sailing later that evening. As Harry was crossing the Irish Sea, over in Armagh a man approached the gate at the prison and told the gatekeeper he had come over from England to carry out the execution. His plan was doomed to failure from the start. The name Pierrepoint had never appeared in the press over in Ireland at this point and the would-be impostor was soon rumbled and taken down to the cells until the execution was over.
The journey across the sea was accomplished without incident, but Harry had taken heed of advice given to him by William Billington and made his way to the prison in a discreet and unobtrusive way. Reaching the town he decided to ask at the local police station as to the location of the gaol and, after satisfying them with his credentials, he was escorted to the nearby building.
Unlike in England and Wales, for executions scheduled in Ireland and in Scotland – and a few years later in Jersey – an assistant was thought to be an expensive luxury and the authorities refused to sanction payment. For the first time, therefore, Harry was to carry out the execution alone.
Having made the usual arrangements and tested the apparatus, he was then given a chance to view the prisoner. Fee was housed in a cell reached by a flight of stone stairs from the prison yard. Spying him in the cell, Harry saw hewas a strapping, well-built fellow and with his details to hand decided on a drop of 6 feet. As he studied the man, Harry heard him repeat to the guards that he was innocent. A strange feeling ran through Harry as he studied the prisoner. Was he looking at an innocent man? But he reasoned that the decision to convict the man was not his and if he refused the task then someone else would do it and collect the fee.
At a few seconds to eight, Harry stood outside the cell to which Fee had been transferred earlier that morning and which stood a short walk from the scaffold. On the stroke of eight he entered and Fee, whose face had turned a ghastly white, submitted to the pinioning without a word. The procession began and moments later it reached the scaffold. Fee didn’t flinch as his ankles were strapped; he was then noosed and the white cap placed over his head.
Realising finally that there was not going to be any last-minute reprieve, Fee called out loudly: ‘Executioner! Guilty!’ Harry darted to the side and yanked the lever. News that Fee had confessed on the scaffold made headlines across the country and Harry felt a little safer as he prepared to travel home knowing he hadn’t been responsible for sending an innocent man to his doom.
The year 1904 ended as it had begun for Harry, with a trip to Leeds, this time to help John Billington hang 44-year-old Arthur Jeffries. Jeffries was part of a gang of poachers who operated in and around Rotherham. Another of the gang was Samuel Barker, a close friend of Jeffries. In October, a row had broken out when others in the gang had gone poaching without Jeffries. The latter was enraged and
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