PENALTY PAID

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26042, 4 January 1946, Page 5

PENALTY PAID

EXECUTION OF JOYCE NO DEMONSTRATIONS FOUR SYMPATHISERS PRESENT

(Rec. 0.30 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 3. William Joyce was executed at Wandsworth Prison. An official notice announcing the execution was posted on the gate of the prison at 9.8 a.m. Joyce’s wife, who was brought specially from Holloway Prison, and his brother Quintin, and also his sister, were the last to see him before the execution. Each saw him separately and said good-bye. A crowd of 250 lined the frosty pavements outside the prison when a warder posted the official announcement that the death sentence had been carried out, and a surgeon’s certificate. Four sympathisers of Joyce were among the early arrivals. One told a Press Association reporter that he visited Joyce in Brixton prison, where Joyce, “behaved as you would expect a man of destiny to deport himself—in a manner keeping with his place

in history. To hang Joyce is ridiculous. He was a German citizen. It was like Hitler hanging one of our men for defending his own country.” A busload of sailors passed the prison gates shortly before the execution. One shouted. “Hang him as high as you can.” Extra police were on duty, but there was no demonstration. The four sympathisers, walking behind a clump of trees, stood with their hats raised as the clock in a distant church struck 9 o’clock. Joyce awaited his end with the same complete composure that he maintained during the trial. He remained alert and cheerful during the whole of his stay in the condemned cell. He played chess with prison officers, and concentrated without the least sign of strain. He saw his wife almost every day.