The Storyteller: How John Lee cheated death by defying the prison gallows

Now my season of organised walks is over I’m looking for other reasons to hold events in the run-up to Christmas. I find anniversaries can be a good source of spooky vibes. With this in mind, I was looking through my copy of “A Grim Almanac of Devon” by John Van Der Kiste when I came across an entry for November that I think will be of interest to all readers, as it concerns a gentleman that everyone will have heard of...John “Babbacombe” Lee...”The Man They Couldn’t Hang.”

On 15th November 1884, the home of Miss Emma Keyse, The Glen on Beach Road, Babbacombe, now the site of The Cary Arms, was deliberately set alight in order to cover up her murder. Her body was eventually recovered, soaked in paraffin and with her throat slit. It was said that John Lee had killed her after rowing over the fact she had cut his wages.

He worked for her as a groundsman, handyman, and butler. The evidence against him was slight; he was the only male living on the premises, yet it was he who had raised the alarm and got everyone else out of the building safely. Would he really have done that if he had just started it to cover up a murder he had just committed? He had a criminal record, having already served time for robbery, and he had a suspicious cut on his arm.

At his trial, he pleaded not guilty but everything went against him, and at the age of 20, the judge sentenced him to hang at Exeter Prison. However, as we all know, things didn’t go to plan...

The mechanism on the gallows failed to operate not just once but three times, something that John had a dream about the night before his execution on the 23rd of February 1885. Even his grandmother, who I mentioned in my article the other week regarding her connection to Ashburton, prophesied that he wouldn’t hang. So was this an act of God, preventing an innocent man from going to his death?

The executioner, John Barry, who claimed it only failed twice but history says different, was very meticulous, checking his equipment in between each failed attempt. When a weighty object was placed on the trapdoor it opened, but when John Lee stood there it wouldn’t.

During my research for this article, I came across a very interesting theory that a wooden wedge was placed in the trapdoor mechanism, preventing it from opening, which was removed during the tests. The theory suggested it was a prisoner who committed the sabotage, but why would a prisoner be allowed so close to the gallows during an execution, and his actions go unnoticed three times? It’s an interesting suggestion, but I have an alternative theory relating to John’s grandmother, the White Witch of Ashburton...

During my research, I found a claim that she had a peculiar hold over a certain policeman in the Ashburton area. It would appear he was afraid of her; some went as far as saying she had cursed him, maybe she might even have had some sort of influence over him. What if he had been a policeman on duty that day, overseeing the execution, and well placed to position and remove a wedge at the right moments without being suspected? I prefer my theory...

Whatever the reality, John Lee survived his execution and the death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment at Portland Prison, a sentence from which he was released after just 20 years, in December 1907.

His later life seems shrouded in mystery and confusion, largely due to the fact that others chose to use his name, thus benefiting from his notoriety, but apparently, he got married, had a son, and went to live in the States. Some recent research suggests he died on 19th March 1945, aged 80.

His Wikipedia page says born 15th August 1854, in Abbotskerswell, Devon...Died 19th March 1945, Milwaukee, USA...this was after a gravestone with the name James Lee on it was found in Forest Home Cemetery in 2009, and attributed to him.
Whatever the circumstances of his later life, he will be forever known as “The Man They Couldn’t Hang”...but did you know there is another man who can lay claim to that particular accolade?

This was a Joseph Samuel, a German by birth but living in England until he was found guilty of robbery in 1795, then transported to a penal colony in Australia in 1807. Whilst there, he managed to escape along with some other convicts and attempted to rob the home of a wealthy woman. Unfortunately, during the bungled burglary, a policeman guarding the house was killed. Fleeing the scene, all the convicts were quickly rounded up and put on trial for robbery and murder. In court, Joseph was identified as one of the perpetrators by the homeowner, and, having confessed to the robbery but not the murder, he alone was sentenced to be executed by hanging. His comrades were acquitted through lack of evidence.

On 26th September 1803, Joseph and another convict, who had been sentenced to death for a different crime, were taken in a cart to a place of execution, where a large crowd had gathered to watch. Nooses were put around their necks and slung over the gallows before the cart was pulled away.

This form of hanging was quite barbaric compared to the long drop method that was introduced in the late 19th century, which broke the neck instantly, leaving the hanging criminal to die by strangulation. This is what happened to the other criminal, but Joseph’s rope broke. Not just once, but at all three attempts the executioner made to complete his task, with three different ropes. After the third try, the crowd were getting rowdy, demanding his release, and forced the governor to intervene.

Surveying the scene, one dead criminal and three broken ropes, he eventually sided with the crowd, taking it as a sign from God that an innocent man had been saved from death. Instead he was sentenced to life imprisonment, just like John Lee. Joseph eventually died in 1806, presumably still in prison, three years after he came to be known as the first man they couldn’t hang.