CONDEMNED TO DEATH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19834, 25 June 1934, Page 10

CONDEMNED TO DEATH

MURDERERS OF OLD WOMAN THREE MEN TO PAY /. PENALTY After fighting grimly against the law for three days —days that must have been filled with an agony of suspense —three men recently stood in the dock at the Old Bailey, London, and heard sentence of death passed on them for the murder of a 76-year-old widow. Only the bones of three pairs of hands showing white through the flesh revealed their emotion as, tightly gripping the dock rails, they heard the quiet voice of Mr Justice Macnaghten decree their fate. At the back of the court their three wives sobbed, and in the jury a woman gasped and swayed. Then the men walked almost jauntily from the dock, one of them carelessly blowing a kiss to his relatives as he vanished down the steps to the cells. It was a scene without precedent in the history of the present Old Bailey, built 32 years ago, for never before had three men been sentenced to death together within its walls. They were Leslie Martin, aged 32, motor-driver, Albert Henry Ansell, aged 29, warehouseman, and Walter Thomas Ross, aged 24, leather Stainer. Their crime was the murder of Mrs Elizabeth Juliet Ray, a 76-year-old widow. On the evening of February 17 the old woman was found dead in her home. According to the prosecution, she had been struck in the face, and her arms held while a handkerchief was stuffed into her throat, stifling her cries, and another one tried round her mouth. She died from shock before asphyxiation was complete. Mrs Ray's house had been ransacked by the criminals, but, by an irony of fate, the men missed a drawer in which were £l4 10s and some jewellery. It was believed—mistakenly—in the neighbourhood the the did woman was wealthy, and the object of the crime was apparently robbery. Talk About £3OOO in House. The principal witness for the prosecution was a local street trader called William Knowles, who was allowed to keep his address secret. He described an alleged conversation with Martin in which he mentioned that there was supposed to be £3OOO in a neighbouring house—the home of Mrs Ray. Martin, in the witness-box, alleged that he waited in the road while Ansell and Ross went into the house. Ansell and Ross, in evidence, strenuously denied all knowledge of the crime. In his summing-up Mr Justice Macnaghten said:—“The law of England is this—that if two or three men join to commit a felony which involves violence, and the violence to be used is such that any reasonable person must have thought it likely that injury would befall the person toward whom the violence was to be exercised—injury of such a character that it might cause death—then all the persons participating in or inciting the crime are guilty of murder.” The jury took an hour and five minutes to consider then verdict. Then came the three sharp raps on the oak door that told the packed court the jury had reached a decision. The accused were brought up from the cells to hear their fate. The judge took his seat. The clerk called the names of the three men, and each time the foremanl of the jury spoke the word that meant death—" Guilty.” Half a dozen warders closed about the condemned men, but they showed little sign of emotion as the judge passed sentence in the formula prescribed by the law. “ I Am Not a Liar.” Ross and Ansell said nothing. Martin, a jaunty figure in a sports coat, pullover, and flannel trousers, leaned toward the judge, one hand in his trousers pocket, the other toying with his tie. "I may, my lord, in my time have been a bit of a thief,” Martin remarked almost casually, “but I am not a liar. I have told you the truth, and I have nothing on my mind—only a little bit of moral guilt.” Then he turned and went down the steps of the dock with his customary "don’t-care” attitude. Ansell disappeared next, and Ross, the youngest of the lot, a little pale but nonchalent as ever, followed him. As he went he looked to his mother, wife, sister and brothers, and blew them a kiss. With Ross’ relatives sat Mrs Ansell, dressed in a light coat and with a bright red hat. Mrs Martin sat in front of them. Martin has several children, Ross tow, and Ansell, recently mrrieac/ none. The little tragic band of women made an unavailing attempt to see their husbands, and then they were shepherded out of the court and driven to their homes. "I know my son is innocent,” Ross’ mother declared. “Being out of work preyed on his mond, and he could not bear the thought of his children going short of anything. If I can save him I will.” Mrs Ansell is little more than a child. “They are going to take him away from me,” was all she could say. All three men were removed separately to Wandsworth Prison an hour after the trial ended. It is expected that notice of appeal would be lodged. Triple Sentences. In the past seven years there have been two cases of a triple death sentence for the same murder, but in neither instance was the triple execution carried out. In 1927, Daniel Driscoll and two brothers, John and Edward Rowlands, were sentenced at Cardiff for the murder of David Lewis. While awaiting execution John Rowlands last his reason and was removed to Broadmoor. The other two were hanged. Three Brighton men—George Donovan, Percival Taylor and James Weaver —sentenced to death In 1928 for the murder of a retired chemist—were reprieved in dramatic circumstances. Taylor was to have been hanged at Pontonville, the other two at Wandsworth. At both prisons the executioners had arrived and the scafforlds had been erected; but at the eleventh hour the Home Secretary, Sir William JoynsonHicks commuted the sentences to penal servitude for life. Donovan, in the Dartmoor mutiny in January, 1932, saved the life of Colonel Larner, a prison commissioner. His sentence was reduced by five years. The last triple execution for the murder of one person took place at Carlisle in 1886, when three London men were hanged for the death of a policeman.