Amazing True Stories of Female Executions The Ultimate Collection of Grisly Tales from the Gallows, Guillotine and Gas Chamber by Geoffrey Abbott Yeoman Warder (retd), HM Tower of London, Member of Her Majesty’s Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard Extraordinary s u m m e r s d a l e First published as ‘Lipstick on the Noose’ in 2003. This edition copyright © Geoffrey Abbott 2006 The right of Geoffrey Abbott to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. While every effort has been made to trace copyright in all material in this book, the author apologises if he has inadvertently failed to credit any such ownership, and upon being notified, it will be corrected in future editions. Summersdale Publishers Ltd 46 West Street Chichester West Sussex PO19 1RP UK www.summersdale.com Printed and bound in Great Britain. ISBN 1 84024 367 8 With thanks to Christopher Holmes of Christopher Holmes Photography, Kendal, for assistance with the illustrative material. Front cover shows the execution of Mary Ansell. Bulk purchases and special editions: Discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book, and for customised editions with your company’s logo. Contact [email protected] for more information. OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR Amazing True Stories of Execution Blunders A Beefeater’s Grisly Guide to the Tower of London, Hendon, 2003 Ghosts of the Tower of London, Hendon, 1989 Great Escapes from the Tower of London, Hendon, 1998 Beefeaters of the Tower of London, Hendon, 1985 Tortures of the Tower of London, David & Charles, 1986 The Tower of London As It Was, Hendon, 1988 Lords of the Scaffold, Hale 1991/Dobby, 2001 Rack, Rope and Red-Hot Pincers, Headline, 1993 / Dobby, 2002 The Book of Execution, Headline, 1994 Family of Death: Six Generations of Executioners, Hale, 1995 Mysteries of the Tower of London, Hendon, 1998 The Who’s Who of British Beheadings, Deutsch, 2000 Crowning Disasters: Mishaps at Coronations, Capall Bann, 2001 Regalia, Robbers and Royal Corpses, Capall Bann, 2002 Grave Disturbances: The Story of the Bodysnatchers, Capall Bann, 2003 William Calcraft, Executioner Extraordinaire!, Dobby, 2003 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Geoffrey Abbott joined the Royal Air Force as an aero-engine fitter prior to the Second World War. He saw active service in North and East Africa, Somalia and India, post-war in the Suez Canal Zone, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Cyprus, Malta, Iraq and the Gulf States, and later served with NATO in France, Germany and Holland. After 35 years’ service with the RAF he retired in 1974 with the rank of Warrant Officer. On becoming a Yeoman Warder (‘Beefeater’), he lived in the Tower of London and was sworn in at St James’ Palace as a Member of the Sovereign’s Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard Extraordinary, and by Justices of the Peace as a Special Constable of the Metropolitan Police. His qualifications for writing this book are unquestionable. He once spent some time in the condemned cell of Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow, and later stood on the ‘drop’ trapdoors in the execution chamber (as a fact-finding author of course, rather than a convicted criminal). He also had the experience of having a noose placed round his neck by a hangman, the late Syd Dernley, a man endowed with a great, if macabre, sense of humour! Geoff now lives in the Lake District where he acts as consultant to international TV and film companies, and he has appeared in several documentaries on UK and American television channels. By invitation, he has also written the entries on torture and execution for the latest edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In addition to being Sword Bearer to the Mayor of Kendal, Cumbria, he is also learning to become a helicopter pilot. CONTENTS Introduction..............................................................................8 Martyrs, Murderesses and Madwomen...................................9 Appendix 1: Types of Torture................................................238 Appendix 2: Types of Punishment and Execution..............246 For the Record.......................................................................276 Select Bibliography.................................................................278 Index.......................................................................................280 AMAZING TRUE STORIES OF FEMALE EXECUTIONS INTRODUCTION The Law, in its wisdom, did not differentiate between men and women when it came to passing sentence of death on those found guilty of capital offences, and so in these pages you will read how, in some countries, many women were first tortured on the rack, in the boots, by the bridle, the water torture or the thumbscrews. They were whipped and exposed to public humiliation in the pillory; they died by the rope, axe, and sword; by the electric chair, the gas chamber, the firing squad; by being pressed beneath heavy weights or boiled to death, by lethal injection or burned at the stake; by being drowned, or beheaded by the guillotine or Scottish Maiden. Nor, afterwards, were they all given a decent burial; some were dissected, others skinned to provide bizarre souvenirs. A few, such as Margaret Clitheroe and Alice Lisle, were martyrs; some, such as Marie Brinvilliers and Mary Ann Cotton, were serial murderesses; others, like Elizabeth Barton and Mary MacLauchlan, were mentally unbalanced and, in more civilised times, would instead have been given the necessary psychiatric treatment. Some executions were botched either by the executioners or by the equipment involved, yet despite the appalling ordeal they faced, some women were incredibly brave, some resigned to their fate; a few fought with the executioner, others were hysterical or in a state of collapse; some indeed were totally innocent, yet nevertheless were put to death. But even the Law with all its sombre overtones has its lighter side, and so the cases are interspersed with quirky quotes. 8 THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION OF GRISLY TALES FROM THE GALLOWS, GUILLOTINE AND GAS CHAMBER MARTYRS, MURDERESSES AND MADWOMEN ANTOINETTE, Marie (France) Nine long agonising months had passed since her husband King Louis XVI was beheaded by the guillotine, his execution ecstatically applauded by the revolutionary mob, and it was not until the dreaded day arrived, 16 October 1793, that the executioner Charles-Henri Sanson and his son Henri reported to the Conciergerie, the Paris prison, to collect Queen Marie Antoinette and convey her to the scaffold. In the vast room known as the ‘Hall of the Dead’ Marie awaited, guarded by two gendarmes. Nearby stood Bault, the turnkey, whose wife had provided their distinguished prisoner with a cup of chocolate and a bread roll. As the two executioners entered, the Queen stood up. The Vicomte Charles Desfosses, who was present, later wrote: ‘I had time to observe the details of the Queen’s appearance and of her dress. She wore a white skirt with a black petticoat under it, a kind of white dressing-jacket, some narrow silk ribbon tied at the wrists, a plain white muslin fichu [a shawl or scarf] and a cap with a bit of black ribbon on it. Her hair was quite white; her face was pale, but there was a touch of red on the cheekbones; her eyes were bloodshot, and the lashes motionless and stiff.’ Charles-Henri and his son respectfully removed their hats. ‘Gentlemen, I am ready,’ she exclaimed, as the former started to explain the need to prepare her for the ordeal, and she turned slightly to display the back of her neck from where her hair had been cut away. ‘That will do, I think?’ she continued, and then held out her hands for him to secure. 9 AMAZING TRUE STORIES OF FEMALE EXECUTIONS Under strong guard the entourage was then escorted out of the building to where the tumbril, the horse-drawn cart, stood. Her hands being tied, the Queen allowed herself to be assisted into the vehicle, where she sat down facing forward on the plank that served as a bench. Charles-Henri, a man totally averse to the task of decapitating the aristocratic victims of the Revolution but realising that refusal would simply result in his being replaced by someone who would doubtless not hesitate to treat them with savage brutality, gently persuaded her to turn and sit facing the other way so that she would not see the guillotine until the very last moment. The courtyard gates swung open, those on duty forcing the tumultuous, jeering crowd to give way as the cart lumbered out on the street. To prevent any attempt at a rescue, the route was lined with 30,000 armed soldiers, cannons also being positioned at all intersections, squares and bridges. Marie Antoinette ignored the screams of abuse from the massed spectators; instead she studied the numbers on the houses as the cart trundled along the Rue St Honoré‚ looking for a cleric, the Abbé du Puget, who had agreed to stand near a certain house and give her absolution in extremis as she passed. On seeing the prearranged sign from him as he stood on a pile of stones, she bent her head and prayed. As the vehicle approached the scaffold site it halted near the Tuileries, the palace in which her two children had been imprisoned. For a moment she swayed, and Sanson heard her murmur ‘My daughter! My children!’ before the cart advanced, finally to halt by the scaffold. Once again she had to be assisted by Charles-Henri in order to dismount, and she looked round in surprise on hearing him whisper, ‘Have courage, Madame!’ She paused for a moment, then replied, ‘Thank you, sir, thank you.’ 10 THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION OF GRISLY TALES FROM THE GALLOWS, GUILLOTINE AND GAS CHAMBER As she approached the scaffold escorted by the two men, the younger executioner attempted to take her arm, but he desisted on hearing her exclaim, ‘No; I am, thank Heaven, strong enough to walk that short distance.’ By that time the noise from the immense crowd had reached a crescendo, the tumult intensified by the drummers’ successful efforts to drown any last words that might be spoken by the victim. Wasting no time, young Henri led the Queen forward and swiftly bound her to the upright hinged plank of the guillotine, the bascule. As he did so, she exclaimed: ‘Farewell, my children, I am going to join your father.’ Next moment the executioner swung the plank into the horizontal position so that she lay immediately beneath the pendant blade. The iron lunette dropped with a resounding clang, its half-moon shape pinning her neck immovable, and Charles-Henri operated the lever, causing the weighted blade to fall and sever the Queen’s head instantly. The execution of Marie Antoinette 11 AMAZING TRUE STORIES OF FEMALE EXECUTIONS The sound of the blade’s impact had scarcely ceased reverberating around the square before wild cheers, intermingled with cries of ‘Vive la République!’ broke from the multitude of spectators, the roar increasing as one of the executioners complied with tradition by lifting the severed head from the basket into which it had fallen, holding it high for all to see. The gory trophy was then placed in the nearby coffin together with the body and carried to the cemetery of La Madeleine. There all the Queen’s clothing was removed and taken away for disposal; her remains were covered with quicklime, the coffin then being buried next to that of her husband. Following Marie Antoinette’s execution, revolutionary Jacques Hebert exultantly wrote: ‘All of you who have been oppressed by our former tyrants, you who mourn a father, a son, or a husband who has died for the Republic, take comfort, for you are avenged. I saw the head of the female fall into the sack. I could describe to you the satisfaction of the Sans-Culottes [his fellow agitators] when the rich tigress drove across Paris in the carriage with thirty-six doors [referring to the intervals between the staves that formed the sides of the tumbril]. She was not drawn by her beautiful white horses with their fine feathers and their grand harness, but a couple of nags were harnessed to Master Sanson’s barouche [carriage] and apparently they were so glad to contribute to the deliverance of the Republic that they seemed anxious to gallop in order to reach the fatal spot more quickly. The jade, however, remained bold and insolent to the end. But her legs failed her as she got upon the see-saw [the bascule] to play hot cockles [the choking sound made by a victim as the lunette pressed their head down], in the fear, no doubt, of finding a more terrible punishment before her, after death, than the one she was about to endure. Her accursed head was at last separated from her crane-like neck, and the air was filled with cheers of victory for the Revolution!’ It may, perhaps, give readers some satisfaction to know that less than six months later, Hebert himself, his legs failing him, had to be lifted out of the tumbril, half-fainting with horror at the fate awaiting him; bound to the bascule, he too cried hot cockles before the blade descended! 12