Execution Tales Chapters 22 & 23
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Part 2: Cheryl Barnes, April Jones & Beth Slade
22: The Aftermath
When April & Beth are dropped off at their lodgings after the execution they head for the small kitchen & make themselves some tea. They have the house to themselves as their landlady is out. As they sit sipping from their cups Beth says to her friend, “I don’t know about you April but I am bushed I think I will go & lie down for a while”, April smiles conspiratorily at her & replies, “Why don’t we go & have a lie down together “. Beth smiles back & nods.
“They go to April’s room, lock the door behind them & lie down on the bed. As they discuss the hanging of Doctor Edwards & begin to relive the experience they feel their arousal returning. April reaches down & pulls Beth’s skirt up above her white panties & starts to massage her crotch through them. Beth returns the favour. As they rub each other’s pussies with one hand they play with their breasts with the other. As their excitement grows & the movement of their hands become more frantic they push the panties to one side & thrust their fingers into each other. After five minutes they both come more intensely than they have ever experienced before. Over the next two hours they bring each other to two more beautifully satisfying orgasms. As they lie in each other’s arms after their third climaxes Beth whispers to her friend, “Wow April that was the best feeling I have ever had in my life. Where did that come from?” . April replies, “I don’t know Beth but we must ensure we can reach that level of pleasure again when we want to”. “Damn right”, her friend & lover replied.
Over the next few days Doctor Harris visited the two recovering girls in hospital & had a meeting in his office with the two other Refuge girls who had been at the execution. At the end of his consultations with the four girls he assured them that they were indeed fine & would soon be able to put their recent experiences behind them & get on with their lives. He had purposely left seeing April & Beth to last because he wanted to give his assistant Cheryl Barnes time to type a transcript of Jane Edwards notebook & prepare three copies of the document. Cheryl was a good looking twenty four year old blonde woman. She had gravitated towards working for Doctor Harris because she found the crimes committed by the most depraved killers, their motivations & punishments fascinating & highly stimulating. She had been very disappointed that she wasn’t allowed to attend Doctor Edwards hanging. As she read & typed up Jane’s memoir the feelings it generated in her were more much more intense than anything she had experienced before
April & Beth arrived at Doctor Harris’s office & were shown into his consulting room by Miss Barnes. Harris welcomed them warmly & asked how they were . The girl’s confirmed they were fine. The Doctor looked at them & asked, “What sensations did you experience as you watched Doctor Edwards hang on the scaffold”, April & Beth looked at their hands their faces flushed with embarrassment
Harris chuckled gently “Girls you can be totally honest with me. I am after all a Doctor & my only concern is for your welfare”. April looked up & said defensively, “I found it exciting”. The Doctor nodded & looked at her friend, “Beth?”. Beth lifted her head & said, “So did I”. Harris continued, “Do you mean sexually exciting?”.
Unable to bring themselves to say it April & Beth nod their heads. "Well girls there is nothing to be ashamed of many people seem to find the sight of someone being executed to be sexually stimulating. It in no way makes them bad or somehow weird. We don’t know why this happens & we need to understand it better to try & work out what we can do to prevent future Jane & Josiah Edwards going on another murderous rampage..
Beth looks horrified, “You mean we might turn into murderers too?”. Good God No!” Harris replied. “Think about it this way”. All criminal behaviour is a result of natural wants & desires being taken too far. Robbery rape & even murder due to jealousy all come from wanting things we can’t have for one reason or another. What I am trying to better understand is what makes 1% of the population take things to these extremes while the remaining 99% of us are perfectly capable of living their lives without resorting to criminal behaviour”.
“He reached into his drawer & pulled out the three transcripts of Jane Edwards notebook. He handed copies to the two girls & said. “I would like you to read this & tell me what you think. If you feel at any point it is too graphic or disturbing just stop reading & give it back to me. April asked “What is it Doctor?”
Harris’s face became expressionless “Doctor Edwards wrote this during the last three weeks of her life”. On hearing this April & Beth both gave small gasps & their eyes opened wide. For the next forty five minutes the silence in the room is broken only by the rustling of paper as April & Beth turn the transcript pages as they read
Harris watched the girls closely as they worked their way through the transcript. He noted their at times flushed faces, the way they squirmed slightly in their seats, the frequency which they crossed & uncrossed their legs & when their hands involuntarily touched their necks. When they were finished the girls each sat back in their chairs & took a deep breath
Harris asked, “Well girls what do you think?”
April is the first to speak, “Doctor it is the most horrible & disgusting thing I have ever read & I love the “Penny Dreadfulls”, however once you start you can’t put it down.” Beth chimes in “I agree with April. I suppose it is especially interesting to us because we are actually in the story & it explains why Josiah & Jane did what they did”
Doctor Harris gathers in the transcripts & stands up, “Thank you for your honesty girls. I would like to continue our discussions. Same time next week?” April & Beth nod & Harris shows them out of the room
23: April & Beth do Some Research
As soon as they arrive back home April & Beth go straight to bed, still incredibly turned on by what they read in the transcript. They jump on the bed, pull their skirts up & bury their faces in each other’s groins. It doesn’t take long until their frantically licking tongues bring them to orgasm. They continue to make love for another hour before they lie spent on the bed.
The next day they took out a subscription to “True Crime Monthly” & joined one of the largest libraries in New York. The first book they borrowed from the Library had been very recently published & was titled “A History of Women & the Death Penalty in Europe”. That evening they lay together on April’s bed avidly reading.
The first execution they found especially interesting was that of Margaret Davy in England in 1531
Margaret Davy.
Margaret was a 21 year old poisoner, a crime which Henry VIII considered to be “So odious”, that he decreed that poisoning should be regarded as form of high treason rather than just murder. Accordingly he “Inflicted a more grievous & lingering death than the common law prescribed. The offender should be boiled to death in hot water. In order to prolong the agony it was specified that the murderess was “First to be put in at the tiptoes & then immersed “By little & little” Margaret’s death was described by a witness as being “Peculiarly horrible”. A writer at the time recorded that this penalty “Was too severe to live long” & it inspired such revulsion that it was abolished in in the reign of Henry’s son Edward & the sentence of death by hanging was reinstated for murder by poison
The next execution that took the girls attention was that of 16 year old Beatrice Cenci in Italy in 1599. The portrait of Beatrice reproduced in the book was very striking. It depicted a stunningly beautiful girl with perfect features & almost alabaster skin framed by long lustrous centrally parted black hair
Beatrice Cenci
Beatrice with the help of her stepmother Lucrezia & her brother Giacomo, arranged the murder of her father, the cruel & sadistic Count Cenci, who persecuted Beatrice & had almost certainly raped her. The tragic story of the beautiful young parricide had been subject of a play written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819.
At 8am on September 11th 1599 the prisoners left the prison wearing knee length white shifts , accompanied by the Company of Misericordia bearing a great crucifix, & made their way to the Piazza. They walked past the scaffold with it’s block & Mannaia [Meaning an axe & possibly a mechanism resembling a guillotine] & entered the chapel next to the Piazza. Giacomo, Lucrezia & Beatrice knelt in prayer at the chapel altar.
Giacomo was the first to be taken out, he gibbered & cried as he was dragged to the scaffold. Lucrezia & Beatrice shut their eyes & tried to close out the sounds coming from the Piazza outside. There was a loud thud & Giacomo’s pleading abruptly stopped & the watching crowd roared it’s approval.
Lucrezia was next. Initially she was composed but when she saw Giacomo’s head exposed on a pike she started to struggle & scream. Again Beatrice shut her eyes & tried to block out the screams of her terrified stepmother. There was one last piercing screech followed by another heavy thump & again the spectators gave an appreciative cheer.
The machine was rearranged, the blood washed off & the executioner returned to the chapel to fetch Beatrice. The condemned girl got to her feet & left the chapel. She mounted the scaffold & as she had already been instructed what to do she stretched herself upon the plank, adjusting her head as quickly as possible upon the block. Despite the care Beatrice had taken to avoid the agony of delay she was obliged to endure it. The Pope had ordered that upon Beatrice’s appearance upon the scaffold, a cannon should be fired, which was done to the great wonder of the people & of the culprit who raised her head up from the block. The Archbishop then came forward & gave her plenary absolution in Articulo Mortis. Then after an interval of five minutes, during which Beatrice awaited the death stroke trembling with her head on the block the executioner touched the spring & the blade fell
The section in the early chapters of the book that stimulated April & Beth most was entitled “English Executions in the 17th & 18th Centuries”. The book described the significance of Tyburn, where stood “The Triple Tree”, so called because of its three crossbeams joined together in a triangle , in the history of capital punishment in England. Tyburn was established in the mid 17th Century as the main site for executions in London. At first prisoners were hanged off ladders. The first execution at Tyburn described was that of Mary Moders on January 2nd 1673. The author had updated the contemporary description of the hanging to make it easier for a modern readership to understand.
Mary Moders
Mary had been a star of the London stage, she was also an adroit confidence trickster & highly paid prostitute. She was thirty years old, & still very attractive, when she was convicted of murdering a wealthy client who had refused to pay her for her services. She was taken to Tyburn in a cart accompanied by the hangman wearing her best blue dress. The hangman pulled the cart up next to the gallows. The ladder was already in place propped against the high crossbeam. By now Mary was shivering with terror. The executioner & his assistant took her down from the cart & positioned her with her back to the ladder. They pulled the noose down from the beam & put it round her neck & tied her hands in front of her. Mary refused to mount the ladder. The hangman climbed the ladder first & used the noose to tug the condemned woman up it. Then he repeated the process. As they neared the crossbeam he climbed off the ladder & onto the beam while continuing his steady pull on the rope.
Finally Mary’s head was near the crossbeam & the executioner could proceed. He tied off the rope to the beam. Mary was weeping piteously as the hangman pulled a white cloth sack from his pocket & slid it over her head. The hood in place the executioner slid off the crossbeam, hung briefly by his hands & dropped the remaining four feet to the ground. Mary moaned in fright. The crowd circling the gallows strained for a better view.
The hangman kicked the ladder away & Mary was left swinging by her neck. Her last sound was a croak as her windpipe was sealed by her weight. Her body snapped around, her bound hands flew up to her neck trying to relieve the pressure on her throat. She swung back & forth like a pendulum spinning. Her neck stretched to an unnatural degree as her entire body weight pulled on it.
The crowd could see her feet stretching downwards, quivering, trying to find something to stand on to relieve the pain of the rope. She swayed for a few seconds, rigid & then her chest heaved again & again more rapidly as her air ran out. It got her nowhere, the only sound was the rope creaking against the wood. Mary’s jerking speeded up & her entire body began to violently shiver & convulse, thrusting about helplessly on the rope. Her legs were slicing back & forth at a frantic rate.
The crowd was silent as the spectators watched Mary’s death agony. The only sound was the ruffling of her dress & elaborate undergarments as her legs sent them flying. A minute or two of this & both Mary’s legs snapped up violently to her chin. The crowd gasped at the view this gave them. Mary’s underwear was limited to stays, ruffles & a slip, all which were now lifted. Her legs came down in a mighty thrust that carried them backwards & she began kicking even more violently. Mary’s whole body was shaking & convulsing. Five minutes of horrendous struggle passed before the victim’s movements began to slow, Mary’s chest heaved for one last time & then she hung still, her body turning slightly as it swung on the rope.
April shut the book & looked at Beth. As they began to make love they pictured in their minds the terror & pain of Margaret Davy being slowly lowered into boiling water in Tudor England, Beatrice Cenci shivering in fear, her head on the block, waiting to be beheaded in medieval Florence & Mary Moders slowly strangling to death on the Tyburn Gallows
The next evening they again start reading from where they left off
Mary Adams
The, by all accounts, beautiful pickpocket Mary Adams was taken to Tyburn on June 16 1702. Mary was in her mid-twenties at the time of her death & was composed as she arrived at the gallows. She smoothed out the wrinkles in her new black dress, bought for her by an admirer before the hangman came forward to place the noose about her lovely neck.
Cart Hangings
Starting in the late 17th century, & thus overlapping with the ladder method, the authorities began to use a horse drawn cart to hang condemned prisoners from. In this process the hangman simply had the victim stand, usually facing forward, often looking at a clergyman reading the rites for the dead. Facing forward ensured that the noose would not slip around to the front of the neck when the cart departed. The rope was fastened to the beam by an assistant straddling it & the hangman led the horses forward pulling the cart away. The noose tightened & dragged the victim of the cart. The prisoners were slowly dragged off the cart since the horse pulling it didn’t make a “Jackrabbit start”
Sarah Malcolm
This was the method used to hang 22 year old Sarah Malcolm at the scene of the murder in Fetter Lane London that she had committed in 1733. The account at the time said “She struggled mightily on the rope before expiring”
Jenny Diver
In 1741 the notorious “Cut purse”, or pickpocket, 26 year old Jenny Diver was taken to Tyburn. Jenny being quite wealthy as a result of her criminal exploits had invested in a new black dress & veil for her trip to the gallows. Before they left the prison the “Yeoman of the Halter” tied her wrists in front of her, put a cord around her body & elbows, & a noose around her neck winding the rest of the rope around her body. At this point Jenny’s nerve had failed her & she had started to sob however she managed to recover her composure.
The other 19 criminals, 16 men & 3 women, sentenced to hang that day were similarly treated before they were led to the three execution carts & seated on their coffins. Jenny was allowed to go to Tyburn in a mourning couch, attended by the prison chaplain the Reverend Boughton. A mourning coach was the 18th Century equivalent of a funeral carriage. It was a black horse drawn enclosed coach & the horses too were decked out in black cloth. The journey to Tyburn, some two miles, could often take three hours or more to complete, which was a long time for the prisoner to contemplate her fate.
Once at Tyburn Jenny was helped down from the coach by the chaplain & took her place in one of the three waiting carts with the three other condemned women. The hangman uncoiled the free rope from around her & threw the end up to one of his young assistants lying on top of one of the three crossbeams, who secured it leaving very little slack. This had to be repeated for each prisoner so the whole process took some time to complete. When all of the “Sufferers”, as they were known at the time, were secured to the beams & had finished their prayers, night caps were drawn over their faces. Jenny did not require a night cap, instead preferring her veil. The signal was given by the Under Sheriff for the cats to be whipped away by their drivers.
As the cart moved from under her Jenny dropped just a few inches & was brought up with a jerk, causing the noose to tighten round her neck. Swinging back & forth under the beam she made choking & gurgling sounds, her feet paddling in thin air & her body writhing in the agonies of strangulation. Jenny struggled for several minutes before she finally hung dead on the gallows.
Mary Blandy
In 1752 in Oxford 24 year old Mary Blandy was convicted of poisoning her father with arsenic, apparently at the instigation of her lover so that they could get their hands on his estate. The lover escaped to France leaving Mary to her fate.
She begged for mercy but sentence of death was passed & she was given six weeks to prepare herself. Some saw her as a monster who deserved death & regretted burning alive was no longer practiced, as that had in earlier times been the standard punishment of women found guilty of capital crimes. The authorities had then thought hanging too lewd an ending; that men, & some women too, were aroused at the sight of a woman jerking at the end of a rope & the really agonised protracted death suffered by female criminals who were burnt at the stake was a far more powerful deterrent
Six weeks later Mary walked out of Oxford jail at 9 o’clock in the morning. She was dressed in a black bombazine dress, black bonnet & shawl. Her hands were bound in front with black ribands & she carried a bible. She was accompanied by her lawyer, a minister & the Under Sheriff. Upon approaching the beam, which had been placed between the branches of two trees, & its dangling noose, her face went ashen. The masked executioner was waiting for her by a ladder covered in black cloth that rested on the beam. Mary walked calmly to the ladder.
Two well dressed women in their mid-twenties were whispering together in the crowd “She does look so petite, doesn’t she. And such a villainess too?”. “Very slender for that heavy rope. I am afraid that the poor dear has a long ordeal ahead of her”. The two women flushed, imagining the scene they would soon see. With some pushing & shoving they moved to the front row of the crowd looking disdainfully at anyone who dared complain
April giggled & said to Beth “That would have been us Beth”. The two girls began to gently rub their breasts through their blouses as they continued to read.
Mary looked up at the noose & begged the hangman to lower it “For the sake of decency”. He nodded & climbed the ladder, undid the rope around the beam & dropped the noose to a height of seven feet above the ground, retied its end to the beam, tugged on it, pulled at it again making it secure. The executioner descended the ladder & taking Mary by her shoulders led her up five rungs. She shook, fearing she may fall, as he tried to take her up higher. Realizing that was enough he stopped & steadied her. Her hands still held the bible, her lips muttering prayers. Her eyes now terrified were looking round the crowd for a friendly face – there were none. She paused to gaze at those closest who were largely female. They were obviously excited & they stood circling the hanging beam like a pack of hungry hyenas
April & Beth both slipped a hand inside the waistbands of their skirts & began to massage their crotches through their white panties while continuing to rub their breasts & nipples inside their blouses.
The hangman slid the noose over Mary’s bonnet & head, took her hair out from under it, & loosely tightened the noose placing the heavy looped knot at the back of her neck. Her lips moved soundlessly. She started to shake as the minister came up to the ladder & began to recite the Lord’s prayer. She whispered to the hangman, “Please cover my face with my shawl”, which he did without a word. She leaned back against him, giving a momentary shudder as she felt his knees behind her back. With a gentle nudge the hangman turned Mary off the ladder. She tried to push her right foot behind the rung of the ladder, but the hangman expecting that, moved down fast & blocked her. The fall had not broken her neck. The hangman swiftly got off the ladder & moved it to the side, leaning it on a tree.
Mary screamed for a split second as she dropped a foot & started to swing back & forth & twist. Her shawl fell from her face & she dropped the bible as the agony of the noose took over. She tried not to move for a few seconds, fighting the rope her face grimacing in her effort to tense her neck muscles & resist the tightening noose but she couldn’t. Her moth opened in a gurgling scream. She started to grunt. Her mouth opened even wider, emitting guttural choking sounds. Mary’s body began to thrash as the pain of the noose got worse & worse. By now her legs were scissoring & jerking, kicking & stomping, more & more violently. The rope continued to slowly tighten around her stretching neck. She raised her bound hands, trying to grab & hold onto the noose, but to no avail. Her feet continued to twirl & flail as her breasts, jutting out under her black gown heaved as she fought for air. She pulled her knees up, lifting her dress above her waist, her wheezing drowned out the collective gasps of the spectators as they reacted to her acute agony & the exposure of her private parts.
Many of the women crowded around the contorting victim were by now obviously aroused & unconsciously imitating the undulations of Mary’s body. The doomed woman’s eyes were wide open, framed by her now dark purple face, her head pushed forward by the inexorable pressure of the rope. Drool dripped from her gaping mouth. Her whole body was shaking & convulsing, contortions rocked her torso, spasms quaked across her breasts & thighs. Her hands flopped down in front of her, fingers opening & clenching. Her gasping became fainter as her movements became more intense.
A quiet came over the crowd broken only by the creaking of the rope & the thumping of the beam against the supporting branches in the trees from the violence of her struggles. Her convulsions went on & on, the light in her eyes slowly faded as she spun back & forth in a half circle. Her movements slowly subsided until her body stopped squirming, but her feet continued to twitch for two more minutes. Thirteen minutes after she was turned off the ladder she was still, her body slowly swayed back & forth in the breeze. Her feet were now inches above the ground a consequence of her stretched neck. The watching women who had been aroused by the execution rocked back on their heels their eyes riveted on the dangling motionless female trying to resist the overwhelming urge to touch themselves. Mary’s unseeing red-veined eyes stared wide open nearly bulging out of their sockets, her recent agony very evident. She was left to hang for another thirty minutes before being cut down & removed for burial.
A minute after they stopped reading & started to caress each other April & Beth both came, their bodies shuddered & shook as they gasped & groaned in extreme pleasure & satisfaction. The very detailed & colourful description of the execution of Mary Blandy had so excited the girls that they experienced the most intense orgasms that they had had since their love making immediately after the hanging of Doctor Edwards
Once they had composed themselves April & Beth continued reading
Phoebe Harris
Murder was far from being the only capital crime in 18th Century England. “Coining” which was the term used at the time to describe currency counterfeiting was also punishable by death. In the late 1700’s the main site for executions in London moved from Tyburn to just outside the newly built Newgate prison & in 1786 Phoebe Harris, who had been been convicted of “Coining” & sentenced to death was led out of Newgate by two warders with her hands tied in front of her.
She was a shapely little woman of around 30 years of age. She appeared to be terrified & trembled greatly as she advanced towards the apparatus for her punishment which seemed to strike her mind with terror. Originally “Coining” was punished by being burnt alive at the stake however this had been mitigated by hanging the culprit until dead & then cremating the body. In front of Phoebe was a wooden stake which was about eleven feet in height & at the top of it was inserted a curved piece of iron from which dangled a noosed rope. The prisoner stood on a low stool in front of the stake & the executioner placed the noose around her neck. The prison chaplain prayed with the condemned woman for a few minutes & then the executioner kicked away the stool from under her leaving Phoebe suspended by the neck swinging & kicking the empty air for several minutes. Once all signs of life had disappeared timber was placed around the dangling body & set alight.
The next execution of a woman for “Coining” described was that of 28year old Christian Murphy on the 18th of March 1789.
Christian Murphy
She had been convicted along with her husband. He was one of eight men brought from Newgate soon after 8 am & put on the scaffold. After praying & singing a psalm, which was popularly known as the “The Prisoner’s Lamentation, possibly the 51st, the trap dropped. Once the hangman was satisfied that the men were dead there was a pause of several minutes before Christian was brought out & taken to the stake which was a few yards nearer the prison than the gallows.
She was described in contemporary accounts as being “Extremely comely in her white dress” & in a “State of extreme fright, having had to endure the wait while her husband & the other male malefactors had paid for their misdeeds on the scaffold”. Like Phoebe Harris three years previously she kicked the air for several minutes hanging from the stake before her body was reduced to ashes by burning wood.
Jane Scott
In 1828 21 year old Jane Scott was hanged in Lancaster Castle in the north west of England. The method of execution was certainly unusual as it involved “A hanging chair” which looked like a large child’s high chair fitted with restraining straps & castor wheels. Jane had been condemned for having murdered her mother by administering rat poison.
The girl was in such a state of terror that she was unable to walk to the gallows & had to be wheeled to the noose in the “Hanging chair”. There was a so called “Drop room” on the lower floor of the castle with a recess in the wall where specially invited spectators could look up & watch the prisoner as they were suspended by their necks & slowly strangled to death.
On the drop the noose was placed around Jane’s neck, the chair was withdrawn & she “Struggled against death for several minutes”. The chronicler of Jane Scott’s hanging also reported that several of the gentle women present amongst the spectators, it had to be said, behaved in an unseemly manner as they watched the condemned girl struggling on the rope. The angle of their view below gave them a clear sight up the doomed girl’s clothing & several of the watching ladies appeared to be “Uncommonly excercised ” by the experience.
Beth looked at April & said, “Wouldn’t it have been great to be in that spectator gallery in Lancaster Castle” April nodded & slipped her hand up Beth’s skirt who squirmed in response. They read on.
Mary Gallop
Again in the north west of England, 24 year old Mary Gallop had been condemned to death for the murder of her husband by poison in 1844 in Chester. It was reported in the Chester Chronicle that when the gallows platform fell it became quickly clear that the execution was a botched job. Instead of the rope breaking Mary’s neck the noose slowly & painfully strangled her to death. Her desperate struggles were all the more apparent because of the slackness with which her arms had been bound. Her agonised face shocked the onlookers. The Chronicle finished the report on the execution by stating in no uncertain terms, “ The heartless & bungling manner in which the executioner did his office on Mary Gallop in Chester on December 28th has excited universal disgust & it sincerely hoped that this spectacle will not be repeated in future executions & this particular hangman not used. He had proved to be a complete amateur”
Sarah Thomas
In the south west of England 1849 Bristol saw its last public hanging. Servant girl Sarah Thomas, 17, had been found guilty of killing her elderly employer Miss Elizabeth Jeffries by bludgeoning her to death in her own bed on the grounds that Miss Jeffries was a hard task master & she was fed up with her carping. As the judge read the death sentence Sarah burst into tears & repeatedly interrupted him with cries for mercy. Even after she had been removed to the cells her screams could be clearly heard for quite a time by those inside the court.
The people of Bristol raised an impressive petition to save Sarah suggesting that she was “Too simple to hang”. A local landowner wrote to the Times of London “Under the Authority of the Secretary of State for the Home Department this Friday, April 20th 1849, a young girl seventeen years of age is to be hanged in front of Bristol’s new jail. She will appear attended by a minister & the hangman, the Great Moral Teacher, who after fastening her arms, & putting a rope around her neck…. & if the neck of the wretched victim is not broken by the shock of the drop the miserable victim will slowly strangle to death”
These protestations proved futile & on the Friday morning Sarah was dragged sobbing & screaming to the gallows pleading for her life right up to the final moment. As described by the landowner the drop didn’t break Sarah’s neck & she did slowly strangle to death. So that the spectators could get a better view, her writhing struggling kicking body was hoisted up by the rope using a pulley which was fixed to the crossbeam. It took six minutes for her to die.
Perhaps because Sarah had been the same age as they were April & Beth found the description of her execution especially stimulating & it wasn’t long before they brought each other to the second of their climaxes of the evening
The next day to their delight the first copy of “True Crime Monthly” was delivered. After they had eaten they again lay on April’s bed & opened “A History of Women & the Death Penalty in Europe” which they had decided to finish before looking at the magazine
The final execution recorded that took their fancy was that of 32 year old Martha Brown in 1856 in Dorchester in the south west of England. She had been condemned for stabbing her drunken & allegedly violent husband to death with a kitchen knife.
Martha Brown
The gallows was erected outside the gates of Dorchester Prison the evening before, & was an impressive affair. A crowd of between three & four thousand people had gathered for what was by then quite a rare event, the public hanging of a woman. To add to the public interest Martha was very attractive & she looked younger than her 32 years. She had chosen a long, tight fitting thin black silk dress for her hanging. At the prison gates she was calm & composed & declined to be taken to the gallows in the prison van, even though it was raining. Instead she chose to walk from the prison to the scaffold.
She mounted the first flight of eleven steps, where the hangman William Calcraft, a forbidding figure in his black suit & bushy white beard, pinioned her arms in front of her before leading her up the next flight of nineteen steps, across a platform & on up the last six steps to the actual trap. Here Calcraft put a white hood over her head & the noose around her neck. The rain made the hood damp & it clung to Martha’s features. She stood there silent & unmoving waiting stoically for death. A witness recorded, “The crowd was silent as the culprit mounted the gallows. The rustle of the thin black gown the woman was wearing as she was led forth by the prison warders could clearly be heard. A penetrating rain was falling; the white cap was no soon over the prisoner’s head than it clung to her features, & the noose was put round the neck of what looked like a marble statue”
Calcraft was noted for his “Short drops” causing most of his victims to die a slow & agonising death. Poor Martha was to be no exception. The hangman went below & pulled the bolts releasing the trap. Martha dropped about a foot with a resounding thud & her body wheeled half round & back her dress billowing up exposing her black stockings as she kicked & struggled. The crowd could see her mouth gaping open under the rain soaked hood as she desperately tried to breathe. Her body convulsed under the tight black dress her chest heaving as she fought for air. Martha danced on the rope for about five minutes before her agony was over. Her body was left to hang for the regulation hour before being taken down & buried within the prison.
April & Beth wriggled on the bed, closed the book & opened their first copy of “True Crime Monthly”. They were very pleased to see that two articles in the magazine should be of special interest to them
Susanna Cox
The first recounted the case of Susanna Cox in 1807 who was tried & convicted of killing her new born baby & hiding the body. Susanna was a 24 year old woman working off an “Indenture” as a hose servant to the Jacob Martin family. The Martin farm was near the settlement of Friedensburg in the Pennsylvania county of Berks.
The Sheriff had no experience with executions so the county prosecutor hired a man from nearby Lancaster to oversee preparations & to perform the actual hanging. The hired executioner immediately set about building a gallows for his victim.
The gallows he built was a very simple affair. It consisted of two uprights about fifteen feet high topped by a stout crossbeam. It was said to look a large inverted “U”. It stood in what was called Penn’s Common which was a large grassy area about one hundred yards from the courthouse, in the basement of which Susanna languished .
On Tuesday June 9th Susanna had a visit from the Sheriff’s wife, Mrs Zahn, who had taken a liking to the girl. She had gotten some of her friends to make her a new dress. Susanna was grateful to the point of tears. The dress was in white cotton with little black bows sewn on the bodice & skirt. Along with the dress, the ladies had provided a muslin chemise & a new pair of dainty kidskin slippers.
The morning of June 11, 1807 broke crisp & clear. At 7am. Susanna was given a bucket of water to wash in & was able to make herself presentable. She carefully washed her hands & feet & put on her new dress.
She was visited by the local minister & Mrs Zahn with whom she talked & prayed, breaking down & sobbing continuously Finally the Sheriff’s wife fastened Susanna’s braid up on her head & covered her hair with a white muslin “Mobcap”. The girl’s curls framed her pretty face below the ruffles of the cap. She looked as pretty as a picture in her new dress. Mrs Zahn hugged Susanna as she took her leave.
At nine thirty the Sheriff, two deputies & the executioner came for her. The deputies took the trembling girl’s arms & led her out of the cell. They went out of the door of the courthouse in front of a crowd of three thousand who had turned up to watch the hanging. The spectators saw a small figure in white being led by two large men. She looked so small & helpless. The procession from the courthouse walked slowly along the hundred yard path to the gallows. As they neared the scaffold Susanna began to breathe rapidly, her eyes opened wide with terror.
The gallows stood as it had for the past week however today there was a thick rope ending in a large noose dangling from the centre of the high crosspiece. Under the noose was a small four wheeled cart & on the cart was a coffin. The girl would be made to stand on her own coffin & the cart would then be driven from beneath her feet. There was a stool to help the prisoner mount the cart
At the gallows Susanna fell to her knees & prayed for forgiveness. The minister joined her & helped her to her feet when she had finished praying. It was almost ten o’clock in the morning as thee deputies helped the girl onto the cart & then onto the lid of the coffin. The hangman bound Susanna’s hands behind her back. She was turned to face the courthouse. The crowd was silent, the only sound was the soft scuffling of the girl’s slippers on the smooth wood of the coffin. The Sheriff approached & looked up at the condemned girl, “Susanna Cox, you are ordered to be put to death by hanging. Do you have any last words?”. The girl slowly shook her head & whispered, “No”, in a cracked voice. She was weeping.
The executioner removed the white frill mobcap from Susanna’s head. He pulled the large noose over her head & adjusted it around her neck & then climbed down from the cart leaving the shaking girl alone & picked up a whip. The executioner then looked at the Sheriff waiting for the signal. The law officer nodded & the hangman cracked the whip which drove the carthorse forward
The cart & coffin lurched from beneath Susanna’s feet & she fought to keep her balance but very soon there was just air beneath her feet. The girl opened her mouth to scream, but the tightening rope reduced it to a gagging choking sound. She dropped just a short distance, making a soft thud as the rope arrested her fall.
The doomed girl began to thrash, buck & kickt. A moaning sound came from the crowd as they watched Susanna begin to hang. One of her slippers flew off, she pointed her toes in a futile effort to reach solid ground but there was none within reach. Her eyes were half closed & her tongue protruded from swollen lips. The unfortunate girl was fighting a losing battle for her life.
Her pretty face swelled & darkened as her deadly dance continued. Susanna’ consciousness began to fade as she writhed & twisted on the rope. There was only a rustle of cloth & the creak of the rope with an occasional soft gurgle coming from the hanging girl. The thrashing continued, weaker now, but the girl’s struggles continued. Finally after eight minutes the Sheriff & a deputy stepped forward & grabbed Susanna’s kicking legs & held on while they gently pulled. The effort tightened the noose enough to complete its deadly work. The hanging girl’s body stiffened & gave a last spasm & convulsive shudder. Finally she hung limp & lifeless on the rope
Beth said to her lover, “Wouldn’t it have been marvellous to have been the Sheriff & the Deputy pulling on her legs feeling her agony & looking up at her dying face”.
Mary Ann Cotton
Both girls faces were flushed & they started to caress each other as they moved onto the second article that interested them. This detailed the trial, conviction & execution of thirty two year old Mary Ann Cotton earlier that year.
Mary Ann had been condemned in Durham in the north east of England for poisoning twenty one people, many of them members of her own family, for the insurance money. The judge put on the black cap & handed down the death sentence “I have no compunction in sentencing you to death. You will be taken from this place & as soon as may conveniently be arranged, hanged by the neck until you are dead. May God have mercy on your soul. Amen!”. At those dreaded words, Mary Ann collapsed & was half carried out of the court & taken to Durham County Jail to await execution
On the 24th of March 1873 she was taken to the scaffold where William Calcraft the executioner awaited her. With the help of his assistant Calcraft pinioned her arms & legs & then put the hood over her head before stepping off the trap door that was about to open & plunge Mary Ann to her death. As soon as the signal was given the trap door swung open & she plunged into space, where she began to writhe at the end of the rope which was slowly choking her to death. She hung struggling for five agonising minutes until at last the final twitches ceased & she swung still dead on the gallows rope
April & Beth retired to bed as soon as they had finished reading the magazine & spent the next two hours making love discussing what they had learned between orgasms. Reliving the descriptions of the executions in the book & the magazine slowly but surely got them both aroused again. That night they both came three times
The following day April & Beth arrived at Doctor Harris’s consulting room for their next meeting with the psychiatrist. They had decided to be totally honest with the Doctor & during their session they described exactly the impact on them of reading “A History of Women & the Death Penalty in Europe” & “True Crime Monthly”.
Harris took copious notes as he listened. He probed them on why they thought they had found the descriptions of Mary Blandy & Susanna Thomas’s hangings especially exciting. The girls replied saying that it was the way that Mary’s execution had been described & the fact that Susanna had been the same age as they now were that had made them stand out. Harris then asked, “When you are fantasising about these executions do you picture yourselves as the victims, the spectators or even the executioners?”.
April & Beth looked at each other & thought for a minute before they replied. As ever it was April who spoke, “Spectators definitely Doctor”. The Doctor responded. “Interesting. Well thank you for being so honest girls. If it is alright with you I would like to see you both next week”. The girls agreed that that would be fine with them.
22: The Aftermath
When April & Beth are dropped off at their lodgings after the execution they head for the small kitchen & make themselves some tea. They have the house to themselves as their landlady is out. As they sit sipping from their cups Beth says to her friend, “I don’t know about you April but I am bushed I think I will go & lie down for a while”, April smiles conspiratorily at her & replies, “Why don’t we go & have a lie down together “. Beth smiles back & nods.
“They go to April’s room, lock the door behind them & lie down on the bed. As they discuss the hanging of Doctor Edwards & begin to relive the experience they feel their arousal returning. April reaches down & pulls Beth’s skirt up above her white panties & starts to massage her crotch through them. Beth returns the favour. As they rub each other’s pussies with one hand they play with their breasts with the other. As their excitement grows & the movement of their hands become more frantic they push the panties to one side & thrust their fingers into each other. After five minutes they both come more intensely than they have ever experienced before. Over the next two hours they bring each other to two more beautifully satisfying orgasms. As they lie in each other’s arms after their third climaxes Beth whispers to her friend, “Wow April that was the best feeling I have ever had in my life. Where did that come from?” . April replies, “I don’t know Beth but we must ensure we can reach that level of pleasure again when we want to”. “Damn right”, her friend & lover replied.
Over the next few days Doctor Harris visited the two recovering girls in hospital & had a meeting in his office with the two other Refuge girls who had been at the execution. At the end of his consultations with the four girls he assured them that they were indeed fine & would soon be able to put their recent experiences behind them & get on with their lives. He had purposely left seeing April & Beth to last because he wanted to give his assistant Cheryl Barnes time to type a transcript of Jane Edwards notebook & prepare three copies of the document. Cheryl was a good looking twenty four year old blonde woman. She had gravitated towards working for Doctor Harris because she found the crimes committed by the most depraved killers, their motivations & punishments fascinating & highly stimulating. She had been very disappointed that she wasn’t allowed to attend Doctor Edwards hanging. As she read & typed up Jane’s memoir the feelings it generated in her were more much more intense than anything she had experienced before
April & Beth arrived at Doctor Harris’s office & were shown into his consulting room by Miss Barnes. Harris welcomed them warmly & asked how they were . The girl’s confirmed they were fine. The Doctor looked at them & asked, “What sensations did you experience as you watched Doctor Edwards hang on the scaffold”, April & Beth looked at their hands their faces flushed with embarrassment
Harris chuckled gently “Girls you can be totally honest with me. I am after all a Doctor & my only concern is for your welfare”. April looked up & said defensively, “I found it exciting”. The Doctor nodded & looked at her friend, “Beth?”. Beth lifted her head & said, “So did I”. Harris continued, “Do you mean sexually exciting?”.
Unable to bring themselves to say it April & Beth nod their heads. "Well girls there is nothing to be ashamed of many people seem to find the sight of someone being executed to be sexually stimulating. It in no way makes them bad or somehow weird. We don’t know why this happens & we need to understand it better to try & work out what we can do to prevent future Jane & Josiah Edwards going on another murderous rampage..
Beth looks horrified, “You mean we might turn into murderers too?”. Good God No!” Harris replied. “Think about it this way”. All criminal behaviour is a result of natural wants & desires being taken too far. Robbery rape & even murder due to jealousy all come from wanting things we can’t have for one reason or another. What I am trying to better understand is what makes 1% of the population take things to these extremes while the remaining 99% of us are perfectly capable of living their lives without resorting to criminal behaviour”.
“He reached into his drawer & pulled out the three transcripts of Jane Edwards notebook. He handed copies to the two girls & said. “I would like you to read this & tell me what you think. If you feel at any point it is too graphic or disturbing just stop reading & give it back to me. April asked “What is it Doctor?”
Harris’s face became expressionless “Doctor Edwards wrote this during the last three weeks of her life”. On hearing this April & Beth both gave small gasps & their eyes opened wide. For the next forty five minutes the silence in the room is broken only by the rustling of paper as April & Beth turn the transcript pages as they read
Harris watched the girls closely as they worked their way through the transcript. He noted their at times flushed faces, the way they squirmed slightly in their seats, the frequency which they crossed & uncrossed their legs & when their hands involuntarily touched their necks. When they were finished the girls each sat back in their chairs & took a deep breath
Harris asked, “Well girls what do you think?”
April is the first to speak, “Doctor it is the most horrible & disgusting thing I have ever read & I love the “Penny Dreadfulls”, however once you start you can’t put it down.” Beth chimes in “I agree with April. I suppose it is especially interesting to us because we are actually in the story & it explains why Josiah & Jane did what they did”
Doctor Harris gathers in the transcripts & stands up, “Thank you for your honesty girls. I would like to continue our discussions. Same time next week?” April & Beth nod & Harris shows them out of the room
23: April & Beth do Some Research
As soon as they arrive back home April & Beth go straight to bed, still incredibly turned on by what they read in the transcript. They jump on the bed, pull their skirts up & bury their faces in each other’s groins. It doesn’t take long until their frantically licking tongues bring them to orgasm. They continue to make love for another hour before they lie spent on the bed.
The next day they took out a subscription to “True Crime Monthly” & joined one of the largest libraries in New York. The first book they borrowed from the Library had been very recently published & was titled “A History of Women & the Death Penalty in Europe”. That evening they lay together on April’s bed avidly reading.
The first execution they found especially interesting was that of Margaret Davy in England in 1531
Margaret Davy.
Margaret was a 21 year old poisoner, a crime which Henry VIII considered to be “So odious”, that he decreed that poisoning should be regarded as form of high treason rather than just murder. Accordingly he “Inflicted a more grievous & lingering death than the common law prescribed. The offender should be boiled to death in hot water. In order to prolong the agony it was specified that the murderess was “First to be put in at the tiptoes & then immersed “By little & little” Margaret’s death was described by a witness as being “Peculiarly horrible”. A writer at the time recorded that this penalty “Was too severe to live long” & it inspired such revulsion that it was abolished in in the reign of Henry’s son Edward & the sentence of death by hanging was reinstated for murder by poison
The next execution that took the girls attention was that of 16 year old Beatrice Cenci in Italy in 1599. The portrait of Beatrice reproduced in the book was very striking. It depicted a stunningly beautiful girl with perfect features & almost alabaster skin framed by long lustrous centrally parted black hair
Beatrice Cenci
Beatrice with the help of her stepmother Lucrezia & her brother Giacomo, arranged the murder of her father, the cruel & sadistic Count Cenci, who persecuted Beatrice & had almost certainly raped her. The tragic story of the beautiful young parricide had been subject of a play written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819.
At 8am on September 11th 1599 the prisoners left the prison wearing knee length white shifts , accompanied by the Company of Misericordia bearing a great crucifix, & made their way to the Piazza. They walked past the scaffold with it’s block & Mannaia [Meaning an axe & possibly a mechanism resembling a guillotine] & entered the chapel next to the Piazza. Giacomo, Lucrezia & Beatrice knelt in prayer at the chapel altar.
Giacomo was the first to be taken out, he gibbered & cried as he was dragged to the scaffold. Lucrezia & Beatrice shut their eyes & tried to close out the sounds coming from the Piazza outside. There was a loud thud & Giacomo’s pleading abruptly stopped & the watching crowd roared it’s approval.
Lucrezia was next. Initially she was composed but when she saw Giacomo’s head exposed on a pike she started to struggle & scream. Again Beatrice shut her eyes & tried to block out the screams of her terrified stepmother. There was one last piercing screech followed by another heavy thump & again the spectators gave an appreciative cheer.
The machine was rearranged, the blood washed off & the executioner returned to the chapel to fetch Beatrice. The condemned girl got to her feet & left the chapel. She mounted the scaffold & as she had already been instructed what to do she stretched herself upon the plank, adjusting her head as quickly as possible upon the block. Despite the care Beatrice had taken to avoid the agony of delay she was obliged to endure it. The Pope had ordered that upon Beatrice’s appearance upon the scaffold, a cannon should be fired, which was done to the great wonder of the people & of the culprit who raised her head up from the block. The Archbishop then came forward & gave her plenary absolution in Articulo Mortis. Then after an interval of five minutes, during which Beatrice awaited the death stroke trembling with her head on the block the executioner touched the spring & the blade fell
The section in the early chapters of the book that stimulated April & Beth most was entitled “English Executions in the 17th & 18th Centuries”. The book described the significance of Tyburn, where stood “The Triple Tree”, so called because of its three crossbeams joined together in a triangle , in the history of capital punishment in England. Tyburn was established in the mid 17th Century as the main site for executions in London. At first prisoners were hanged off ladders. The first execution at Tyburn described was that of Mary Moders on January 2nd 1673. The author had updated the contemporary description of the hanging to make it easier for a modern readership to understand.
Mary Moders
Mary had been a star of the London stage, she was also an adroit confidence trickster & highly paid prostitute. She was thirty years old, & still very attractive, when she was convicted of murdering a wealthy client who had refused to pay her for her services. She was taken to Tyburn in a cart accompanied by the hangman wearing her best blue dress. The hangman pulled the cart up next to the gallows. The ladder was already in place propped against the high crossbeam. By now Mary was shivering with terror. The executioner & his assistant took her down from the cart & positioned her with her back to the ladder. They pulled the noose down from the beam & put it round her neck & tied her hands in front of her. Mary refused to mount the ladder. The hangman climbed the ladder first & used the noose to tug the condemned woman up it. Then he repeated the process. As they neared the crossbeam he climbed off the ladder & onto the beam while continuing his steady pull on the rope.
Finally Mary’s head was near the crossbeam & the executioner could proceed. He tied off the rope to the beam. Mary was weeping piteously as the hangman pulled a white cloth sack from his pocket & slid it over her head. The hood in place the executioner slid off the crossbeam, hung briefly by his hands & dropped the remaining four feet to the ground. Mary moaned in fright. The crowd circling the gallows strained for a better view.
The hangman kicked the ladder away & Mary was left swinging by her neck. Her last sound was a croak as her windpipe was sealed by her weight. Her body snapped around, her bound hands flew up to her neck trying to relieve the pressure on her throat. She swung back & forth like a pendulum spinning. Her neck stretched to an unnatural degree as her entire body weight pulled on it.
The crowd could see her feet stretching downwards, quivering, trying to find something to stand on to relieve the pain of the rope. She swayed for a few seconds, rigid & then her chest heaved again & again more rapidly as her air ran out. It got her nowhere, the only sound was the rope creaking against the wood. Mary’s jerking speeded up & her entire body began to violently shiver & convulse, thrusting about helplessly on the rope. Her legs were slicing back & forth at a frantic rate.
The crowd was silent as the spectators watched Mary’s death agony. The only sound was the ruffling of her dress & elaborate undergarments as her legs sent them flying. A minute or two of this & both Mary’s legs snapped up violently to her chin. The crowd gasped at the view this gave them. Mary’s underwear was limited to stays, ruffles & a slip, all which were now lifted. Her legs came down in a mighty thrust that carried them backwards & she began kicking even more violently. Mary’s whole body was shaking & convulsing. Five minutes of horrendous struggle passed before the victim’s movements began to slow, Mary’s chest heaved for one last time & then she hung still, her body turning slightly as it swung on the rope.
April shut the book & looked at Beth. As they began to make love they pictured in their minds the terror & pain of Margaret Davy being slowly lowered into boiling water in Tudor England, Beatrice Cenci shivering in fear, her head on the block, waiting to be beheaded in medieval Florence & Mary Moders slowly strangling to death on the Tyburn Gallows
The next evening they again start reading from where they left off
Mary Adams
The, by all accounts, beautiful pickpocket Mary Adams was taken to Tyburn on June 16 1702. Mary was in her mid-twenties at the time of her death & was composed as she arrived at the gallows. She smoothed out the wrinkles in her new black dress, bought for her by an admirer before the hangman came forward to place the noose about her lovely neck.
Cart Hangings
Starting in the late 17th century, & thus overlapping with the ladder method, the authorities began to use a horse drawn cart to hang condemned prisoners from. In this process the hangman simply had the victim stand, usually facing forward, often looking at a clergyman reading the rites for the dead. Facing forward ensured that the noose would not slip around to the front of the neck when the cart departed. The rope was fastened to the beam by an assistant straddling it & the hangman led the horses forward pulling the cart away. The noose tightened & dragged the victim of the cart. The prisoners were slowly dragged off the cart since the horse pulling it didn’t make a “Jackrabbit start”
Sarah Malcolm
This was the method used to hang 22 year old Sarah Malcolm at the scene of the murder in Fetter Lane London that she had committed in 1733. The account at the time said “She struggled mightily on the rope before expiring”
Jenny Diver
In 1741 the notorious “Cut purse”, or pickpocket, 26 year old Jenny Diver was taken to Tyburn. Jenny being quite wealthy as a result of her criminal exploits had invested in a new black dress & veil for her trip to the gallows. Before they left the prison the “Yeoman of the Halter” tied her wrists in front of her, put a cord around her body & elbows, & a noose around her neck winding the rest of the rope around her body. At this point Jenny’s nerve had failed her & she had started to sob however she managed to recover her composure.
The other 19 criminals, 16 men & 3 women, sentenced to hang that day were similarly treated before they were led to the three execution carts & seated on their coffins. Jenny was allowed to go to Tyburn in a mourning couch, attended by the prison chaplain the Reverend Boughton. A mourning coach was the 18th Century equivalent of a funeral carriage. It was a black horse drawn enclosed coach & the horses too were decked out in black cloth. The journey to Tyburn, some two miles, could often take three hours or more to complete, which was a long time for the prisoner to contemplate her fate.
Once at Tyburn Jenny was helped down from the coach by the chaplain & took her place in one of the three waiting carts with the three other condemned women. The hangman uncoiled the free rope from around her & threw the end up to one of his young assistants lying on top of one of the three crossbeams, who secured it leaving very little slack. This had to be repeated for each prisoner so the whole process took some time to complete. When all of the “Sufferers”, as they were known at the time, were secured to the beams & had finished their prayers, night caps were drawn over their faces. Jenny did not require a night cap, instead preferring her veil. The signal was given by the Under Sheriff for the cats to be whipped away by their drivers.
As the cart moved from under her Jenny dropped just a few inches & was brought up with a jerk, causing the noose to tighten round her neck. Swinging back & forth under the beam she made choking & gurgling sounds, her feet paddling in thin air & her body writhing in the agonies of strangulation. Jenny struggled for several minutes before she finally hung dead on the gallows.
Mary Blandy
In 1752 in Oxford 24 year old Mary Blandy was convicted of poisoning her father with arsenic, apparently at the instigation of her lover so that they could get their hands on his estate. The lover escaped to France leaving Mary to her fate.
She begged for mercy but sentence of death was passed & she was given six weeks to prepare herself. Some saw her as a monster who deserved death & regretted burning alive was no longer practiced, as that had in earlier times been the standard punishment of women found guilty of capital crimes. The authorities had then thought hanging too lewd an ending; that men, & some women too, were aroused at the sight of a woman jerking at the end of a rope & the really agonised protracted death suffered by female criminals who were burnt at the stake was a far more powerful deterrent
Six weeks later Mary walked out of Oxford jail at 9 o’clock in the morning. She was dressed in a black bombazine dress, black bonnet & shawl. Her hands were bound in front with black ribands & she carried a bible. She was accompanied by her lawyer, a minister & the Under Sheriff. Upon approaching the beam, which had been placed between the branches of two trees, & its dangling noose, her face went ashen. The masked executioner was waiting for her by a ladder covered in black cloth that rested on the beam. Mary walked calmly to the ladder.
Two well dressed women in their mid-twenties were whispering together in the crowd “She does look so petite, doesn’t she. And such a villainess too?”. “Very slender for that heavy rope. I am afraid that the poor dear has a long ordeal ahead of her”. The two women flushed, imagining the scene they would soon see. With some pushing & shoving they moved to the front row of the crowd looking disdainfully at anyone who dared complain
April giggled & said to Beth “That would have been us Beth”. The two girls began to gently rub their breasts through their blouses as they continued to read.
Mary looked up at the noose & begged the hangman to lower it “For the sake of decency”. He nodded & climbed the ladder, undid the rope around the beam & dropped the noose to a height of seven feet above the ground, retied its end to the beam, tugged on it, pulled at it again making it secure. The executioner descended the ladder & taking Mary by her shoulders led her up five rungs. She shook, fearing she may fall, as he tried to take her up higher. Realizing that was enough he stopped & steadied her. Her hands still held the bible, her lips muttering prayers. Her eyes now terrified were looking round the crowd for a friendly face – there were none. She paused to gaze at those closest who were largely female. They were obviously excited & they stood circling the hanging beam like a pack of hungry hyenas
April & Beth both slipped a hand inside the waistbands of their skirts & began to massage their crotches through their white panties while continuing to rub their breasts & nipples inside their blouses.
The hangman slid the noose over Mary’s bonnet & head, took her hair out from under it, & loosely tightened the noose placing the heavy looped knot at the back of her neck. Her lips moved soundlessly. She started to shake as the minister came up to the ladder & began to recite the Lord’s prayer. She whispered to the hangman, “Please cover my face with my shawl”, which he did without a word. She leaned back against him, giving a momentary shudder as she felt his knees behind her back. With a gentle nudge the hangman turned Mary off the ladder. She tried to push her right foot behind the rung of the ladder, but the hangman expecting that, moved down fast & blocked her. The fall had not broken her neck. The hangman swiftly got off the ladder & moved it to the side, leaning it on a tree.
Mary screamed for a split second as she dropped a foot & started to swing back & forth & twist. Her shawl fell from her face & she dropped the bible as the agony of the noose took over. She tried not to move for a few seconds, fighting the rope her face grimacing in her effort to tense her neck muscles & resist the tightening noose but she couldn’t. Her moth opened in a gurgling scream. She started to grunt. Her mouth opened even wider, emitting guttural choking sounds. Mary’s body began to thrash as the pain of the noose got worse & worse. By now her legs were scissoring & jerking, kicking & stomping, more & more violently. The rope continued to slowly tighten around her stretching neck. She raised her bound hands, trying to grab & hold onto the noose, but to no avail. Her feet continued to twirl & flail as her breasts, jutting out under her black gown heaved as she fought for air. She pulled her knees up, lifting her dress above her waist, her wheezing drowned out the collective gasps of the spectators as they reacted to her acute agony & the exposure of her private parts.
Many of the women crowded around the contorting victim were by now obviously aroused & unconsciously imitating the undulations of Mary’s body. The doomed woman’s eyes were wide open, framed by her now dark purple face, her head pushed forward by the inexorable pressure of the rope. Drool dripped from her gaping mouth. Her whole body was shaking & convulsing, contortions rocked her torso, spasms quaked across her breasts & thighs. Her hands flopped down in front of her, fingers opening & clenching. Her gasping became fainter as her movements became more intense.
A quiet came over the crowd broken only by the creaking of the rope & the thumping of the beam against the supporting branches in the trees from the violence of her struggles. Her convulsions went on & on, the light in her eyes slowly faded as she spun back & forth in a half circle. Her movements slowly subsided until her body stopped squirming, but her feet continued to twitch for two more minutes. Thirteen minutes after she was turned off the ladder she was still, her body slowly swayed back & forth in the breeze. Her feet were now inches above the ground a consequence of her stretched neck. The watching women who had been aroused by the execution rocked back on their heels their eyes riveted on the dangling motionless female trying to resist the overwhelming urge to touch themselves. Mary’s unseeing red-veined eyes stared wide open nearly bulging out of their sockets, her recent agony very evident. She was left to hang for another thirty minutes before being cut down & removed for burial.
A minute after they stopped reading & started to caress each other April & Beth both came, their bodies shuddered & shook as they gasped & groaned in extreme pleasure & satisfaction. The very detailed & colourful description of the execution of Mary Blandy had so excited the girls that they experienced the most intense orgasms that they had had since their love making immediately after the hanging of Doctor Edwards
Once they had composed themselves April & Beth continued reading
Phoebe Harris
Murder was far from being the only capital crime in 18th Century England. “Coining” which was the term used at the time to describe currency counterfeiting was also punishable by death. In the late 1700’s the main site for executions in London moved from Tyburn to just outside the newly built Newgate prison & in 1786 Phoebe Harris, who had been been convicted of “Coining” & sentenced to death was led out of Newgate by two warders with her hands tied in front of her.
She was a shapely little woman of around 30 years of age. She appeared to be terrified & trembled greatly as she advanced towards the apparatus for her punishment which seemed to strike her mind with terror. Originally “Coining” was punished by being burnt alive at the stake however this had been mitigated by hanging the culprit until dead & then cremating the body. In front of Phoebe was a wooden stake which was about eleven feet in height & at the top of it was inserted a curved piece of iron from which dangled a noosed rope. The prisoner stood on a low stool in front of the stake & the executioner placed the noose around her neck. The prison chaplain prayed with the condemned woman for a few minutes & then the executioner kicked away the stool from under her leaving Phoebe suspended by the neck swinging & kicking the empty air for several minutes. Once all signs of life had disappeared timber was placed around the dangling body & set alight.
The next execution of a woman for “Coining” described was that of 28year old Christian Murphy on the 18th of March 1789.
Christian Murphy
She had been convicted along with her husband. He was one of eight men brought from Newgate soon after 8 am & put on the scaffold. After praying & singing a psalm, which was popularly known as the “The Prisoner’s Lamentation, possibly the 51st, the trap dropped. Once the hangman was satisfied that the men were dead there was a pause of several minutes before Christian was brought out & taken to the stake which was a few yards nearer the prison than the gallows.
She was described in contemporary accounts as being “Extremely comely in her white dress” & in a “State of extreme fright, having had to endure the wait while her husband & the other male malefactors had paid for their misdeeds on the scaffold”. Like Phoebe Harris three years previously she kicked the air for several minutes hanging from the stake before her body was reduced to ashes by burning wood.
Jane Scott
In 1828 21 year old Jane Scott was hanged in Lancaster Castle in the north west of England. The method of execution was certainly unusual as it involved “A hanging chair” which looked like a large child’s high chair fitted with restraining straps & castor wheels. Jane had been condemned for having murdered her mother by administering rat poison.
The girl was in such a state of terror that she was unable to walk to the gallows & had to be wheeled to the noose in the “Hanging chair”. There was a so called “Drop room” on the lower floor of the castle with a recess in the wall where specially invited spectators could look up & watch the prisoner as they were suspended by their necks & slowly strangled to death.
On the drop the noose was placed around Jane’s neck, the chair was withdrawn & she “Struggled against death for several minutes”. The chronicler of Jane Scott’s hanging also reported that several of the gentle women present amongst the spectators, it had to be said, behaved in an unseemly manner as they watched the condemned girl struggling on the rope. The angle of their view below gave them a clear sight up the doomed girl’s clothing & several of the watching ladies appeared to be “Uncommonly excercised ” by the experience.
Beth looked at April & said, “Wouldn’t it have been great to be in that spectator gallery in Lancaster Castle” April nodded & slipped her hand up Beth’s skirt who squirmed in response. They read on.
Mary Gallop
Again in the north west of England, 24 year old Mary Gallop had been condemned to death for the murder of her husband by poison in 1844 in Chester. It was reported in the Chester Chronicle that when the gallows platform fell it became quickly clear that the execution was a botched job. Instead of the rope breaking Mary’s neck the noose slowly & painfully strangled her to death. Her desperate struggles were all the more apparent because of the slackness with which her arms had been bound. Her agonised face shocked the onlookers. The Chronicle finished the report on the execution by stating in no uncertain terms, “ The heartless & bungling manner in which the executioner did his office on Mary Gallop in Chester on December 28th has excited universal disgust & it sincerely hoped that this spectacle will not be repeated in future executions & this particular hangman not used. He had proved to be a complete amateur”
Sarah Thomas
In the south west of England 1849 Bristol saw its last public hanging. Servant girl Sarah Thomas, 17, had been found guilty of killing her elderly employer Miss Elizabeth Jeffries by bludgeoning her to death in her own bed on the grounds that Miss Jeffries was a hard task master & she was fed up with her carping. As the judge read the death sentence Sarah burst into tears & repeatedly interrupted him with cries for mercy. Even after she had been removed to the cells her screams could be clearly heard for quite a time by those inside the court.
The people of Bristol raised an impressive petition to save Sarah suggesting that she was “Too simple to hang”. A local landowner wrote to the Times of London “Under the Authority of the Secretary of State for the Home Department this Friday, April 20th 1849, a young girl seventeen years of age is to be hanged in front of Bristol’s new jail. She will appear attended by a minister & the hangman, the Great Moral Teacher, who after fastening her arms, & putting a rope around her neck…. & if the neck of the wretched victim is not broken by the shock of the drop the miserable victim will slowly strangle to death”
These protestations proved futile & on the Friday morning Sarah was dragged sobbing & screaming to the gallows pleading for her life right up to the final moment. As described by the landowner the drop didn’t break Sarah’s neck & she did slowly strangle to death. So that the spectators could get a better view, her writhing struggling kicking body was hoisted up by the rope using a pulley which was fixed to the crossbeam. It took six minutes for her to die.
Perhaps because Sarah had been the same age as they were April & Beth found the description of her execution especially stimulating & it wasn’t long before they brought each other to the second of their climaxes of the evening
The next day to their delight the first copy of “True Crime Monthly” was delivered. After they had eaten they again lay on April’s bed & opened “A History of Women & the Death Penalty in Europe” which they had decided to finish before looking at the magazine
The final execution recorded that took their fancy was that of 32 year old Martha Brown in 1856 in Dorchester in the south west of England. She had been condemned for stabbing her drunken & allegedly violent husband to death with a kitchen knife.
Martha Brown
The gallows was erected outside the gates of Dorchester Prison the evening before, & was an impressive affair. A crowd of between three & four thousand people had gathered for what was by then quite a rare event, the public hanging of a woman. To add to the public interest Martha was very attractive & she looked younger than her 32 years. She had chosen a long, tight fitting thin black silk dress for her hanging. At the prison gates she was calm & composed & declined to be taken to the gallows in the prison van, even though it was raining. Instead she chose to walk from the prison to the scaffold.
She mounted the first flight of eleven steps, where the hangman William Calcraft, a forbidding figure in his black suit & bushy white beard, pinioned her arms in front of her before leading her up the next flight of nineteen steps, across a platform & on up the last six steps to the actual trap. Here Calcraft put a white hood over her head & the noose around her neck. The rain made the hood damp & it clung to Martha’s features. She stood there silent & unmoving waiting stoically for death. A witness recorded, “The crowd was silent as the culprit mounted the gallows. The rustle of the thin black gown the woman was wearing as she was led forth by the prison warders could clearly be heard. A penetrating rain was falling; the white cap was no soon over the prisoner’s head than it clung to her features, & the noose was put round the neck of what looked like a marble statue”
Calcraft was noted for his “Short drops” causing most of his victims to die a slow & agonising death. Poor Martha was to be no exception. The hangman went below & pulled the bolts releasing the trap. Martha dropped about a foot with a resounding thud & her body wheeled half round & back her dress billowing up exposing her black stockings as she kicked & struggled. The crowd could see her mouth gaping open under the rain soaked hood as she desperately tried to breathe. Her body convulsed under the tight black dress her chest heaving as she fought for air. Martha danced on the rope for about five minutes before her agony was over. Her body was left to hang for the regulation hour before being taken down & buried within the prison.
April & Beth wriggled on the bed, closed the book & opened their first copy of “True Crime Monthly”. They were very pleased to see that two articles in the magazine should be of special interest to them
Susanna Cox
The first recounted the case of Susanna Cox in 1807 who was tried & convicted of killing her new born baby & hiding the body. Susanna was a 24 year old woman working off an “Indenture” as a hose servant to the Jacob Martin family. The Martin farm was near the settlement of Friedensburg in the Pennsylvania county of Berks.
The Sheriff had no experience with executions so the county prosecutor hired a man from nearby Lancaster to oversee preparations & to perform the actual hanging. The hired executioner immediately set about building a gallows for his victim.
The gallows he built was a very simple affair. It consisted of two uprights about fifteen feet high topped by a stout crossbeam. It was said to look a large inverted “U”. It stood in what was called Penn’s Common which was a large grassy area about one hundred yards from the courthouse, in the basement of which Susanna languished .
On Tuesday June 9th Susanna had a visit from the Sheriff’s wife, Mrs Zahn, who had taken a liking to the girl. She had gotten some of her friends to make her a new dress. Susanna was grateful to the point of tears. The dress was in white cotton with little black bows sewn on the bodice & skirt. Along with the dress, the ladies had provided a muslin chemise & a new pair of dainty kidskin slippers.
The morning of June 11, 1807 broke crisp & clear. At 7am. Susanna was given a bucket of water to wash in & was able to make herself presentable. She carefully washed her hands & feet & put on her new dress.
She was visited by the local minister & Mrs Zahn with whom she talked & prayed, breaking down & sobbing continuously Finally the Sheriff’s wife fastened Susanna’s braid up on her head & covered her hair with a white muslin “Mobcap”. The girl’s curls framed her pretty face below the ruffles of the cap. She looked as pretty as a picture in her new dress. Mrs Zahn hugged Susanna as she took her leave.
At nine thirty the Sheriff, two deputies & the executioner came for her. The deputies took the trembling girl’s arms & led her out of the cell. They went out of the door of the courthouse in front of a crowd of three thousand who had turned up to watch the hanging. The spectators saw a small figure in white being led by two large men. She looked so small & helpless. The procession from the courthouse walked slowly along the hundred yard path to the gallows. As they neared the scaffold Susanna began to breathe rapidly, her eyes opened wide with terror.
The gallows stood as it had for the past week however today there was a thick rope ending in a large noose dangling from the centre of the high crosspiece. Under the noose was a small four wheeled cart & on the cart was a coffin. The girl would be made to stand on her own coffin & the cart would then be driven from beneath her feet. There was a stool to help the prisoner mount the cart
At the gallows Susanna fell to her knees & prayed for forgiveness. The minister joined her & helped her to her feet when she had finished praying. It was almost ten o’clock in the morning as thee deputies helped the girl onto the cart & then onto the lid of the coffin. The hangman bound Susanna’s hands behind her back. She was turned to face the courthouse. The crowd was silent, the only sound was the soft scuffling of the girl’s slippers on the smooth wood of the coffin. The Sheriff approached & looked up at the condemned girl, “Susanna Cox, you are ordered to be put to death by hanging. Do you have any last words?”. The girl slowly shook her head & whispered, “No”, in a cracked voice. She was weeping.
The executioner removed the white frill mobcap from Susanna’s head. He pulled the large noose over her head & adjusted it around her neck & then climbed down from the cart leaving the shaking girl alone & picked up a whip. The executioner then looked at the Sheriff waiting for the signal. The law officer nodded & the hangman cracked the whip which drove the carthorse forward
The cart & coffin lurched from beneath Susanna’s feet & she fought to keep her balance but very soon there was just air beneath her feet. The girl opened her mouth to scream, but the tightening rope reduced it to a gagging choking sound. She dropped just a short distance, making a soft thud as the rope arrested her fall.
The doomed girl began to thrash, buck & kickt. A moaning sound came from the crowd as they watched Susanna begin to hang. One of her slippers flew off, she pointed her toes in a futile effort to reach solid ground but there was none within reach. Her eyes were half closed & her tongue protruded from swollen lips. The unfortunate girl was fighting a losing battle for her life.
Her pretty face swelled & darkened as her deadly dance continued. Susanna’ consciousness began to fade as she writhed & twisted on the rope. There was only a rustle of cloth & the creak of the rope with an occasional soft gurgle coming from the hanging girl. The thrashing continued, weaker now, but the girl’s struggles continued. Finally after eight minutes the Sheriff & a deputy stepped forward & grabbed Susanna’s kicking legs & held on while they gently pulled. The effort tightened the noose enough to complete its deadly work. The hanging girl’s body stiffened & gave a last spasm & convulsive shudder. Finally she hung limp & lifeless on the rope
Beth said to her lover, “Wouldn’t it have been marvellous to have been the Sheriff & the Deputy pulling on her legs feeling her agony & looking up at her dying face”.
Mary Ann Cotton
Both girls faces were flushed & they started to caress each other as they moved onto the second article that interested them. This detailed the trial, conviction & execution of thirty two year old Mary Ann Cotton earlier that year.
Mary Ann had been condemned in Durham in the north east of England for poisoning twenty one people, many of them members of her own family, for the insurance money. The judge put on the black cap & handed down the death sentence “I have no compunction in sentencing you to death. You will be taken from this place & as soon as may conveniently be arranged, hanged by the neck until you are dead. May God have mercy on your soul. Amen!”. At those dreaded words, Mary Ann collapsed & was half carried out of the court & taken to Durham County Jail to await execution
On the 24th of March 1873 she was taken to the scaffold where William Calcraft the executioner awaited her. With the help of his assistant Calcraft pinioned her arms & legs & then put the hood over her head before stepping off the trap door that was about to open & plunge Mary Ann to her death. As soon as the signal was given the trap door swung open & she plunged into space, where she began to writhe at the end of the rope which was slowly choking her to death. She hung struggling for five agonising minutes until at last the final twitches ceased & she swung still dead on the gallows rope
April & Beth retired to bed as soon as they had finished reading the magazine & spent the next two hours making love discussing what they had learned between orgasms. Reliving the descriptions of the executions in the book & the magazine slowly but surely got them both aroused again. That night they both came three times
The following day April & Beth arrived at Doctor Harris’s consulting room for their next meeting with the psychiatrist. They had decided to be totally honest with the Doctor & during their session they described exactly the impact on them of reading “A History of Women & the Death Penalty in Europe” & “True Crime Monthly”.
Harris took copious notes as he listened. He probed them on why they thought they had found the descriptions of Mary Blandy & Susanna Thomas’s hangings especially exciting. The girls replied saying that it was the way that Mary’s execution had been described & the fact that Susanna had been the same age as they now were that had made them stand out. Harris then asked, “When you are fantasising about these executions do you picture yourselves as the victims, the spectators or even the executioners?”.
April & Beth looked at each other & thought for a minute before they replied. As ever it was April who spoke, “Spectators definitely Doctor”. The Doctor responded. “Interesting. Well thank you for being so honest girls. If it is alright with you I would like to see you both next week”. The girls agreed that that would be fine with them.
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