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during the appeal hearing.
At Pentonville Deans was served
with roast beef and potatoes, and all
his other meals there were on a similar
generous scale, which appeared to
impress the condemned man. When
the appeal judge told the defence
counsel that the prisoner had no
grounds for a reduction of sentence –
“after all,” the judge pointed out, “he
did say in court that he had killed the
woman and was glad he’d done it” –
Deans looked very disappointed.
Deans was escorted back to
Durham to await execution, but it
seems that the excellent bill of fare
he had enjoyed at Pentonville, far
superior to that which was served up
in Durham, had now gone to his head.
He wanted bacon for breakfast every
day and better dinners, and when he
was told he couldn’t have them he
shouted, “Tell the doctor I want to see
him!”
When the doctor arrived Deans told
him, “I ate well in Pentonville and I
mean to eat well here, too!”
The doctor apparently agreed that
he should, for after that Deans ate like
a king in Durham Prison.
Arriving at the prison on December
19th ready for the next day’s
execution, hangman John Ellis at once
expressed his concern over a problem
with the mechanism on the scaffold.
Ellis said afterwards, “To prevent
the possibility of the lever being
pulled at the wrong moment, a cotter
pin is inserted, which I generally get
my assistant to pull out the moment
he has pinioned the condemned man’s
ankles on the scaffold.
“I found the cotter pin at Durham
fitted rather too tightly, so I called an
engineer and asked him if he would
mind knocking it out in the morning
when I gave the signal.
“The engineer was absurdly
superstitious. ‘I’ll have nothing to do
with that!’ he declared.
“I dared not risk having to struggle
with the cotter pin in the morning,
so I pulled it out now and inserted a
smaller piece of metal that served the
same purpose but would come out
more easily when required.
“If I hadn’t discovered this fault in
good time I might have had a nasty
scene when the final moment came.”A
s it happened, there was still to be
a “scene” on the morning of the
execution, but it had nothing to do with
the scaffold. Ellis had to collect Deans
from a room which was 70 yards from
the scaffold – far too far away for a
man’s last walk, in Ellis’s view.
After pinioning Deans’ wrists Ellis left
the prisoner in the charge of his assistant
and set off for the scaffold.
“As I went I was puzzled by the
sound of clattering feet behind me, and
looking round I had the surprise of my
life. Deans had set off on his own and
was running so fast that it was as much
as my assistant could do to keep up with
him.”
Fortunately, the chaplain, an old
man who would have been quite
incapable of maintaining that pace,
had arranged to meet the procession
half-way, and seeing Deans’ great
hurry he stepped in front of him.
He put his hand gently on Deans’
shoulder. “Take your time,” he
enjoined him in a kindly tone.
As Ellis watched from the scaffold the
procession, led by the dreadfully slow
chaplain, now moved at a snail’s pace.
Ellis thought they would never arrive –
and probably Deans, in his hurry to die,
thought so too.
After putting a cap over the prisoner’s
head on the scaffold, Ellis recalled,
“The last view I had of his face gave
me a swift glimpse of his eyes shining
with excitement and a look of contented
anticipation in his face.”
Then the executioner removed
the makeshift cotter pin, pulled the
lever, and sent Joseph Deans to the
death he so desired.(^112112)
OUT APRIL 25th, 2019
ISSUE
WORLD’S NO.1 TRUE CRIME QUARTERLY http://www.truecrimelibrary.com
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