EX-HANGMAN'S LIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 218, 12 September 1906, Page 10

EX-HANGMAN'S LIFE.

j j FIVE HUNDRED EXBCTTTIOKS WITH- ! OTT A. MISHAF. The Ilfe-storr of a man whose hand dnr- ■ ine His career* has been the official instroj mcut of ecnaing to their ar.i-oant nearly ' 300 sruilty souls formed the subject of a re- ! markable lecture iv the Synod Hall, Edln- ' burgh, r.-cently. The lecturer. James Berry, j late p'nblic executioner, is in mary respects | a striking person; a thorough. TorkshireI ma", in speech and mannerisms, he retains I all the peculiarities of the Tykes, iv spite | of his TA years uf cosmopolitan life; is a I Queue sppalrer. with all a Yorksbireman"*i j propensities for dropping ont the definite article: and illuminates his discourse witb a tqueh of quaint humour which even the I gruesome i ealliies of his lftte profession j here-not rubbed him of. His father had been wealthy. Ur Berry, j senior, was on the point of retiring with j £100,000 in the bank when he was robbed by a friend and brought to poverty. Young i Berry was apprenticed to a joiner; his ambition carried him into the engineering business; and so on from trade to- trade, until finally he joined the police, arrested single-handed two burglars, who, he said, were "big enough to eat bim," gained his ' stripes, resigned from the Bradford force I againrrt tbe will of his colleagues, and went j into business ar;aiu. The venture ended iil bis being sold up; then he became man-ager of one of the best boot shops in Bradford, and ilr Berry's employer said he made him the best salesman ever lie had, "and yet," said Mr Berry, "I knew no more about a boot that! that clock." Two years were passed in (his capacity, nnd then one day in the street Mr Berry heard the newsboys calling the death of Marwood. who had been the common hangman for eight years. What prompted Ferry io applying for the vacant posi? Exactly what, llr Berry probably could not say, but the idea came to lilm in this form: "I have tried all sorts of jobs*. I'll try this." Accordingly he sent ln his application "for the job of public executioner of England." NEW PATENT FOR HANGING. Among his own recommendations in his letter were the fact that he had seen two executions, and was bringing out a new method of putting criminals to death without riisiiguremeui or laceration. "1 got n hitler by return post." continued the Vcturer. "anil I thought I would drop dead." Berry went across to a ropomaker',-; forth- . with, and ordered him to make him a riik rope. The Job was nut going, a-boggin-r. i aud the would-be executioner found when. ; after borrowin-r £2, he reached London anil the Old Bailey, that he was only one of 18 candidates selected out of ISOO. A remarkable conversation ensued when Berry's turn came to appear before the selection committee. ""What do yon know about hanging*/" was the gruff question, "i have seen Marwood hang two or three," was the reply. "Cnarley" Peace wae one of those the

lecturer mentioned. "It's too bad," he continued, referring to the old method of banging; "it mokes taem black; I have a patent which does not disfigure." He "could hang a man and leave him with a bright smile." Mr Berry gave one party a fright, offering to show him how it was done with his rope. It was but natural that the gentleman to whom rhe offer was made not only positively declined, but nearly had a fit. But this bit of realism corrrinced the committee, especially when Berry expressed his readiness to "tiang anybody."" "Get outside."' said one of those present; "we will call you In again." Called in again he was, when it was announced that the committee had come to the conclusion that Berry was "abont the best man of the Jot. Now , explain.' they said.'" continued Mr Berry. EXECUTING THE INNOCENT. "I cannot explain without someone," was the reply he gave. '"They called a man Ln, and I pnt the rope round his neck." There must have been another strong touch of realism here, for the fellow said. "Don't hang mcl" "That ts exactly how I do it." explained the candidate, "and it leaves noi mark." He commenced his professional j career in Edinburgh, and his first double execution was at Calton Gaol there, and t then in his own phrase he went "sailing along" uulil he had had nearly r.OO casta and never hail a mishap, and 1 resigned . owing to two cases coming to my know-; ledge that 1 had executed innocently.'" So. J whenever he heard of it, lie went straight to London and told Justice Lnshlngton. "Well," was the reply, "what matter if you hung twenty and you are innocent? Yon are not to blame." "Oh. take and hang them yonrself," was the reply. Tho mishap turned Berry dead against his job. After this he began and drank "until aM went bine." Gambling and sin accompanied the drinking. But a fit of remorse came, and with it the memory of the past." He got up one morning with the intention of taking his life, but at the Bradford rail-way station, after he had endured great mental agony, conversion came at the last moment. It did not come too soon; he was once the biggest gambler, the biggest drinker in the place. "I have," said Mr Berry, "drunk nearly all the principal landlords to death in Bradford—some of them nearly twenty stones almost; I was an awful cursor and swearer; and not half a swearer —I could not talk without swearing." But his conversion had changed al] that. THE DROP WOULDN'T WORK. Mr Berry concluded by telling several stories of his scaffold experiences. One was abont a convicted murderer who had declined to confess. Going into his cell on the day of the execution. Berry made th.? final ghastly preparations with the murderer, and in a few sharp words warned bim that if be had anything to say he had better say it now: in three minutes he would be in eternity, and his time on the scaffold would be brief. "'Go you and tlo your duty, you've got' the right man." was the reply: bur the details, the condemned man continued, would remain locked in his brcaer. The man was placed on the scaffold, when the drop failed to work. Hastily pushing the man back, the hangman tester! the bolt, which worked satisfactorily, onlr to stick when once more the unhappy prisoner was placed over the fatal pit. The attempt was not renew<ed, and the sentence of death being commuted lo penal servitude, the murderer was condemned never to tread the streets a. tree man againi and at his death his body would share the fate of the executed pristjner— to rest in prison ground. A strong advocate of flogging as a

deterrent, Mx Berry dwelt on the merits ot tne system at some length, and. la declaring that be preferred this to the long term system, told of a man he saw in a prison hospital, who. he 6aid, would rather have been bung ten times than undergone his term of penal servitude.