Execution Tales Chapter 21 Again
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Noticed that the very last part of Chapter 21 appears to be missing, Jane & the story were both left hanging in the air, in her case literally. Apologies, I must have screwed up the original post. Anyway here is Chapter 21 in its entirety with the missing bit included
21: Trial & Execution
Two months later Doctor Edwards went on trial for mass murder. From the time of Jane’s arrest to the start of the trial the authorities had virtually demolished the Edwards house. Based on the photo album they knew they were looking for a lot of bodies & they found them under the cellar floor. In the mass grave they found the bodies of the fifty seven young women & girls murdered by the Edwards along with the remains of the carriage driver killed at the same time as the Refuge girl Therese.
When the sixteen girls who had died in the explosion at the Refuge were added in it meant that Doctor Edwards faced seventy four charges of capital murder.
While the case against Jane was being built O’Rourke received back from London of confirmation of the Edwards’s presence in the Winter Terrace in London at the time of the Mannings’ executions. However by this point the information was merely of academic interest
The entire country was both horrified & fascinated by the case. It attracted even more attention that of Doctor Holmes in Chicago, mainly due it had to be said by the fact that the accused was a still very attractive thirty four year old woman
Initially Jane’s lawyer had tried to argue that she was as much a victim as the dead young women & girls. Her defence was that she had been brutalised & bullied by her husband into participating in the murders however this had been blown out of the water by the evidence contained in the photo album of all the killings that had taken place in the cellar. Against each set of photographs in Doctor Edwards neat handwriting was a summary of each murder & how much she had enjoyed it.
Her lawyer pleaded with Doctor Edwards to allow him to put forward a plea of “Not guilty by reason of insanity”, but she refused to agree to this saying “It wouldn’t do any good , & anyway I am as sane as you”.
April, Beth & two of the four girls who survived the explosion at Refuge all gave evidence at the trial. The remaining two blast survivors were not yet fit enough to come to court. The girls, all wearing Refuge uniforms made a big impression on the court. They looked so young & innocent in their blue jackets & skirts, white blouses, & sailor hats. After they had testified the four girls took their places in the seats especially reserved for them in the court. The New York Attorney General, who was himself prosecuting, asked the jury to regard the four girls as being representative of all of the Edwards’s victims.
Since her arrest Doctor Edwards had barely uttered a word. The only person she talked to at any length was her lawyer. This continued through the trial, she sat impassive & expressionless at the defence table as the story of Josiah & her crimes unfolded before the court
The verdict & the sentence were inevitable. Guilty on all counts & death by hanging. Jane showed no reaction as the jury foreman read the verdict & the judge condemned her. Her lawyer indicated that he would be appealing against the sentence.
On her return to the prison Jane made her first request of the authorities, a blank notebook & pen, which she was given. She also asked for several medical journals which she knew had articles on what was now recognised as “Psychopathic personalities”. Jane then sat down in the death cell & began to write. Her first words were
“I: Awakening”
Over the next three weeks the appeals process rumbled on until it ended in the way everyone knew it would. “Appeal denied. Sentence of death confirmed”. Doctor Edwards now had seven days left to live
The practice at the prison when they had more than one woman on death row awaiting execution was to assemble the gallows in the prison yard & then carry out the hangings within a couple of days of each other. The scaffold would then be dismantled & stored away until it was next required. With her execution five days away Jane watched in the morning from her cell window as the guards assembled the gallows. She knew from listening to the guards talk amongst themselves’ that the other condemned young woman on death row is to be hanged later that day. Despite her situation she feels the familiar flutter of anticipatory excitement in her stomach
25 year old Amanda Holmes had been convicted of the poisoning of her husband so that she could replace him with her new lover. However at the post mortem significant amounts of arsenic had been found in Mr Holmes’s body & now Amanda was now going to pay for her crime.
At 5.50pm from her window Doctor Edwards watches the final preparations being made on the gallows & the arrival of the officials & invited spectators.
She hears a cell door bang open further down the corridor & a woman screaming “Show me mercy! Please don’t hang me! I beg you!”. Jane grips the bars on the window & closes her eyes. She can feel her arousal beginning to grow.
The noises outside subside as the execution party drag the struggling prisoner down the corridor & away from Jane’s cell towards the door leading to the courtyard.
Doctor Edwards’s watches, as ever transfixed by this type of spectacle, as Amanda is dragged struggling & fighting to the gallows steps & then up them to the platform above. The prisoner is a pretty blonde woman with a petite but womanly figure. She is dressed in a white blouse & full white satin skirt. She sobs helplessly as the Governor reads out the sentence. The executioner steps forward, cuffs Amanda’s hands behind her, places a black hood over her head followed by the noose which he pulls tight around her shaking slender neck. He stands back & at a nod from the Governor & pulls the lever that releases the gallows trapdoor
Amanda lets out a muffled cry as she falls. There is no snap her neck hasn’t been broken & she begins her jerking broken puppet dance. She swings wildly her legs kicking madly under her full satin skirt, displaying her rustling petticoats as she thrashes & jerks at the end of the rope. She struggles with the rope binding her wrists, her black hooded head bobbing back & forth fighting the noose.
Jane watches, biting her lips & tightly gripping the window’s bars so as not to betray her excitement to the guards outside her cell, as Amanda’s struggles weaken, fade to twitching, & then with a last convulsion that runs through her entire body, to utter stillness. Her hooded head sags to the side on her shoulder & the early evening breeze ruffles the hem of her skirt
For the first time in weeks waves of pleasure pulse through Jane as she comes. She closes her eyes & sways slightly.
Amanda’s body is left hanging for half an hour before being cut down & taken away to be buried inside the prison walls
That evening Jane made her second request to the authorities, she asked to see O’Hanlon, O’Rourke & the man she now knew to be Doctor Harris.
Two days later Doctor Edwards is hand-cuffed, taken from her cell & led into an interview room where the three men sit waiting. They look at the condemned woman trying to conceal their curiosity as to why she asked to see them. They take in the fact that despite the fact that she is a proven monster Jane Edwards is still a very attractive woman. Her brown hair is now worn short & her delicate features are only slightly detracted from by the prison pallor of her skin, a result of hardly being outside at all in the last few weeks. Now 34 years old she has retained her figure & as a death row prisoner she is being allowed to wear her own clothes, in her case a tight fitting brown skirt & yellow blouse which undoubtedly sit well on her. She nods briefly at the men as she sits down.
O’Hanlon asks “Why have you asked to see us Doctor Edwards?”
Jane replies, “To give you this Captain”, she hands him the notebook now full of her writings. “To be frank it may be of more use to “Sergeant” Harris here than to you . Despite themselves the three men smile slightly as they recall the “Nom de plume” the doctor used during the visit to the Edwards house. She continued, “I have described in there the story of how I have ended up here. Not as an excuse but as a factual explanation of what & why it happened. Perhaps it will help you prevent any Jane Queens of the future getting totally out of control & going on a killing spree they just can’t stop”.
Harris says, “Thank you for this Jane. Why did you say Jane Queens of the future rather than Jane Edwards? You must have been upset at the death of Josiah?”
Doctor Edwards responds, “Grief presupposes loss which assumes love. I have long since come to terms with the fact that I am incapable of “love”. Since I have been in here I have been reading up on psychopathic personalities & I have come to the conclusion that I am an almost perfect example of one. Josiah & I shared an obsession & his money enabled us to pursue it for several years. We were also extremely compatible sexual partners as the same things stimulated us in that way. I wasn’t surprised he killed himself at the end. He was always less able to face & deal with things than me ”. She looks at O’Rourke, “Did he say anything Lieutenant before he killed himself?”
O’Rourke replied, “ His exacts words were - I suppose Lieutenant that it is inevitable that all good things must come to an end”.
Jane smiled wanly, “A fitting epitaph for us both don’t you think”
Harris leaned forward & asked, “What triggered the need to kill Jane?”
Jane sighed, “I suppose it started with the abolition of public executions. Up until then Josiah & I could satisfy our fetish by attending female hangings. As you know doubt now know we went abroad just after we got married. On that trip we witnessed executions in Mexico, London & Arabia. When we returned to America & found that the public mood was turning against public hangings we were to put it mildly concerned & disappointed. The last two we attended were those of Bridget Durgan & Mary Rogers. It is all in the notebook. We then decided we had to make our own entertainment so to speak & it was then we set up the Employment Agency. Using it we could select victims that no-one would ever miss”..
After a few months we decided we needed to “Spice things up”..Josiah had read an article about Ancient Rome that described the fact that the Romans thought that executing a virgin was against the law of the Gods. There was an instance in this book he read where the Vestal Virgins had fallen out of favour with the Emperor & he had ordered them all killed. Before executing the Vestals the executioners raped each one of them.
The first Agency girl that Josiah raped was so terrified she just lay there like a lump of meat sobbing as he raped her. After that I obtained powerful drugs on prescription, allegedly for my husband, that were designed to stimulate the nerves in patients who were suffering from degenerative diseases of the nervous system. The effect of these on a normal person is to massively increase the sensitivity of all the sensations including sexual arousal & pain. That worked for us for a while, it was actually quite amazing, despite the fact that they knew what was going to happen to them next each of those girls orgasmed as Josiah fucked them. The problem was that none of the immigrant girls were virgins. That was when we decided to set up the Refuge- that was Josiah’s idea bless him”
O’Hanlon commented, “Hence the stipulation to the city authorities that all potential candidates for the Refuge had to be verified Virgins”.
Jane continued, “Precisely Captain. When I look back I think it was at this point we began to get out of control. Both Josiah & I had begun to take the stimulant drug before dosing the victims, which significantly enhanced our need to continue killing. If you look at it logically if we had simply stopped after the murder of the carriage driver & the Refuge girl, who I believe was called Therese, you would have been none the wiser & Josiah & I would be sitting safely at home. The fact was we couldn’t help ourselves”
O’Rourke asked, “Why blow up the Refuge?”
Jane responded, “ I realised if we continued to allow the former students to get together they would at some point realise that several of their friends were missing. So I told Josiah we had to kill them all & that is what we tried to do”.
Harris asked. “Jane, in three days’ time you are going to hang. How do you feel about that?”
Jane thought for a moment, “I watched the execution of Amanda Holmes from my cell & had my first orgasm in weeks. The authorities probably hoped it would put the fear of God in me but I can’t say it has. I don’t want to die & I am apprehensive however I am also curious as to what it is actually going to feel like. I have seen the terror of dozens of young women & girls just before they are hanged & then watched as they danced on the end of the rope as they strangled to death. I presume that you three will attending the execution?”
O’Hanlon nods, “Yes, we will be there, as will those surviving Refuge girls who want to see justice done for their dead friends”.
Doctor Queen nods & stands,“I think we are done here. So I shall see you all again on Friday at my hanging”.
At that O’Rourke goes to the interview room door & knocks on it. The prison guards come in & then escort Jane out & begin to take her back to her cell. The three men look at each other. O’Hanlon is the first to speak, “What do you reckon Doctor?”.
Harris replies, “Fascinating, truly fascinating. Jane Queen may be a mass murderer but she is also a truly remarkable woman”.
O’Hanlon points at the notebook left on the table by Jane & says, “My guess doctor is that if that is published it would outsell all of the other “Penny Dreadfulls” on the market put together”.
Doctor Harris smiles grimly, “You may well be right Captain, but first of all it needs to be forensically analysed by me & my colleagues to see what lessons we can learn for the future”.
It is Friday morning & April & Beth are waiting at the lodgings they share for the police carriage to collect them & take them to the prison. They are both wearing their old Refuge girl uniforms one last time. April places her blue & white sailor hat on top of her short blonde curly hair. She looks at her friend who, as does she, looks very smart in her white blouse, blue skirt & jacket, & hat perched on top of her short black hair. April says, “Are you up for this Beth?”. The blonde girl knows that her friend has a more sensitive nature than her. Beth nods & says with determination, “We need to do for all the other girls the Edwards’s killed April”. They hug each other tightly.
When they arrive at the prison they are lead through the building & into the courtyard. They both gasp when they see the scaffold looming above them. They then go & stand next to the other four surviving former Refuge girls who are also dressed in their old uniforms. The two who hadn’t been able to testify due to the injuries they sustained in the blast are in wheelchairs. They all embrace, their faces grim but resolute.
O’Hanlon, O’Rourke & Harris walk across to them & the Captain says. “If it gets too much for any of you no-one will think any less of you if you simply turn round & go back inside”. The girls all clasp hands with each other & April says, “We are determined to see this through Captain for the sake of all those Refuge girls who can’t be here”. O’Rourke says, “Well said April. Good for you. In fact good for you all”. The men went back & resumed their positions next to the prison governor
A door at the side opens & the execution party enter the courtyard. The hangman leads the way resplendent in a black suit & top hat. He is followed by Jane, escorted on either side by two prison guards. The prison chaplain brings up the rear reading the traditional prayer for the dead from a bible. Doctor Queen is wearing the same tight fitting brown skirt & yellow blouse that she had on during her interview with the Captain, Lieutenant & the Doctor. She appears composed though her face is deathly white.
As a result of the struggle it took to get Amanda Holmes to the platform Jane hands were cuffed behind her before she was taken from the death cell. As she walks towards the thirteen steps leading to the gallows platform she looks at O’Hanlon & briefly nods her head. Her glance falls on the Refuge girls & they all stare back at her. Doctor Queen & April’s eyes meet. Jane’s are expressionless & cold while April’s are grim & unwavering. The execution party mount the scaffold steps & when they arrive at the platform the two guards place the condemned woman on the trap, the noose dangling just in front of her face. The prison governor climbs the wooden steps & goes & stands in front of the prisoner. He takes a piece of paper from his inside pocket & starts to read from it, “Jane Edwards you have been found guilty of seventy four counts of first degree murder. For these crimes the state of New York has sentenced you to be hanged by the neck until you are dead. Do you have anything to say before this sentence is carried out”. Jane replied without a hint of a tremor in her voice, “No, just get on with it”.
The Refuge girls grip on each other’s hands’ significantly tightens. April & Beth glance at each other. They are both taken aback by the growing excitement in their stomachs & the gradual moistening of the crotches of what Doctor Edwards always referred to as their panties. As their eyes meet they realise that they are both experiencing the same unexpected sensations. April & Beth take deep breaths & return their gaze to the gallows platform above
The executioner pulls a black hood over Jane’s head & then places the noose around her neck. As he tightens the rope he carefully puts the knot at the back of the prisoner’s neck. Jane’s body tenses as she knows that this means she is going to strangle slowly rather have her neck broken. This is exactly what Josiah & she used to do to ensure the prolonged suffering of their victims.
In recent hangings efforts had been made to try & ensure the prisoner’s neck was broken by the drop, which had of course failed in the hanging of Amanda Holmes However in this case the authorities had decided that due to the enormity of her crimes Jane must die hard as possible. They might not be able to kill her seventy four times over but they could make sure that her death is as agonising & protracted as possible.
The spectators realise that this execution was going to be a bit different as the hangman unties the other end of the rope from the pole supporting the cross beam & is joined by the two prison guards.
A collective gasp goes up from the spectators as they realise how the condemned woman is going to be hanged. April & Beth grasp each other’s hands so tightly their knuckles are almost white. They press their thighs together under their blue skirts as their panties get even wetter, their juices ooze from their vaginas & soaking into them
There is deathly silence broken only by Doctor Edwards’s increasingly rapid breathing which moves the front of the black hood in & out.
At a signal from the Governor the executioner & the two guards pull on the rope & Jane rises slowly into the air. As soon as her feet leave the wooden platform she starts to kick & struggle against the rope. Once her dancing feet are six feet above the gallows platform the executioner & the guards tie the now quivering rope back round the wooden upright. Doctor Edwards firm breasts heave against her tight yellow blouse, her legs kick desperately beneath her well-fitting brown skirt. The rope is unforgiving as it digs into Jane’s trachea, twisting & stretching the tendons in her neck. Choking gasps can be heard coming from beneath the black hood. Doctor Edwards’s entire body twists back & forth. Her wrists strain against the handcuffs, her feet flutter in the air & then she starts to kick even more violently desperately searching for the platform six feet out of reach beneath her so that she can rest & release the pressure on her tortured throat. At times her knees reach her waist as her thighs pump up & down under her tight brown skirt. Her skirt is pushed up her shapely stockinged legs, at times to the top of her thighs, giving the spectators glimpses of the same type of brief white panties she now always favoured since she had designed them for the Refuge girls.
April & Beth are by now both very aroused as they stare transfixed at the woman slowly strangling to death on the gallows in front of them. They are trying feverishly to hide their excited condition but Doctor Harris who has glanced at the Refuge girls a couple of times to make sure that they are alright takes a mental note of their flushed expressions. He knows only too well what they signify
After a good ten minutes Jane’s struggles begin to weaken & slow. Two minutes later her body hangs limp swaying gently on the rope, her brown skirt again covers her legs down to her ankles, her head on top of her significantly elongated neck, pushed forward by the noose faces downwards
By digging their fingers into the palms of each other’s, gritting their teeth & breathing deeply April & Beth manage to resist the almost overwhelming need to come. While they are both still virgins they have on occasion masturbated & even at times caressed & explored each other’s young bodies. Though both would have vehemently denied that they were in any way homosexual
The two police officers & the doctor walk over to the girls & O’Hanlon asks, “How are you doing girls?”. April & Beth’s flushes have faded & the other four girls though pale, & somewhat shaken, by what they have just witnessed are composed. They all assure the Captain that they are okay.
Doctor Harris says, “As you know girls I am a psychiatrist, in other words “A doctor of the mind”.You all say you are fine but I would still like to make sure that that is indeed the case. All of you have been through a horrendous experience, not just physically”, as he says this he nods at the two girls in their wheelchairs, “But also mentally & emotionally. Over the next few days I want to see each of you, by all means come in pairs if you are more comfortable doing it that way. I want you to tell me how you feel about all that you have been though & if there is any help you feel you need to cope emotionally with what has happened.
Don’t worry about the cost. My time will be covered by the grant I am getting to research fully the lives & crimes of Mr & Mrs Edwards”. He looks & smiles at the two injured girls & continues. “I will visit both of you at the hospital”. He turns to April, Beth & the two other girls & hands them each his card. “Please contact my assistant Miss Barnes to arrange an appointment”. With that they all turn & file out of the courtyard back inside the prison leaving Doctor Edwards’s lifeless body hanging on the gallows
21: Trial & Execution
Two months later Doctor Edwards went on trial for mass murder. From the time of Jane’s arrest to the start of the trial the authorities had virtually demolished the Edwards house. Based on the photo album they knew they were looking for a lot of bodies & they found them under the cellar floor. In the mass grave they found the bodies of the fifty seven young women & girls murdered by the Edwards along with the remains of the carriage driver killed at the same time as the Refuge girl Therese.
When the sixteen girls who had died in the explosion at the Refuge were added in it meant that Doctor Edwards faced seventy four charges of capital murder.
While the case against Jane was being built O’Rourke received back from London of confirmation of the Edwards’s presence in the Winter Terrace in London at the time of the Mannings’ executions. However by this point the information was merely of academic interest
The entire country was both horrified & fascinated by the case. It attracted even more attention that of Doctor Holmes in Chicago, mainly due it had to be said by the fact that the accused was a still very attractive thirty four year old woman
Initially Jane’s lawyer had tried to argue that she was as much a victim as the dead young women & girls. Her defence was that she had been brutalised & bullied by her husband into participating in the murders however this had been blown out of the water by the evidence contained in the photo album of all the killings that had taken place in the cellar. Against each set of photographs in Doctor Edwards neat handwriting was a summary of each murder & how much she had enjoyed it.
Her lawyer pleaded with Doctor Edwards to allow him to put forward a plea of “Not guilty by reason of insanity”, but she refused to agree to this saying “It wouldn’t do any good , & anyway I am as sane as you”.
April, Beth & two of the four girls who survived the explosion at Refuge all gave evidence at the trial. The remaining two blast survivors were not yet fit enough to come to court. The girls, all wearing Refuge uniforms made a big impression on the court. They looked so young & innocent in their blue jackets & skirts, white blouses, & sailor hats. After they had testified the four girls took their places in the seats especially reserved for them in the court. The New York Attorney General, who was himself prosecuting, asked the jury to regard the four girls as being representative of all of the Edwards’s victims.
Since her arrest Doctor Edwards had barely uttered a word. The only person she talked to at any length was her lawyer. This continued through the trial, she sat impassive & expressionless at the defence table as the story of Josiah & her crimes unfolded before the court
The verdict & the sentence were inevitable. Guilty on all counts & death by hanging. Jane showed no reaction as the jury foreman read the verdict & the judge condemned her. Her lawyer indicated that he would be appealing against the sentence.
On her return to the prison Jane made her first request of the authorities, a blank notebook & pen, which she was given. She also asked for several medical journals which she knew had articles on what was now recognised as “Psychopathic personalities”. Jane then sat down in the death cell & began to write. Her first words were
“I: Awakening”
Over the next three weeks the appeals process rumbled on until it ended in the way everyone knew it would. “Appeal denied. Sentence of death confirmed”. Doctor Edwards now had seven days left to live
The practice at the prison when they had more than one woman on death row awaiting execution was to assemble the gallows in the prison yard & then carry out the hangings within a couple of days of each other. The scaffold would then be dismantled & stored away until it was next required. With her execution five days away Jane watched in the morning from her cell window as the guards assembled the gallows. She knew from listening to the guards talk amongst themselves’ that the other condemned young woman on death row is to be hanged later that day. Despite her situation she feels the familiar flutter of anticipatory excitement in her stomach
25 year old Amanda Holmes had been convicted of the poisoning of her husband so that she could replace him with her new lover. However at the post mortem significant amounts of arsenic had been found in Mr Holmes’s body & now Amanda was now going to pay for her crime.
At 5.50pm from her window Doctor Edwards watches the final preparations being made on the gallows & the arrival of the officials & invited spectators.
She hears a cell door bang open further down the corridor & a woman screaming “Show me mercy! Please don’t hang me! I beg you!”. Jane grips the bars on the window & closes her eyes. She can feel her arousal beginning to grow.
The noises outside subside as the execution party drag the struggling prisoner down the corridor & away from Jane’s cell towards the door leading to the courtyard.
Doctor Edwards’s watches, as ever transfixed by this type of spectacle, as Amanda is dragged struggling & fighting to the gallows steps & then up them to the platform above. The prisoner is a pretty blonde woman with a petite but womanly figure. She is dressed in a white blouse & full white satin skirt. She sobs helplessly as the Governor reads out the sentence. The executioner steps forward, cuffs Amanda’s hands behind her, places a black hood over her head followed by the noose which he pulls tight around her shaking slender neck. He stands back & at a nod from the Governor & pulls the lever that releases the gallows trapdoor
Amanda lets out a muffled cry as she falls. There is no snap her neck hasn’t been broken & she begins her jerking broken puppet dance. She swings wildly her legs kicking madly under her full satin skirt, displaying her rustling petticoats as she thrashes & jerks at the end of the rope. She struggles with the rope binding her wrists, her black hooded head bobbing back & forth fighting the noose.
Jane watches, biting her lips & tightly gripping the window’s bars so as not to betray her excitement to the guards outside her cell, as Amanda’s struggles weaken, fade to twitching, & then with a last convulsion that runs through her entire body, to utter stillness. Her hooded head sags to the side on her shoulder & the early evening breeze ruffles the hem of her skirt
For the first time in weeks waves of pleasure pulse through Jane as she comes. She closes her eyes & sways slightly.
Amanda’s body is left hanging for half an hour before being cut down & taken away to be buried inside the prison walls
That evening Jane made her second request to the authorities, she asked to see O’Hanlon, O’Rourke & the man she now knew to be Doctor Harris.
Two days later Doctor Edwards is hand-cuffed, taken from her cell & led into an interview room where the three men sit waiting. They look at the condemned woman trying to conceal their curiosity as to why she asked to see them. They take in the fact that despite the fact that she is a proven monster Jane Edwards is still a very attractive woman. Her brown hair is now worn short & her delicate features are only slightly detracted from by the prison pallor of her skin, a result of hardly being outside at all in the last few weeks. Now 34 years old she has retained her figure & as a death row prisoner she is being allowed to wear her own clothes, in her case a tight fitting brown skirt & yellow blouse which undoubtedly sit well on her. She nods briefly at the men as she sits down.
O’Hanlon asks “Why have you asked to see us Doctor Edwards?”
Jane replies, “To give you this Captain”, she hands him the notebook now full of her writings. “To be frank it may be of more use to “Sergeant” Harris here than to you . Despite themselves the three men smile slightly as they recall the “Nom de plume” the doctor used during the visit to the Edwards house. She continued, “I have described in there the story of how I have ended up here. Not as an excuse but as a factual explanation of what & why it happened. Perhaps it will help you prevent any Jane Queens of the future getting totally out of control & going on a killing spree they just can’t stop”.
Harris says, “Thank you for this Jane. Why did you say Jane Queens of the future rather than Jane Edwards? You must have been upset at the death of Josiah?”
Doctor Edwards responds, “Grief presupposes loss which assumes love. I have long since come to terms with the fact that I am incapable of “love”. Since I have been in here I have been reading up on psychopathic personalities & I have come to the conclusion that I am an almost perfect example of one. Josiah & I shared an obsession & his money enabled us to pursue it for several years. We were also extremely compatible sexual partners as the same things stimulated us in that way. I wasn’t surprised he killed himself at the end. He was always less able to face & deal with things than me ”. She looks at O’Rourke, “Did he say anything Lieutenant before he killed himself?”
O’Rourke replied, “ His exacts words were - I suppose Lieutenant that it is inevitable that all good things must come to an end”.
Jane smiled wanly, “A fitting epitaph for us both don’t you think”
Harris leaned forward & asked, “What triggered the need to kill Jane?”
Jane sighed, “I suppose it started with the abolition of public executions. Up until then Josiah & I could satisfy our fetish by attending female hangings. As you know doubt now know we went abroad just after we got married. On that trip we witnessed executions in Mexico, London & Arabia. When we returned to America & found that the public mood was turning against public hangings we were to put it mildly concerned & disappointed. The last two we attended were those of Bridget Durgan & Mary Rogers. It is all in the notebook. We then decided we had to make our own entertainment so to speak & it was then we set up the Employment Agency. Using it we could select victims that no-one would ever miss”..
After a few months we decided we needed to “Spice things up”..Josiah had read an article about Ancient Rome that described the fact that the Romans thought that executing a virgin was against the law of the Gods. There was an instance in this book he read where the Vestal Virgins had fallen out of favour with the Emperor & he had ordered them all killed. Before executing the Vestals the executioners raped each one of them.
The first Agency girl that Josiah raped was so terrified she just lay there like a lump of meat sobbing as he raped her. After that I obtained powerful drugs on prescription, allegedly for my husband, that were designed to stimulate the nerves in patients who were suffering from degenerative diseases of the nervous system. The effect of these on a normal person is to massively increase the sensitivity of all the sensations including sexual arousal & pain. That worked for us for a while, it was actually quite amazing, despite the fact that they knew what was going to happen to them next each of those girls orgasmed as Josiah fucked them. The problem was that none of the immigrant girls were virgins. That was when we decided to set up the Refuge- that was Josiah’s idea bless him”
O’Hanlon commented, “Hence the stipulation to the city authorities that all potential candidates for the Refuge had to be verified Virgins”.
Jane continued, “Precisely Captain. When I look back I think it was at this point we began to get out of control. Both Josiah & I had begun to take the stimulant drug before dosing the victims, which significantly enhanced our need to continue killing. If you look at it logically if we had simply stopped after the murder of the carriage driver & the Refuge girl, who I believe was called Therese, you would have been none the wiser & Josiah & I would be sitting safely at home. The fact was we couldn’t help ourselves”
O’Rourke asked, “Why blow up the Refuge?”
Jane responded, “ I realised if we continued to allow the former students to get together they would at some point realise that several of their friends were missing. So I told Josiah we had to kill them all & that is what we tried to do”.
Harris asked. “Jane, in three days’ time you are going to hang. How do you feel about that?”
Jane thought for a moment, “I watched the execution of Amanda Holmes from my cell & had my first orgasm in weeks. The authorities probably hoped it would put the fear of God in me but I can’t say it has. I don’t want to die & I am apprehensive however I am also curious as to what it is actually going to feel like. I have seen the terror of dozens of young women & girls just before they are hanged & then watched as they danced on the end of the rope as they strangled to death. I presume that you three will attending the execution?”
O’Hanlon nods, “Yes, we will be there, as will those surviving Refuge girls who want to see justice done for their dead friends”.
Doctor Queen nods & stands,“I think we are done here. So I shall see you all again on Friday at my hanging”.
At that O’Rourke goes to the interview room door & knocks on it. The prison guards come in & then escort Jane out & begin to take her back to her cell. The three men look at each other. O’Hanlon is the first to speak, “What do you reckon Doctor?”.
Harris replies, “Fascinating, truly fascinating. Jane Queen may be a mass murderer but she is also a truly remarkable woman”.
O’Hanlon points at the notebook left on the table by Jane & says, “My guess doctor is that if that is published it would outsell all of the other “Penny Dreadfulls” on the market put together”.
Doctor Harris smiles grimly, “You may well be right Captain, but first of all it needs to be forensically analysed by me & my colleagues to see what lessons we can learn for the future”.
It is Friday morning & April & Beth are waiting at the lodgings they share for the police carriage to collect them & take them to the prison. They are both wearing their old Refuge girl uniforms one last time. April places her blue & white sailor hat on top of her short blonde curly hair. She looks at her friend who, as does she, looks very smart in her white blouse, blue skirt & jacket, & hat perched on top of her short black hair. April says, “Are you up for this Beth?”. The blonde girl knows that her friend has a more sensitive nature than her. Beth nods & says with determination, “We need to do for all the other girls the Edwards’s killed April”. They hug each other tightly.
When they arrive at the prison they are lead through the building & into the courtyard. They both gasp when they see the scaffold looming above them. They then go & stand next to the other four surviving former Refuge girls who are also dressed in their old uniforms. The two who hadn’t been able to testify due to the injuries they sustained in the blast are in wheelchairs. They all embrace, their faces grim but resolute.
O’Hanlon, O’Rourke & Harris walk across to them & the Captain says. “If it gets too much for any of you no-one will think any less of you if you simply turn round & go back inside”. The girls all clasp hands with each other & April says, “We are determined to see this through Captain for the sake of all those Refuge girls who can’t be here”. O’Rourke says, “Well said April. Good for you. In fact good for you all”. The men went back & resumed their positions next to the prison governor
A door at the side opens & the execution party enter the courtyard. The hangman leads the way resplendent in a black suit & top hat. He is followed by Jane, escorted on either side by two prison guards. The prison chaplain brings up the rear reading the traditional prayer for the dead from a bible. Doctor Queen is wearing the same tight fitting brown skirt & yellow blouse that she had on during her interview with the Captain, Lieutenant & the Doctor. She appears composed though her face is deathly white.
As a result of the struggle it took to get Amanda Holmes to the platform Jane hands were cuffed behind her before she was taken from the death cell. As she walks towards the thirteen steps leading to the gallows platform she looks at O’Hanlon & briefly nods her head. Her glance falls on the Refuge girls & they all stare back at her. Doctor Queen & April’s eyes meet. Jane’s are expressionless & cold while April’s are grim & unwavering. The execution party mount the scaffold steps & when they arrive at the platform the two guards place the condemned woman on the trap, the noose dangling just in front of her face. The prison governor climbs the wooden steps & goes & stands in front of the prisoner. He takes a piece of paper from his inside pocket & starts to read from it, “Jane Edwards you have been found guilty of seventy four counts of first degree murder. For these crimes the state of New York has sentenced you to be hanged by the neck until you are dead. Do you have anything to say before this sentence is carried out”. Jane replied without a hint of a tremor in her voice, “No, just get on with it”.
The Refuge girls grip on each other’s hands’ significantly tightens. April & Beth glance at each other. They are both taken aback by the growing excitement in their stomachs & the gradual moistening of the crotches of what Doctor Edwards always referred to as their panties. As their eyes meet they realise that they are both experiencing the same unexpected sensations. April & Beth take deep breaths & return their gaze to the gallows platform above
The executioner pulls a black hood over Jane’s head & then places the noose around her neck. As he tightens the rope he carefully puts the knot at the back of the prisoner’s neck. Jane’s body tenses as she knows that this means she is going to strangle slowly rather have her neck broken. This is exactly what Josiah & she used to do to ensure the prolonged suffering of their victims.
In recent hangings efforts had been made to try & ensure the prisoner’s neck was broken by the drop, which had of course failed in the hanging of Amanda Holmes However in this case the authorities had decided that due to the enormity of her crimes Jane must die hard as possible. They might not be able to kill her seventy four times over but they could make sure that her death is as agonising & protracted as possible.
The spectators realise that this execution was going to be a bit different as the hangman unties the other end of the rope from the pole supporting the cross beam & is joined by the two prison guards.
A collective gasp goes up from the spectators as they realise how the condemned woman is going to be hanged. April & Beth grasp each other’s hands so tightly their knuckles are almost white. They press their thighs together under their blue skirts as their panties get even wetter, their juices ooze from their vaginas & soaking into them
There is deathly silence broken only by Doctor Edwards’s increasingly rapid breathing which moves the front of the black hood in & out.
At a signal from the Governor the executioner & the two guards pull on the rope & Jane rises slowly into the air. As soon as her feet leave the wooden platform she starts to kick & struggle against the rope. Once her dancing feet are six feet above the gallows platform the executioner & the guards tie the now quivering rope back round the wooden upright. Doctor Edwards firm breasts heave against her tight yellow blouse, her legs kick desperately beneath her well-fitting brown skirt. The rope is unforgiving as it digs into Jane’s trachea, twisting & stretching the tendons in her neck. Choking gasps can be heard coming from beneath the black hood. Doctor Edwards’s entire body twists back & forth. Her wrists strain against the handcuffs, her feet flutter in the air & then she starts to kick even more violently desperately searching for the platform six feet out of reach beneath her so that she can rest & release the pressure on her tortured throat. At times her knees reach her waist as her thighs pump up & down under her tight brown skirt. Her skirt is pushed up her shapely stockinged legs, at times to the top of her thighs, giving the spectators glimpses of the same type of brief white panties she now always favoured since she had designed them for the Refuge girls.
April & Beth are by now both very aroused as they stare transfixed at the woman slowly strangling to death on the gallows in front of them. They are trying feverishly to hide their excited condition but Doctor Harris who has glanced at the Refuge girls a couple of times to make sure that they are alright takes a mental note of their flushed expressions. He knows only too well what they signify
After a good ten minutes Jane’s struggles begin to weaken & slow. Two minutes later her body hangs limp swaying gently on the rope, her brown skirt again covers her legs down to her ankles, her head on top of her significantly elongated neck, pushed forward by the noose faces downwards
By digging their fingers into the palms of each other’s, gritting their teeth & breathing deeply April & Beth manage to resist the almost overwhelming need to come. While they are both still virgins they have on occasion masturbated & even at times caressed & explored each other’s young bodies. Though both would have vehemently denied that they were in any way homosexual
The two police officers & the doctor walk over to the girls & O’Hanlon asks, “How are you doing girls?”. April & Beth’s flushes have faded & the other four girls though pale, & somewhat shaken, by what they have just witnessed are composed. They all assure the Captain that they are okay.
Doctor Harris says, “As you know girls I am a psychiatrist, in other words “A doctor of the mind”.You all say you are fine but I would still like to make sure that that is indeed the case. All of you have been through a horrendous experience, not just physically”, as he says this he nods at the two girls in their wheelchairs, “But also mentally & emotionally. Over the next few days I want to see each of you, by all means come in pairs if you are more comfortable doing it that way. I want you to tell me how you feel about all that you have been though & if there is any help you feel you need to cope emotionally with what has happened.
Don’t worry about the cost. My time will be covered by the grant I am getting to research fully the lives & crimes of Mr & Mrs Edwards”. He looks & smiles at the two injured girls & continues. “I will visit both of you at the hospital”. He turns to April, Beth & the two other girls & hands them each his card. “Please contact my assistant Miss Barnes to arrange an appointment”. With that they all turn & file out of the courtyard back inside the prison leaving Doctor Edwards’s lifeless body hanging on the gallows
>Noticed that the very last part of Chapter 21 appears to be missing
You might have run up against a hard limit on the maximum size of a single post.
You might have run up against a hard limit on the maximum size of a single post.
again...will April and Beth be the Jane Queens of the future? nice story
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Forum > Public / Stories > Execution Tales Chapter 21 Again