Men They Couldn’t Hang

If a prisoner survived three trips to the gallows, should he be set free? That question plagued the public when faced with men they couldn’t hang. These are their stories. < cue Law & Order music >

Men They Couldn’t Hang #1: John “Babbacome” Lee

Miss Emma Anne Whitehead Keyse lived alone in “The Glen,” with her servants, Jane and Eliza Neck, Elizabeth Harris, the cook, and her brother, John Henry George Lee. In the early hours of November 15, 1884, authorities found Miss Emma’s lifeless body with three knife wounds to her head. The murderer also tried to set the corpse on fire.

John “Babbacome” Lee had worked alongside his sister at the The Glen since leaving school. In 1879, he joined the Navy. A medical discharge sent him home to Torquay (United Kingdom) to work as a footman. But he stole from his employer and got caught, convicted, and sentenced. Upon his release from prison in 1884, he returned to work at The Glen.

As the only male in the household at the time of the murder, police zeroed in on Lee as the prime suspect. Along with other circumstantial evidence, an inexplicable cut on his arm sealed his fate. But did the police have the right man?

Attorney Reginald Gwynne Templar was a frequent visitor to The Glen. After Lee’s arrest, he offered to represent him pro bono. Which was highly unusual, considering Templar and Miss Emma were close friends and he’d also been in the house on the night in question. Odder still, folks wondered how he found out about the murder so soon after it happened. Could Templar be the real killer?

Unfortunately, police had little evidence to prove Templar’s guilt or innocence. They had even less to convict Lee, but that didn’t stop them from arresting him for Miss Emma’s murder.

“The reason I am so calm is that I trust in the Lord,” Lee told the judge at trial, “and He knows I am innocent.”

A jury found John “Babbacome” Lee guilty and sentenced him to hang at Exeter Prison on February 23, 1885. That day, James Berry, the hangman, went through the usual testing of the trap door, the scaffold, and the noose. But when he slipped the noose over Lee’s head and pulled the lever, the trapdoor wouldn’t open.

They tried to hang him a second time. And the gallows malfunctioned again.

“It would shock the feeling of anyone if a man had twice to pay the pangs of imminent death,” said Sir William Harcourt, Home Secretary.

Three times a charm, right? Wrong. After the third failed attempt to hang Lee, officials commuted his sentence to penal servitude (imprisonment with hard labor).

The public interpreted the gallows malfunction as divine intervention. Once he walked free in 1907, after serving 22 years for the murder of Miss Emma, John “Babbacome” Lee described his incarceration as “moving from one tomb to another.”

Numerous stories circulated about how Lee spent his days after his release from prison. Some say, he moved abroad. Others claim he moved to London. In 2009, two Lee enthusiasts placed his grave in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Those same researchers said Lee deserted his wife and children in Britain for a second family in the U.S. We may never learn the full truth.

What do know is Templar went insane and died at an early age. Witnesses say he “babbled about murder on his death bed.”

John “Babbacome” Lee rose to infamy as “The man they couldn’t hang.” His name went on record as “the only person in the world to survive three hangings.” But was he? Or were there other men they couldn’t hang?

Men They Couldn’t Hang #2: Joseph Samuels

A little digging led me to an English criminal named Joseph Samuels. In 1801, a jury convicted Samuels of robbery at the tender age of 15 years old and shipped him off to a penal colony at Sydney Cove in Australia. Security in those early penal settlements were reinforced by isolation—prison guards trusted the Australian wilderness would attack and consume any escapees.

Despite the risk to life and limb, Samuels and his gang of thieves succeeded in escaping. Upon release, the unruly bunch were in the process of stealing a bag filled with gold and silver coins from a wealthy woman’s desk. When police arrived, one of the gangbangers shot and killed an officer. Because Samuels had a few of the stolen coins in his pocket when they eventually arrested him, along with the fact that the woman identified him as one of the robbers, the police believed they’d snagged a cop-killer.

An intense interrogation ensued, followed by a confession.

Samuels admitted to the robbery but claimed he had no part in the murder. Almost all of Samuels’ fellow gang members were acquitted due to lack of evidence. Except one man — Isaac Simmonds — who admitted nothing. The jury sentenced Samuels to hang.

On September 26, 1803, twenty-three-year-old Samuels and another prisoner stood before a crowd of onlookers, cheering and hollering for the main event to begin. Back then, Australia didn’t employ a drop-hanging method of execution. Instead, they placed the prisoner on a cart pulled by a horse. Once the hangman slipped a noose over the prisoner’s head, secured the rope around his neck, he’d slap the horse on the rear to get him to gallop away. This resulted in the prisoner slowly strangling, dragging behind the horse while spectators cheered.

Sounds barbaric, doesn’t it? According to reports, five thick cords made from hemp twined together to create the hangman rope, which could withstand up to 1,000 pounds without breaking.

But what about divine intervention? Would God save young Samuels?

The hangman slid the nooses around the necks of Samuels and another prisoner. Officials offered the two men a moment to pray with a priest. While facing the crowd, Samuels publicly confessed to the robbery.

“But,” he said, “I [am] no killer. In fact, the real murderer [is] in the crowd right now. Isaac Simmonds”— he pointed at the guilty party —”was the one who shot the policeman.”

Since Samuels had just prayed with the priest, the public believed he wouldn’t want to die with such an egregious sin on his conscience. All at once the men in the crowd dove on Simmonds, wrangling him to the ground, and restrained him till the police arrived on scene. Even with Samuels’ confession and the real cop killer in custody, the prison didn’t cancel or postpone the execution.

The hangman waited for the spectators to quiet. When a hush fell over the crowd, he slapped the horse, dragging behind him the body of the unnamed prisoner, grasping at his neck as he strangled to death. The noose around Samuels’ neck snapped in half. Hastened by the jerk, he fell off the cart but only sustained a sprained ankle. Did that stop the execution? Oh, hell no. The hangman had a spare rope.

Guards raised Samuels off the ground and returned him to the cart. This time, when the horse took off, the noose around Samuels’ neck unraveled.

Chaos erupted in the crowd. The Lord had spared his life a second time!

The hangman secured a third noose around Samuels’ neck. And miraculously, the rope broke again. By then, all the spectators were in a frenzy, shouting, demanding the release of Joseph Samuels. To soothe public outcry, the State Marshall stayed the execution until he could locate the governor.

Later that same day, the governor inspected all three ropes for tampering but found no signs of anything nefarious. Like the townsfolk, he presumed three broken nooses must be proof of Samuels’ innocence. Things like this just didn’t happen… unless God had intervened.

History can add Samuels’s name to the list of men they couldn’t hang.

Isaac Simmonds was arrested, convicted, and hanged for the murder of the police officer. His noose worked just fine. 🙂

Men They Couldn’t Execute #3: Willie Francis

I found another story of a teenager who got strapped to the electric chair twice, and survived. I’ll let the prisoner, Willie Francis, describe his ordeal…

I wanted to say good-bye, too, (Captain Foster had cheerfully said, “goodbye Willie”, before throwing the switch) but I was so scared I couldn’t talk. My hands were closed tightly. Then—I could almost hear it coming.

 

The best way I can describe it is: Whamm! Zst! It felt like a hundred and a thousand needles and pins were pricking in me all over and my left leg felt like somebody was cutting it with a razor blade.

 

I could feel my arms jumping at my sides and I guess my whole body must have jumped straight out. I couldn’t stop the jumping. If that was tickling it was sure a funny kind [He’d been told it would tickle and then he’d die]. I thought for a minute I was going to knock the chair over. Then I was all right. I thought I was dead.

 

Then they did it again! The same feeling all over. I heard a voice say, “Give me some more juice down there!” And in a little while somebody yelled, “I’m giving you all I got now!”

 

I think I must have hollered for them to stop. They say I said, “Take it off! Take it off!” I know that was certainly what I wanted them to do—turn it off.

Although Willie’s name couldn’t be added to the list of men they couldn’t hang, he certainly earned the title of “un-killable.” So, why do you think these men survived? Was it divine intervention, or did they just get lucky? I find it interesting that the men they couldn’t hang were all innocent. Not sure about ol’ Willie’s innocence, but he lived to tell his gruesome tale.

For those who haven’t seen this on social media, I did a little something different for PRETTY EVIL NEW ENGLAND book trailer. 😉