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Emily Swann & John Gallagher - the Wombwell Murder. |
It is amazing what a glass of brandy will do! A few minutes before 8
o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, December 29th, 1903, Emily Swann was in a
state of virtual collapse, moaning pitifully on the floor of her cell and yet,
after a drink of brandy, she was able to regain her composure and walk to the
execution room where she said, "Good morning
John" to her hooded and pinioned boyfriend, John Gallagher, as she was
brought up beside him on the gallows in Leeds' Armley
prison. He wasn’t aware that she was there and was completely taken aback by
this but managed to reply, "Good morning love." As the noose was
placed round her neck, she said: "Good-bye. God bless you."
A grainy photo of Emily Swann and John Gallagher is here.
The crime.
Emily was a 42 year old mother of 11 children. She was described as a
stumpy little, round-faced woman, 4 ft.10 in. tall and 122 lb. in weight and
from a "respectable" background. She was married to William Swann who
was a glass-blower and they had a lodger, a 30 year old miner called John
Gallagher, who was living with them at Wombwell in
It is probable that Emily and John were having an affair and it was
common knowledge to their neighbours that William beat Emily up at times,
although whether this was because he felt she was too friendly to John or for
other reasons is not known. Domestic violence was not uncommon at this time
anyway. Attitudes to extramarital relationships and wife beating were very
different 100 years ago, and it is probable that William felt well within his
rights to lay into Emily over her liaison with John.
There had been lots of quarrels and John had decided to leave the Swanns' household, although he was still a regular visitor.
His visits always seemed to provoke another fight so he had resolved to leave
Wombwell for good in June 1903 and move to Bradford.
Things came to a head on the afternoon of the 6th of June when Emily
went into her neighbour's house with a shawl over her head. She removed the
shawl and showed the neighbour her two black eyes and facial bruises, saying:
"See what our Bill's done!"
On seeing Emily's injuries, John, who was also at the neighbour's house, became
instantly enraged and said, "I'll go and give him something for himself
for that." Another neighbour saw him dashing into the Swanns'
house, followed closely by Emily. John was shouting, "I'll coffin him
before morning." The neighbours heard the sounds of a struggle from inside
the house.
The noises of fighting went on for some 10 minutes, at the end of which John
came out and went back to the neighbour's house.
"I've busted four of his ribs and I'll bust four more," he announced.
A few minutes later he told the neighbour, "I'll finish him out before I
go to
Ten minutes later Emily and John emerged from William's house holding hands and
being described by neighbours as showing "every sign of affection."
Behind them, in the shambles of the house, William lay dead. John and Emily
calmly went over to their friends house and told them the situation.
The police had been sent for and when they arrived, they immediately arrested
Emily. John, however, had escaped and went on the run for two months before
finally being tracked down to the house of a relative in Middlesborough, having
spent some time living rough.
Trial.
John and Emily came to trial on the 9th of December 1903 at Leeds
Assizes, before Mr. Justice Darling. Their barrister, Mr. Mitchell Innes,
admitted that the relationship between them was "of a misdirected
order," but contended that John had merely gone to the house to
remonstrate with William for his brutal treatment of Emily. Their defence
insisted that neither John nor Emily wanted William dead.
However, the judge advised the jury that John's remark, "I'll finish him
out before I go to
"As for the woman" continued the judge, "it is my duty to tell
you that one does not commit murder only with one's hands. If one person
instigates another to commit murder, and that other person does it, the
instigator is also guilty of murder."
Not surprisingly, they were both found guilty of William's murder on what was
very clear evidence, the jury taking only an hour in their deliberations.
Emily remained calm as the foreman of the jury gave the guilty verdict and when
asked if she wanted to say anything before sentence of death was passed, told
the judge, "I am innocent." "I am not afraid of immediate death,
because I am innocent and will go to God." Both she and John were then
formally sentenced to death.
The judge was aware of some more evidence which it had been decided
would not be put before the jury because it would prejudice Emily's case. After
the sentencing and before he discharged the jury, the judge told them that when
Gallagher was taken into custody, he had told the police that Emily hit William
and beat him with a poker, and that he (Gallagher) did not touch the dead man,
although he was present. "That statement was not direct evidence against
the woman but from the proved position of the poker I am convinced that the
statement was partly true and that Mrs. Swann did really take part in the
actual killing." Understandably, this caused quite a stir. It was held up
as an example of the fairness of the judicial system which declined to take unfair
advantage of an accused person. It was also a matter for satisfaction to the
prosecution that even without that vital evidence, the jury had still been
convinced of the woman's guilt.
After she was sentenced to death, Emily seemed quite unperturbed and smiled and
blew a kiss to someone in the gallery as she was led down from the dock.
They were taken from court to Armley prison,
Both were informed that would be no reprieves and that their executions would
take place on
Apparently, John had not expected to be reprieved but Emily had hoped that she
would be and had had major mood swings in the condemned cell where she was
guarded by pairs of wardresses 24 hours a day.
Emily was greatly distressed and in a state of near collapse when the governor
informed her that there would be no reprieve. Emily told her wardresses
repeatedly that she was very worried about the disgrace she was bringing on her
family. Emily's family made a last, forlorn appeal to the King for clemency but
this was, as usual, ignored.
The only time Emily and John saw each other between sentence and execution was
at the prison chapel service on Christmas morning where they were kept separate
and not allowed to speak. It is reported that they both ate a substantial
Christmas dinner.
Execution.
At this time, double (and even treble hangings) were still allowed and
it was decided to execute them side by side. William Billington was the
principal executioner assisted by John Ellis.
They went first to John Gallagher who was quite calm and pinioned his wrists
behind him. He was then led forward to the gallows by warders, while Billington
and Ellis pinioned the now much recovered Emily, whom they escorted into the
execution room flanked by two male warders.
John was already on the trap, surrounded and supported by warders, with the
white hood over his head when Emily was led in. She would have been able to see
the two nooses dangling from the beam. As she came onto the trap, Billington
drew the white hood over her head and then she made her famous remark. A moment
later the lever was pulled and they plummeted down through the trap together.
Emily weighed 122 lbs. and was given a drop of seven feet three inches. Gallagher was slightly heavier at 133 lbs.
and got a drop of seven feet seven inches. The inquest was conducted by the
Leeds City Coroner, Mr. J. C. Malcolm. The Medical Officer, Dr. Exley testified
that death had been "painless" in both cases and that Emily’s death
appeared to have been instantaneous and Gallagher’s almost so.
Comment.
This was very much an "open and shut" case where the evidence
against both defendants was strong and one which involved the doctrine of
Common Purpose that was part of English law in 1903 (and still is now). The law
states that if two (or more) people commit a crime, they can be held equally
responsible where there was common purpose, i.e. they both intended or could
have reasonably foreseen the outcome. This seems to have been true in this case
- if Emily's words were accurately reported by her neighbours, it is clear that
at that moment, at least, she wanted John to kill William and, therefore, would
be equally responsible for the outcome. Her precise role in the actual killing
is unclear, although it is probable that she did in fact take part as John had
claimed.
It is unlikely that either John or Emily intended to kill William,
because he was in the way of their affair, but rather because John lost his
temper when he saw Emily's injuries and between them things went too far in the
"heat of the moment." Today Emily might be seen more as the victim
than she was then, but they would almost certainly still both be found guilty
of murder because she played an active role in the killing and did nothing to
restrain John.
The factor that makes this case unusual is the behaviour of Emily on the
gallows. Normally not a word was spoken by the prisoner in this situation. They
were not invited to speak and many were probably paralysed with fear or had
retreated into a world of their own by the time they were pinioned and hooded.
Double hangings were ultimately abolished because they took longer to
carry out, and this was felt to prolong the suffering of the first prisoner
especially. After about 1920 where two or more people were to be executed for
the same crime, they could be hanged in separate prisons at the same moment in
time, as happened with Edith Thompson and her boyfriend, Frederick Bywaters. In
this case, it was probably far less cruel, especially to Emily, to allow her to
die beside John rather than make her suffer on her own. Edith Thompson may well
have held up better if she had been allowed to be hanged with Bywaters.
This was the first of a trio of female hangings that John Ellis was
involved in and all three had unusual features. Susan Newell refused the white
hood and Edith Thompson's was very unpleasant and also involved the killing of
the husband by the boyfriend. John Ellis had a very strong dislike of hanging
women.
