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06 - My Experiences as an Executioner by James Berry · My Experiences as an Executioner

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  Speaker 1: Chapter five of My Experiences as an Executioner by James Berry.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
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  Speaker 1: Ashley Jane, Chapter five, My method of execution, the proceedings.
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  Speaker 1: The hour fixed for executions is eight a m in
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  Speaker 1: all the prisons except Wandsworth and Lincoln, where it is
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  Speaker 1: nine a m. Of course, the scaffold and robe are
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  Speaker 1: arranged and the drop decided beforehand. I calculate for three
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  Speaker 1: minutes to be occupied from the time of entering the
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  Speaker 1: condemned cell to the finish of life's great tragedy for
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  Speaker 1: the doomed man. So I enter the cell punctually at
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  Speaker 1: three minutes to eight. In order that my action in
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  Speaker 1: hanging a man may be legal, it is necessary that
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  Speaker 1: I should have what is known as an authority to hang,
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  Speaker 1: which is draw drawn up and signed by the sheriff,
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  Speaker 1: and handed to me a few minutes before the time
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  Speaker 1: for the execution. Its form varies a good deal. In
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  Speaker 1: some cases it is a long, wordy document full of
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  Speaker 1: the wherefores and whatsoevers in which the law delights. But
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  Speaker 1: usually it is a simple, official looking form, engrossed by
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  Speaker 1: the jail clerk and running somewhat as follows to James Berry,
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  Speaker 1: I blank of blank in the County of Blank, Esquire,
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  Speaker 1: Sheriff of the said County of Blank, do hereby author
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  Speaker 1: you to hang a blank B blank, who now lies
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  Speaker 1: under sentence of death in her Majesty's prison at blank,
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  Speaker 1: dated this blank day of blank, blank blank Blank, Sheriff.
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  Speaker 1: This is folded in three and endorsed outside ri a
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  Speaker 1: blank b blank authority to hang blank blank, Sheriff Blankshire.
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  Speaker 1: When we enter the condemned cell, the chaplain is already there,
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  Speaker 1: and has been for some time. Two attendants, who have
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  Speaker 1: watched through the convicts last nights on earth, are also present.
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  Speaker 1: At my appearance. The convict takes leave of his attendants,
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  Speaker 1: to whom he generally gives some little token or keepsake,
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  Speaker 1: and I at once proceed to pinion his arms. As
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  Speaker 1: soon as opinioning is done, a procession is formed generally
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  Speaker 1: in the following order, chief warder, the chaplain and convict,
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  Speaker 1: surrounded by four more warders, the executioner, two principal warders,
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  Speaker 1: followed by two warders, Governor and sheriff, two wand bearers, jail,
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  Speaker 1: surgeon and attendant. In some few cases where the prisoner
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  Speaker 1: has not confessed before the time for the execution, I
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  Speaker 1: have approached him in the cell in the kindly manner,
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  Speaker 1: asking him, as it can make no difference to his fate,
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  Speaker 1: to confess the justice of the sentence, in order that
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  Speaker 1: I may feel sure that I am not hanging an
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  Speaker 1: innocent person. In most cases they have done so, either
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  Speaker 1: in the cell or at the last moment on the scaffold.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, the confidences reposed in me at such moments
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  Speaker 1: I have never divulged, and it would be most improper
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  Speaker 1: to do so. But I am at liberty to state
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  Speaker 1: that of all the people I have executed, only two
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  Speaker 1: or three have died without fully and freely confessing their guilt.
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  Speaker 1: On the way from the cell to the scaffold, the
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  Speaker 1: chaplain reads the service for the burial of the dead,
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  Speaker 1: and as the procession moves, I place the white cap
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  Speaker 1: upon the head of the convict. Just as we reach
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  Speaker 1: the scaffold, I pour the cap over his eyes. Then
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  Speaker 1: I place the convict under the beam pinion the legs
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  Speaker 1: just below the knees with a strap similar to the
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  Speaker 1: one used for their elbows. Are just the rope pour
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  Speaker 1: the bolt and the trap falls. Death is instantaneous, but
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  Speaker 1: the body is left hanging for an hour and is
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  Speaker 1: then lowered into a coffin made in the prison and
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  Speaker 1: carried to the mortuary to await the inquest. The inquest
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  Speaker 1: usually takes place at ten o'clock, but in some places
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  Speaker 1: it is held at noon. After the inquest, the body
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  Speaker 1: is surrounded by quicklimb and buried in the prison grounds.
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  Speaker 1: In the carrying out of the last penalty of the law,
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  Speaker 1: everything is conducted with decorum and solemnity, and so far
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  Speaker 1: as I can see, there is no way in which
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  Speaker 1: the arrangements at an execution can be improved unless it
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  Speaker 1: is in regard to the admission of reporters. In years
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  Speaker 1: gone by, a large number of reporters were often admitted,
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  Speaker 1: some of them with probably little or no real connection
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  Speaker 1: with the papers they profess to represent. Occasionally, also there
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  Speaker 1: would be one or to featherbrains juniors who seem to
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  Speaker 1: have no proper idea of the solemnity of a death scene,
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  Speaker 1: and whose conduct was hardly such as serious persons could approve.
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  Speaker 1: The result has been that in many prisons the admission
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  Speaker 1: of press representatives has been very rigidly curtailed and in
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  Speaker 1: some cases admission has been absolutely refused. It seems to
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  Speaker 1: me that the admittance of a large number of spectators
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  Speaker 1: and the absolute refusal to admit any are alike mistakes.
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  Speaker 1: I speak in this matter as a man whose own
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  Speaker 1: work comes under the criticism of the press, and although
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  Speaker 1: so far as I am personally concerned, I'm perfectly satisfied
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  Speaker 1: if I can satisfy the governor or high sheriff. I
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  Speaker 1: know that there is a large section of the public
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  Speaker 1: that thinks the exclusion of the reporters must mean that
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  Speaker 1: there is something going on which there is a desire
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  Speaker 1: to hush up. I am a servant of the public,
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  Speaker 1: as also are the sheriffs, the governor, and the other
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  Speaker 1: officials connected with an execution, and the public, through its
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  Speaker 1: representatives on the press, ought to have some assurance that
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  Speaker 1: the details in each execution are carried out decently and
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  Speaker 1: in order. The presence or absence of the press, of course,
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  Speaker 1: makes no difference in the conduct of the execution, but
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  Speaker 1: it makes a good deal of difference to a certain
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  Speaker 1: section of the public. If the governor of the jail
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  Speaker 1: or the sheriff were to give three admissions for each execution,
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  Speaker 1: with the understanding that any representatives suspected of not being
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  Speaker 1: bonifider would be refused admission even if he presented his ticket.
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  Speaker 1: I think that every real objection would be met. After
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  Speaker 1: the execution is over, the fact that the sentence of
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  Speaker 1: the law has been carried out is announced to the
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  Speaker 1: public by a notice fixed to the door of the prison.
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  Speaker 1: The form of this notice varies somewhat, but I append
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  Speaker 1: one of which I happen to have a copy. County
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  Speaker 1: of Oxford Execution of Charles Smith for murder the Capital
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  Speaker 1: Punishment Amendment at eighteen sixty eight. Coppies are subjoined of
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  Speaker 1: the official declaration that judgment of death has been executed
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  Speaker 1: and the Surgeon's certificate of the death of Charles Smith.
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  Speaker 1: Thomas M. Davenport, under Sheriff of the County of Oxford,
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  Speaker 1: ninth May eighteen eighty seven. Official Declaration. We the undersigned,
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  Speaker 1: do hereby declare that judgment of death was this day,
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  Speaker 1: in our presence, executed on Charles Smith, within the wars
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  Speaker 1: of Her Majesty's Prison at Oxford, Dated this ninth day
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  Speaker 1: of May one thousand, eight hundred and eighty seven. Thomas M. Davenport,
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  Speaker 1: under Sheriff of Oxfordshire. H. B. Isaac'son, Governor of the Prison. J. K. Newton,
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  Speaker 1: Chaplain of the Prison, Jay Reordan, Chief Warder of the Prison,
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  Speaker 1: Henry Ives Sheriff's Officer, Thomas W. N. Austin reporter Oxford Journal,
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  Speaker 1: Robert Brazy's Reporter, Oxford Chronicle, Joseph Henry Warner, Reporter Oxford Times.
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  Speaker 1: Jay Lansbury Warder. Surgical Certificate. I Henry Banks Spencer, the
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  Speaker 1: Surgeon of Her Majesty's Prison at Oxford, hereby certify that
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  Speaker 1: I this day examined the body of Charles Smith, on
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  Speaker 1: whom judgment of death was this day executed in the
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  Speaker 1: said prison, and that on such examination I found that
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  Speaker 1: the said Charles Smith was dead. Dated this ninth day
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  Speaker 1: of May one thousand, eight hundred and eighty seven. Henry B. Spencer,
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  Speaker 1: Surgeon of the Prison. End of chapter five, recording by
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  Speaker 1: Ashley Jane three