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There was
originally one execution site for Carmarthen town and a separate one for the
Elinor Hadley was a single woman, who on the 2nd of March 1739 in the parish of
St Peter in the town of
Joseph
Jenkins was hanged for the murder of his wife in the parish of St Mary, in
Carmarthen
Gaol was designed by John Nash and opened in 1789. The prison was extended in
1869 and closed in 1922. The inmates
were transferred to
Just five
men were hanged at here, four for murder and one for forgery.
William
Baines became the first to be executed at the Gaol itself, when he was hanged
on Saturday the 23rd of May 1818 for forging and uttering Bank of England
notes. Baines had been employed as an
engraver of printing plates for banknotes.
The
scaffold was reportedly erected “inside and above the front wall of the County
gaol facing
On Monday the 21st of September 1829 David Evans was to die
for the murder of his
girlfriend, Hannah Davis, on
Evans was tried and convicted at the Carmarthen Autumn Great Sessions on the 16th of September 1829. He made a full confession of the crime to Thomas Jones, the Chaplain of the Gaol, in which he described the details of the murder. This was taken down by the Gaol Clerk, Mr. D. A. Williams who translated it from Evans’ native Welsh into English. In the confession he gave his motive as jealousy and was very sorry for what he had done. Evans finished by thanking the staff of the gaol for their kindness to him. The document was published verbatim in the press.
Hannah was his girlfriend and he had visited her on Thursday
the 11th of June. It appears that she
was pregnant at the time.
She asked him to accompany her to visit her father on the following Saturday
evening to which he agreed. When
Saturday came he was trimming some hedgerow with a billhook when Hannah came
along. At first he said he didn’t want
to go but she persuaded him and they walked on together. It seems that they were still on good terms,
but Evans suddenly brought the billhook from under his coat and slashed Hannah
in the neck. She didn’t fall at the
first blow so Evans struck her a second which bought her to her knees. He finished her off with several more. He then ran home, stopping to wash the
billhook in a stream. He got to bed
around 2 a.m. on the Sunday.
On the morning of execution he again thanked the chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Jones, and the Under Sheriff, Mr. L. Lewis, for the way they had treated him.
A huge crowd, reportedly comprising most of the population
of
It transpired that the carpenter responsible for erecting
the gallows had failed to tighten the hook into the beam and also failed to
insert the bolts that held the beam to the uprights. The Morning Post newspaper commented
that it was surprising that the beam did not fall as well. Evans’ confession and execution was given
wide-spread coverage in the press, although the story was syndicated and the
same text appeared in most of the papers, including several of the
Almost 60
years would pass before the next hanging here, then three would take place in
seven years. All three would be carried
out in a newly constructed execution shed, as was the fashion of the time. The gallows had come from Dolgellau prison
when it closed in 1878 and was installed in the execution shed. The trap doors were set over a 10 foot deep
brick lined pit and the beam was supported by two uprights, some 7 feet above
the platform. See drawing.
23 year old
David Rees was the first to he hanged in private at 8.00 a.m. on Tuesday the
13th of March 1888 for the murder of Thomas Davies, whom he had beaten and
kicked to death in order to rob him on the public highway at Dafen in Carmarthenshire on the 12th of November 1887. Thomas Davies was on his way back to Dafen Works with the firm’s wage money for the tinplate
works, some £500 - £600, when Rees attacked him.
Rees stood
trial at
Rees’ last
words were “Arglwydd, trughara
wrthyf” spoken in his native Welsh which translates
as “Lord, have mercy upon me.”
James Berry was the hangman and gave Rees, who weighed 154 lbs., a drop of six
feet. Death appeared to be
instantaneous. The notices of execution
were posted on the prison gates at 8.20 a.m.
Rees’ body
was laid in a coffin in a room near the main gate, adjacent to the Visiting
Justices room where the formal inquest was to be held at 10.00 a.m. that
morning, before Mr R. M. Thomas, the deputy coroner. It was noted that there was some lividity to
the face and that the neck was slightly swollen, but otherwise the countenance
was calm and placid.
George Thomas, 25, a former artilleryman and
later a farm labourer, was executed at
Mary was
just 15 1/2 and lived with her aunt, Mrs. Rosie Dyer, at Tawclan
Cottage,
Her
rejection only deepened his jealousy and he was reported to have stated that
nobody should possess the girl if he could not.
On the
night of Sunday the 19th of November 1893 he went to the chapel to find Mary
but she was not there, so he lay in wait for her to come home and then cut her throat,
almost severing her head. Her belongings
were found at the scene, along with a black handled shaving razor. Afterwards Thomas went into
At his
trial before Mr. Justice Kennedy on Monday the 20th of January, 1894 it took
the jury just 39 minutes to return a guilty verdict. They did not accept a plea of insanity and
preferred the evidence of the prison doctor, who considered Thomas to be sane.
In the
condemned cell Thomas wrote both to his parents and to Mary’s. Steps were taken to obtain a reprieve on the
ground of Thomas's supposed insanity, experts having declared that such
symptoms had been observed in other members of his family. The Home Secretary
saw no grounds for interfering with the course of the law.
A
considerable number of people had gathered outside the prison to witness the
posting of the execution notices on the gate and the hoisting of
the black flag. Inside James Billington
conducted Thomas into the execution shed and the proceedings were over in just
one minute. It was reported that Thomas
weighed 115 lbs. and was given a drop of 6’ 6”.
His behaviour was described as “callous to the last”.
Thomas Richards,
a 41 year old sailor, was the last person to be hanged here, at 8.00 a.m. on
Thursday the 29th of November 1894 for the murder of his sister in law, 39 year old Mary
Davis, at Borth, near Aberystwyth on the 21st of September 1894.
The
motive for the crime was theft. Richards
broke into Mary’s house at
Richards
was tried before at
Awaiting
execution Richards made a confession to the crimes.
James
Billington carried out this execution.
It was stated at the formal inquest by Mr. J. W. Forbes, the governor,
that Richards was given a drop of seven feet for his 148 lb. body weight and
that death was almost instantaneous, there being just slight muscular
convulsions (most probably of the legs) and discolouration of the face.
A small
crowd had gathered outside the prison to see the black flag hoisted. It was recorded that the execution shed was
some 55 yards from the condemned cell.
The press
were not admitted to the hanging. The
South Wales Daily News devoted the whole of page 6 of their Friday the 30th
of November edition to the case and reproduced artists’ drawings of the main
characters.
Richards
was buried later in the day in a garden on the
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