FOUND DEAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

FOUND DEAD.

EXECUTIONER'S FATE.

UPSET BY HANGING A WOMAN.

TRAGIC END OP JOHN ELLIS,

John Ellis, for 23 years tlie public hangman in England, was found dead at his home in Kitchen Lajie, Rochdale, Lancashire, with deep wounds in his throat. A razor lay near him. Ellis, who was 58, was hangman from 1901 to 1924. During that period he hanged 203 persons, being paid £10 each. It is stated that after tea Ellis became strange in his manner, tore olf his collar, threatened his wife and daughter with a razor, and was later found dead in the house by his son. Hanging of Mrs. Thompson. When he retired he stated that his nerves had been upset by having to hang Mrs. Edith Thompson. Mrs. Thompson was executed at Holloway on January 9, 1923, after being found guilty with Bywaters of the murder of her husband at Ilford. Ellis is said to have told friends afterward that he could never hang another woman. Among those he hanged were:—Sir Roger Casement, who was condemned during the war for treason; Major Armstrong, who poisoned his wife at Hay, Brecon 1922; Dr. Crippen, who killed his wife at Hilldrop Crescent, N., in 1910; Henry Jacoby, an 18-year-old pantry boy, who killed Lady White in a London house in 1922; George Smith, of the "Brides in the Bath" case, 1915. In 1927 some controversy was aroused by his appearance at Gravesend and other places in a play, entitled "The Adventures of Charles Peace," in which he pinioned the notorious murderer and "executed" him on the stage. Could Not Kill Chickens. Although he once had a large poultry farm lie- could never bring himself to wring the necks of his own chickens. During the Irish rebellion Ellis frequently went to Ireland to carry out executions, and on many occasions his life was threatened. Por a number of years he had to be attended by detectives, and was himself armed at that time. He stated that in Ireland he once hanged six men before 8 o'clock one morning. In August, 1924, five months after lie retired, Ellis was found in his home with a bullet wound in the neck and jaw, and a revolver by his side. He lay in _ hospital for some time" in a serious condition. On his recovery he was charged with attempted suicide, and was bound over for 12 months.