LAW'S LONG ARM

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 17, 21 January 1931, Page 9

LAW'S LONG ARM

REMORSELESS JUSTICE

CfHMtNALS BROUGHT TO BOOK

CELEBRATED CASES

The case of Richard Euckley, who was sentenced to death for ■? murder committed seven years ago, is an example <tf slow-footed justice, but by no means an outstanding ona in the history of British law, says a writer in the Melbourne "Age." Tho longest period that has elapsed between' a murder in England and an execution of the murderer is 35 years, the executed man being John Home, who murdered his own child. In 1879 a starving, homeless man named Jonathan Gaydon gave himself up to a policeman at Horsham (Sussex) for the murder of Miss Mary White at Chingford 22 years before. A more famous case is that of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Wall, formerly Governor and Com-mander-in-Chief on the island of Goree, a British possession off the west coast of Africa, which now belongs to France. On a snowy morning in January, 1802, ex-Governor Wall, a man of' magnificent physique, 6ft <sin tall, and 65 years ,of age, was hanged outside Newgate prison, in London for a crime committed 20 years earlier. Wall was a military martinet of the most brutal kind, and was totally unfitted to be in charge of men. On the voyage out to Goree after his appointment as Governor he had a man named Patterson flogged until he died, and the body was then thrown overboard. Patterson, who was one of a- small detachment of troops going out to reinforce the garrison at Goree, was accused by Wall of being the ringleader in a conspiracy to seize the ship. Whether there was any conspiracy of the kind is more than doubtful, but it is* quite certain that Patterson, who had formerly been a, shop assistant, was not cut out to be the leader of a mutiny on the high seas. HATED AND FEARED. For two years Wall remained at Goree as Governor and Comrnandcr-in-Chief, hated and feared by his men, and detested by the officers serving under him. He arranged to return to England by a vessel which called at the island. The garrison was delighted at the news, but not so delighted when it was learned .that the paymaster, Ensign Dearing, was accompanying him. There were arrears of pay owing to the garrison, and they appointed a deputation to wait on. Ensign Dearing and ask about their pay. The spokesman of this deputation was Sergeant Benjamin Armstrong, but he had no, opportunity of stating the men's grievance, because the deputation had the misfortune to encounter the Governor, who, on learn-* ing its business,, flew into a violent xage, and ordered the men back to their quarters. Armstrong and his comrades made a second attempt to reach Ensign Dearing, but they again encountered the Governor, who was so infuriated at ■their defiance of his commands that he summoned his officers by beat of drum, declared that the garrison had risen in revolt, and that Armstrong wag the ringleader. He gave orders that Armstrong shonld be tied to a gun carriage, and said, to Mm, "You have been sentenced by court-martial to receive 800 lashes for the, crime of mutiny." The official cat-o'-nine-tails could not be found, and on Wall's instructions a length of knotted rope was used. He stood by and counted the strokes as the rope was laid on by two stalwart negroes in succession. At the conclusion of the punishment Armstrong was carried in a state of collapse to the military hospital, Where he died'five days later. SHE LAW RELENTLESS. Wfren Wall reached England he said nothing about the "rising^' of the garrison, and the death of Armstrong. He reported officially that "except for a shortage of blankets," the condition of the garrison at Goree was satisfactory. But when officers who had served under him at Goree reached England shortly afterwards they reported the death of Armstrong. The Privy Council summoned Wall to London to explain matters. He was staying at Bath, and as ie did not comply with the summons, two Bow street runners—the forerunners of the modern police—were sent to Bath to bring him to London. On the journey by road Wall plied the runners with liquor, and escaped from their cus.tody. He made his way to Edinburgh, 'where he lived for a time,-but subsequently thought he would be much safer on the Continent. After the lapse of 18 Jrears he concluded that his case had been forgotten, and he returned to England. 3Tor two years he lived in the London suburb of Bloomsbnry under the name of Thompson. He was recognised in the street by a soltiier who had served under him, and hi order to forestall any action the soldier might take, he wrote to the Home Secretary, stating where he was to be found if wanted. He was confident that no action would be taken against him, in view of the fact that 20 years had elapsed since he had left Goree. But in England there is no method by which a warrant for arrest can be withdrawn. Wall was arrested, and placed on trial for the murder^ of Sergeant Armstrong, and was duly executed. EU&ENE ARAM. A still more famous case of slowSooted justice is that of Eugene Aram, ,-who is the subject of a well-known jiovel by Lord Lytton, and of a poem |by Thomas Hood. Aram, who was a Iself-educated man, became a schoolmaster at Knaresborough, in Yorkshire, iand mastered Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and French. In 1758 he was Arrested at Lyme Regis, where he was h teacher in a school, on a charge of [having murdered at Knaresborough a Shoemaker named Daniel Clark, who had Mysteriously disappeared 13 years be« t ore. The chief witness against him iwas a man named Houseman, who had [been arrested by the police, and charged ;with the crime, and had made a confession which implicated Aram as the factual murderer. Houseman took the jbolicfl to a cave near Knaresborough, and showed them where to dig to find Hie body of Clark. Aram defended Jiimself skilfully at his trial, but he ftras found guilty. Before his execuIHok he confessed to participation in fhe Jnurder, but put the main responsijpflity for the crime on Houseman. PUBLIC EXECUTIONS. In these days executions take place prison walls, and only officials fend a few others whoso duties compel them io be present witness the dreadful procedure, but in the old days when executions took place in public they attracted vast crowds of people. At JTyburn, the scene of thousands of executions in London, there were wooden 'grandstands for. people who were willing to pay for good seats to watch the flying struggles of the unfortunate victims of the law. And all along the ■ ithree-mile route from Newgate Gaol to Tyburn there were thousands of people assembled k to watch the condemned men as the cart in which they were convoyed to the gallows lumbered along. In those days, when the death penalty was inflicted for many minor offences, hangings were frequent; and $t was seldom that the cart contained fewer than half a dozen victims. Tyburn tree, as the galJows waa called, was a Sfiiangular structure, with necomrnoda-fa-on for more than a dozen victims. The

drop had not been introduced. The victims stood up in the cart while the hangman adjusted the rope, and when the latter had completed Ms task the cart was driven away and the bodies were left hanging. Horace Walpole's friend, George Sel wyn, a noted wit, had a passion for attending executions ;^yet he was known to his friends as a man of kindly, benevolent nature. He seldom missed an execution when he was in London, and he went to Paris in 1737 for tho purpose of witnessing the execution of Francois Damiens for attempting to assassinate Louis XV. He attended most assiduously the trial of the rebel lords for participation in the Scottish rebellion of 1745, and witnessed the execution of those who were beheaded. Selwyn loved corpses, and attended funerals and exhumations, as well as executions. When the first Lord Holland was on his deathbed he was told that Mr. Solwyn had called to inquire about him, and he said to his servant, "The next time Mr. Selwyn calls show him up. If I am alive I shall be delighted to see him, and if I am dead he will be glad to see me."