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A public executionTHE first and only public execution outside the grim and imposing Armley Gaol took place in September 1864.
Although a total of 93 men and one woman met their fate at the hangman's noose at Armley between 1864 and 1961, only two had the distinction of meeting their demise in public.
Convicts James Sargisson and Joseph Myers had both been found guilty of murder.
Sargisson, only 20, was found guilty of beating John Cooper to death with a wooden post, then stealing his watch.
Myers, 55, was found guilty of murdering his wife, Mary Curtis.
Hanging was common as a form of execution from Anglo-Saxon times right up to the mid-1900s – indeed, the word 'gala' is derived from the term 'gallows day'.
The Leeds Mercury reported the solemn event outside Armley Gaol as a 'sad and horrible picture of humanity'.
According to the report: "The roof of every house and mill, walls and even the lamp-posts were thronged with those anxious to witness the execution and there could not have been less than 80,000 to 100,000 people present.
"There were also some hundreds of spectators on the Burley Road and near Woodhouse Moor, but they would be unable, except with the aid of glasses, to witness the execution.
"They were, speaking of the mass, of the class usually collected together on such occasions men employed in mills, factories, workshops, etc.
"Here and there, until the fatal hour had nearly arrived, the more thoughtless of the mass indulged in jests, and others even so far forgot the solemnity of the event as to engage in games of 'thimblerig' (three shells, find the pea] and fly the garter (leap frog].
"About this time, both the prisoners appeared very exhausted, and before the pinioning (tethering wrists to waist-belt] Sargisson was so weak that stimulants had to be administered."
After the fateful fall, one onlooker apparently said: "Alas! What a sad and I may say horrible, picture of humanity was then exhibited. I allude not to the wretched culprits so much, as to the fact of the vast crowd gathered together to gaze on their dying agonies, and the utterly revolting deportment showed by the larger portion of those comprising it."
Hanging was finally outlawed by Parliament in 1969.
The full article contains 384 words and appears in n/a newspaper.Last Updated: 28 January 2008 8:47 AM
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