CONVICT AND CAT-O’-NINE-TAILS

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 2 March 1935, Page 11

CONVICT AND CAT-O’-NINE-TAILS

TN the light of the sudden awakening of public interest in the rights of wrongs of prison floggings, doubtlessly provoked by a recent suicide of a Dartmoor convict due for the "cat,” the recollections of a man who has suffered the punishment are instructive and illuminating (says the NewsChronicle). Certain members of the British Parliament are pressing for an early inquiry into the subject of prison floggings, and in answer to questions Sir John Gilmour, the Home Secretary, has already stated that the experience of medical authorities afforded no ground for the suggestion that corporal punishment was likely to result in serious injury. Barely had a flogged man to be admitted to hospital, and the recent suicide from fear of punishment was the only one within the knowledge of Sir John. Whije the great majority of his Majesty’s Judges, Magistrates, and police officers strongly urge the retention of the "cat,” many professional men unconnected with the administration of the law remain to be convinced of its necessity. Now here is the story of a man, an admitted “olcl lag,” who knows all about prison floggings, because the "cat” has been part of. hi s punishment. To-day he is on ticket-of-leave, having won 245 days’ remission from a sentence of three years passed on him at London Sessions in January, 1932.

His name is Frederick Chatterley, and he describes himself as "Elx 5688, Strangeways Gaol, Manchester.” "Two years ago,” he said, "with fifteen convictions for various cz’imes against me, I started on a three years’ ‘stretch’ in Strangeways. To me that was just a bit of bad luck. I was ready to do it on my head. Blit then I was flogged, and the marks and memory of that flogging will be with me always. I would rather die than suffer it again. ‘‘They- I —the visiting committee—found me guilty of being the ring-1 leader in incitement to mutiny. The prison doctor passed me fit to receive twelve strokes of the ‘cat,’ and fortunately I was saved the mental anguish of waiting day after day in anticipation of the flogging. "Within a few minutes of the sentence I was stripped and strung up to a triangle. My coat, singlet, and shirt were taken off, my arms and wrists were strapped above my head, and a broad leather belt was passed round my waist and fastened to the -^..triangle. "My ankles were shackled to a bar with feet wide apart. Then a canvas collar was passed round my throat, with a leather ‘bib’ arrangement hang-

Flogging Graphically Described by Old Lag

ing over my breast and chest to protect those parts fi'om the lash. Twc tapes were attached to this collar and passed through the triangle. "A warder holding the tapes pulled my head towards him so that I coiild not see who was actually wielding the ‘cat.’ Nor could I see the man holding the tapes, because a towel hung before my face, preventing me looking ahead.

"That is how the stage is set for a flogging. I knew the doctor was there, and I could hear also the voices of the governor, his deputy, and the principal officer. "Then the principal officer.- called ‘one,’ and the ‘cat’ came down. "The first stroke stung, but not terribly. I thought, ‘lf this is all I can stand it.’ But the next hit deeper into the flesh. I gritted my teeth and resolved that nothing would make me howl. With the Third lash, however, I lost control.

"I screamed, shouted, and struggled impotently at the manacles. And all the time I could hear the monotonous count by the principul officer . . . . three . . . four . . five . . six.”

"Mad rage possessed me—rage against everybody and everything. As the lashing went on so my senses became numbed. My back was on fire, my right arm rendered useless where the tails of the ‘cat’ 1 swung round. "I prayed and cursed alternately, but still the principal officer went on in even tones, ‘seven . . eight

.. . nine ~.’ I do not remember the count of ‘twelve' which spelled the end of the agony. "I collapsed as they released me from the shackles. Physically and mentally I was finished. I felt that nothing could ever matter to me again.

"After the flogging I was led back to a punishment cell. A piece of medicated lint, spread on my back and arm, was changed every morning for three weeks. For nearly a month my back felt as though it had been torn -bo ribbons. J carry the marks of that flogging with me to-day. "It is an ironical reflection that 3 actually may have made the ‘cat’ used on my own back. They are manufactured in Pentonville Prison. The circular handle is of ash, two feet long, and almost ornamental in design. It is bound with tinfoil and blue serge cloth, and there are nine notches round i the end.

"The ‘tails,’/three feet long and nine in number, are of specially woven cord, and the end of each ‘tail’ is bound with sillc flex to prevent fraying. They inflict a thin, cutting stroke, but that stroke marks for life.”