Strangeways
Prison in Southall Street, Manchester was built to
replace New Bailey prison in Salford which closed in
1868. It was designed by Alfred Waterhouse in 1861, using the Panopticon
(radial) concept that was being employed all over Britain at the time.
Waterhouse was assisted by Joshua Jebb, the Surveyor
General of Prisons, who had also been involved with the design of London's Pentonville
Prison. Construction was completed in 1869 at a cost of £170,000.
The new brick built prison stood on the site of the original Strangeways Park and Gardens,
hence its name, and was able to house a 1,000
prisoners. There are two imposing gatehouses and a central dodecagonal hall,
with wings A to F radiating off from it.
The 234 feet high tower, which was used for heating and ventilation, has
been a local landmark ever since it was built. The T-shaped F wing is used to
house the administration on ground floor with the prison chapel above. A plaque in the entrance commemorates the
official opening on the 25th of June
1868.
Strangeways also
became the place of execution for the area after the closure of Salford prison.
It initially had a purpose built execution shed in one of the yards, as this
was the normal practice for private executions from 1868 up to around the end
of World War 1.
The later 20th century condemned cell and execution room were situated at the
end of 'B' wing in the central area. Strangeways had a permanent gallows, one
of the few English prisons to do so, up to the abolition of capital punishment.
In total, there were 100 hangings carried out within its walls, all in private.
Twenty eight men and one woman were hanged there between 1869 and 1899, the
first being a young man of 20 called Michael Johnson, who was hanged by William Calcraft for murder on
the 29th of March 1869.
A further 71 people were executed at Strangeways in the 20th century - 68 men
and 3 women. In the latter part of this period, executions became quite rare -
no one was to be hanged there between 1954 and 1962. James Smith was executed
in that year and then one of the last two UK hangings of all was carried out at
Strangeways at 8.00 a.m. on the 13th of August 1964. Gwynne Owen Evans (real
name John Robson Walby) was hanged by Harry Allen
(assisted by Royston Rickard) for the murder of John West, a laundryman, in the
course of robbing him in April 1964. Peter Anthony Allen was hanged at the same
moment in Liverpool's Walton prison for his part in the crime. Murder committed
in the course of robbery was still a capital crime under the 1957 Homicide Act.
There were 4 double hangings, all the rest being carried out individually.
William Calcraft officiated at the first 3 executions within the walls of
Strangeways (Michael Johnson plus Patrick Durr in
December 1870 and Michael Kennedy in December 1872) before William Marwood
replaced him and introduced the long drop method.
The
condemned block is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of one of the hangmen who
officiated there. Staff on night duty have reported
seeing a mysterious man in a dark suit carrying a small briefcase. He is always
seen walking along 'B' wing from just outside the condemned cell towards the
central control area. When they try to follow this dark suited man, he vanishes
just before the old iron staircase leading up to the main office. One wonders
if this could be John Ellis who committed suicide in 1932.
Some of the criminals who were hanged at Strangeways.
Thirty
eight year old Mary Ann Britland of Ashton-under-Lyne in Lancashire was hanged by
James Berry on the 9th of August 1886, the first woman
to be executed at Strangeways.
Mary and Thomas Britland had rented a house in Ashton-under-Lyne, which she liked
very much, except for the fact that it was infested with mice. To eliminate
these, she went to the chemists and bought packets of Harrison's Vermin Killer.
This contained both strychnine and arsenic and, therefore, Mary had to sign the
poison register. Mary's first victim was to be her daughter Elizabeth in March
1886, her death being put down to natural causes by the attending doctor. This
was not unusual at the time as food hygiene standards were not very good and
there were no refrigerators to preserve food. A few days later, Mary claimed Elizabeth's £10 life
insurance. Her next victim was Thomas, her husband. His death was diagnosed as
epilepsy and again Mary claimed on his insurance. Mary had been having an
affair with her neighbour, Thomas Dixon, and after her own husband's death, she
was invited round to the Dixon's house by his
unsuspecting wife, also called Mary. She was to become the next and last victim
of this serial poisoner. The 3 deaths, all with their identical and somewhat
unnatural symptoms, raised suspicion. Mary Britland was interviewed by the
police in connection with Mary Dixon's death and her body was examined by a
pathologist. It was found to contain a lethal quantity of the two poisons and
Mary was immediately arrested. She came to trial on Thursday, the 22nd, of July
1886 before Mr. Justice Cave at Manchester
Assizes. Her defence was absence of motive - it was contended that the small
insurance payouts were no compensation for the loss of her husband and
daughter. It took the jury some time to convict her, although in the end they
did. After she was sentenced, she declared to the court, "I am quite
innocent, I am not guilty at all."
She was in a state of collapse on her last morning and had to be heavily
assisted to the gallows and held up on the trapdoors by two male warders while Berry prepared her for
execution.
A young
man called John Jackson, who had been a plumber by trade, was mortified when
his teenage idol, Charles Peace, was hanged at Leeds' Armley prison on the 25th of February 1879. After a session
of heavy drinking in the pubs of Leeds, he made up his
mind to join the army. He was convicted of horse stealing while serving with
the army and was sentenced to 6 months in prison, which he began to serve at Wakefield prison and from
which he managed to escape. He was recaptured and sent to Armley prison in
Leeds from which he was released in the summer of 1885. He was soon breaking
into houses and was to move to Manchester by 1888, where he
was caught red-handed outside one of the properties. He was sentenced to
another 6 months - this time in Strangeways. His old plumbing skills were to
come in useful when the matron of Strangeways smelt gas in her home. Jackson was taken to the
house in charge of warder Webb on Tuesday, the 22nd of May 1888. After completing
the repair, he hit Webb on the back of the head with a hammer fracturing his
skull. He stole Webb's boots and then escaped into the roof void from where he
was able to remove the slates with the hammer (murder weapon) and get out onto
the roof. He was thus able to escape from the matron's house and get down into
the street. On the run, he supported himself by housebreaking, as usual, before
being finally caught in Bradford on the 2nd of June 1888, where he gave himself up
without a struggle and immediately confessed to the killing. He was taken back
to Manchester for trial. He was convicted of Webb's murder and hanged by James
Berry on Tuesday, the 7th of August. Jackson was described in
a contemporary newspaper report as "a daring and adroit criminal, the
recital of whose exploits caused wonder and consternation throughout the
land,"
Lieutenant
Frederick Rothwell Holt was hanged by John Ellis on the 13th of April 1920. In the early
morning of Christmas Eve 1919, the body of 26 year old Kathleen (Kitty) Breaks
was found among the sand dunes at Lytham St. Annes
near Blackpool. She had been shot 3 times with a revolver. Holt's
footprints, together with his Webley service revolver
and bloodstained gloves, were found in the dunes. Holt, who had been her lover,
was arrested and charged with her murder. He was tried at Manchester Assizes
between the 23rd and 27th of February before Mr. Justice Greer. His barrister,
the famous Sir Edward Marshall Hall, tried to put forward a defence of insanity
but this was rejected. The prosecution's case was that Holt had murdered Kitty
for her substantial life insurance, having persuaded her to make him the sole
beneficiary under her will. Holt appealed his death sentence and was,
unusually, allowed to have new evidence submitted which showed that he had
contracted syphilis in Malaya which might have unbalanced his mind. Having been
examined by Home Office psychiatrists, this was rejected and a new execution
date set.
Louie
Calvert, 33, had criminal tendencies and was known to the police. She battered
and strangled her landlady, Mrs. Lily Waterhouse, who had confronted her over
things that had gone missing from the house and had reported Louie to the
police. In the condemned cell, she also admitted to the murder of a previous employer
- John Frobisher - in 1922. Louie Calvert was hanged
by Tom Pierrepoint at Strangeways prison on the 24th of June 1926. Click here for the full story behind
this case.
Doctor
Buck Ruxton murdered his common law wife, Isabella Ruxton, and his housemaid, Mary Jane Rogerson,
at their home in Lancaster on the 15th of September 1935. After killing
the two women, he dismembered them and removed all their distinguishing
features which made it difficult to identify the bodies and determine the cause
of death. It was alleged at his trial that Mary Rogerson
had been smothered and Mrs Ruxton manually strangled.
He wrapped the body parts in sheets of a special edition Sunday Graphic
newspaper sold only in the Lancaster area, and then
drove them to Scotland where he threw
them into a river. They were discovered by a man out walking his dog across a
bridge at "The Devil's Beeftub" near the
town of Moffat, in
Dumfriesshire. As a result of the location, the case became known as the
"Bodies under the Bridge Murder."
Mary Rogerson's parents had reported her missing and
the local people thought it strange that Isabella Ruxton
had not been seen around. The sheets of newspaper allowed the police to trace
the remains back to the Lancaster area and thus to Ruxton who was arrested on October the 13th, 1935. The Glasgow Police
Identification Bureau used new fingerprint techniques to help identify the
bodies and also the, then new, technique of photographic superimposure,
matching a photo of Isabella to the shape of one of the skulls found. The match
was perfect. (These interesting photos still exist.)
After the murder, Ruxton did several things that were
to incriminate him. Whilst disposing of the bodies, he had cut his hand and he
told several people about this incident, saying he done it whilst opening a
can. He also asked one of his patients to help him tidy up the house. She saw
bloodstains all over the house - on carpets, in the bath and on an old suit.
The motive for killing Isabella was jealousy. Ruxton
was considered a kindly and popular doctor but a very jealous husband. Isabella
was an attractive woman who liked to socialise, which did not suit Ruxton. The marriage deteriorated with Ruxton
becoming ever more jealous and controlling. He killed Mary Rogerson,
as she had witnessed Isabella's murder, to prevent her from giving him away.
Ruxton was tried at Manchester Assizes in March of
1936 before Mr. Justice Singleton, the jury taking just over an hour to convict
him. He was hanged at Strangeways on the 12th of May 1936. Amazingly, a
petition for clemency was got up prior to the execution and signed by some
10,000 people. A few days after his death, his signed confession was published
dated the 14th of October 1935 - it said,
"I killed Mrs. Ruxton in a fit of temper because
I thought she had been with a man. I was mad at the time. Mary Rogerson was present at the time. I had to kill her."
Margaret
Allen was a "butch" lesbian who dressed in men's clothes and
preferred to be called "Bill."
She lived at Rawtenstall, a few miles outside Blackburn, where she had
worked as a bus conductor. On the 28th of
August 1948, she battered Nancy Ellen Chadwick to death with a
hammer. Mrs. Chadwick was an elderly widow and had come to her door to borrow a
cup of sugar. She had irritated Allen in various ways over the years. Allen
readily confessed to the police saying, "I didn't do it for money, I was
in one of my funny moods." She was convicted after a short trial, lasting
just one day - the 8th of
December 1948. Forty two
year old Allen was hanged by Albert Pierrepoint on the 12th of January 1949. Hers was the first female
execution in Britain for 12 years and only the third at Strangeways.
The
fastest execution on record took place at Strangeways on the 8th of May 1951.
Albert Pierrepoint, assisted by Sid Dernly, had to
almost run with James Inglis from the condemned cell
to the gallows. Just 7 seconds later his lifeless body was dangling in
the cell below.
Inglis had been convicted of the murder of 50 year
old Alice Morgan, whom he had battered and strangled to death. Alice was a
prostitute and she and Inglis quarrelled over her
payment, having spent some time drinking together before she took him home for
sex. The following day, he nearly killed his landlady. He confessed immediately
when he was interviewed by the police. At his trial, the defence of insanity
was put forward but rejected by the jury. He was thus sentenced to death by Mr.
Justice Ormerod on the 20th of April and hanged 3
weeks later, as he had no wish to appeal his sentence. Sid Dernley
recalls in his memoirs that Inglis tried to help
Pierrepoint pinion his arms and was smiling when they entered the condemned
cell.
The
fourth and last woman to be executed at Strangeways was 46 year old Louisa May
Merrifield who had been convicted of poisoning Mrs. Sarah Ricketts. Sarah
Ricketts was a 79 year old, bedridden widow who lived in Blackpool. She had hired
Louisa and her husband Alfred to look after her in March 1953 and soon made a
new will leaving her bungalow to Louisa. Mrs. Ricketts had some rather strange
dietary habits. Apparently, she was very fond of very sweet jams which she ate
directly from the jar by the spoonful, washed down with rum or a bottle of
stout. Louisa, having got the will made in her favour, capitalised on these
peculiar habits by adding Rodine, a
phosphorus based rat poison, to the jam. Mrs. Ricketts' death was
considered suspicious and so a post-mortem was carried out which quickly
revealed the presence of the poison. A local chemists
had recorded the sale of the Rodine to Louisa, but
the police could not find the poison container which she had purchased, but
felt that they had enough circumstantial evidence to charge both her and
Alfred. She had talked openly of inheriting the bungalow and this also threw
suspicion on her. The pair came to trial at Manchester Assizes on the 20th of July 1953. Alfred was
acquitted, there being no real evidence that he was part of the plot, but
Louisa was found guilty.
She was duly hanged by Albert Pierrepoint on the morning of Friday, the 18th of September 1953. Several hundred
people gathered outside the prison gates that morning to see the death notices
displayed. It is said that there was an unwritten rule in the Home Office that
poisoners should always hang.
The worst
prison riot in Britain took place at Strangeways between the 1st and the 25th
of April 1990 and virtually destroyed some of the original buildings and also
some of the prison records. 147 staff and 47 prisoners were injured and one prisoner
was killed. These riots led to the Woolfe Inquiry The
prison was rebuilt and is now known as Her Majesty's Prison, Manchester, in
accordance with current thinking which has removed the names from these prisons
(e.g. Birmingham's Winson Green prison is now just called HMP Birmingham) and
continues as the main prison for the Manchester area.
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