Alfred Sowery - who attacked James Berry on the gallows.

24 year old Alfred Sowery (or Sowrey) had been going out with 19 year old Annie Kelly for eight or nine weeks in the Spring of 1887. She was a laundry maid at the Bull Hotel in Preston and he was a pawn-broker’s assistant. On Sunday the 15th of May she left work with Sowery and was sacked by the manageress, Miss Chapman. Annie returned the following day to collect her belongings. The couple told one of Annie’s friends that they planned to sail to America on the following Wednesday and were going to marry.

On the Tuesday morning Sowery purchased a revolver and ammunition. The following day, Wednesday the 18th of May, he and Annie went to lunch at the Clarendon Temperance hotel in Preston. After the waitress, Miss Witlock who was the owner’s daughter, had taken their order, she heard a shot and turned to see Annie sprawled in a chair, bleeding from a wound to the right temple. The girl ran to fetch her mother who came in to see Sowery holding the gun to his head. She begged him not to pull the trigger. Mrs. Whitlock summoned a doctor and the police and Sowery was arrested by Inspector Durham. The motive for the crime was that he had caused Annie to lose her job and had decided to kill her and then himself. Annie did not regain consciousness and died about five minutes later. Inspector Durham took the revolver and asked “Who has done this?” and Sowery replied “I have. This is the revolver I did it with.” “I would have shot myself but the revolver misfired. I am sorry I did not do myself.’”

Sowery appeared before Preston Police Court on Friday the 20th of May and was committed for trial. This took place at Lancaster on the 15th of July 1887, before Mr. Justice Day and he was afterwards returned to Lancaster Castle’s condemned cell to await his fate. Once he learned that there would be no reprieve, he became gripped by the terror of his situation, and according to James Berry, the hangman, became “seriously ill”.

At 8.00 a.m. on the morning of execution, Monday the 1st of August 1887, Sowery had to be dragged to the gallows kicking and screaming by no less than five warders. He had to be carried up the steps and held on the trapdoors by two warders. Sowery managed to kick James Berry in the leg with such force that Berry was permanently scarred by it. However Berry finally managed to strap his legs and get the hood and noose on. He was given a drop of 5’ 6” and death was said to be instantaneous, although the rope was seen to vibrate for a few moments after the drop. A large number of people had gathered outside the castle to see the black flag raised.

The gallows at Lancaster was described by a reporter from The Blackburn Standard who witnessed the hanging. The black painted structure stood some 15 feet high with a platform five feet from the ground in the 30’ x 20’ Chapel Yard. Two uprights rose from the platform, supporting a heavy beam. The underside of the platform was enclosed in black cloth. It was, according to a warder, the same short drop gallows that had been in use since 1800. A pit had been dug beneath it to allow for a longer drop. Berry told reporters afterwards that it was the most difficult execution he had carried out in his four years as hangman.

After the execution the chaplain, the Rev. H. Fielding Smith forwarded a letter to the Parish Priest of Croosmolina in Southern Ireland where Annie’s parents lived, stating that Sowery was deeply sorry for murdering Annie and begging their forgiveness.

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