Whatever the reason for the failure of the 'drop', the Sheriff of Devon evidently felt that the problem could have been solved by giving the prisoner a push in the back: 'The sentence should have been carried out in a decent way by those who accepted the responsibility, but who appear to have completely lost their heads. Had a few planks been used after the drop had first failed to act, or some other simple means been adopted over the drop, we should have been saved the disgrace of all the revolting bungling that took place, and the country would have been rid of a most callous and barbarous murderer'.

Written by Mike Holgate

© copyright Herald Express

Click on the thumbnail above for a 636px wide by 800px high image. (filesize:87.54 kB).

If you right click, or shift click on a Mac, you can choose to open the image in a new window.

Technical Information (Metadata)