20: The Arrest

The next day Josiah’s carriage, with Clare in it, headed for the Edwards’s house followed by two carriages carrying the police & the Pinkerton’s. Mr Edwards took no notice of the horse & rider that passed them on the road. This was another Pinkerton on his way to alert O’Hanlon, O’Rourke, four other police officers & Harris waiting in a larger clearly marked police carriage hidden in the trees just beyond the entrance to the Edwards’s house for the third time in as many weeks.

When Josiah & Clare’s carriage turned into the entrance leading to the Edwards’s house the two carriages following stopped & waited for O’Hanlon’s vehicle & the Pinkerton rider to join them.

As soon as Josiah & Clare had dismounted from the carriage & disappeared into the house the Captain nodded at the rider. He galloped up the Edwards’s driveway jumped off his horse & ran to the door. He banged on it hard & shouted at the top of his voice, “Police, open up!”. The police & Pinkerton’s carriages quickly joined him. O’Hanlon directed two of his officers to the back of the building

Inside the house Jane & Clare were engaged in a desperate struggle. The Pinkerton agent, who was in a very high state of alert, had ducked & managed to avoid Mr Edwards effort to chloroform her from behind.

Clare was highly trained in unarmed combat & she used Josiah’s lunge & weight against him & flipped him forwards over her shoulder. He landed on his back & was slightly winded. The agent immediately lifted her skirt & retrieved a small calibre Derringer pistol from her stocking top. Before she could bring it to bear Jane attacked her like a tigress bringing down it’s prey.

Outside O’Hanlon & his men could hear the sounds of the struggle & O’Rourke took out his gun & blew out the door lock. The police & the Pinkerton’s rushed in & quickly pulled the struggling & yelling Jane off of Clare.

By this time Josiah was back on his feet & he turned & ran. He headed for the kitchen where he kept his old Army Revolver, grabbed it, loaded it & placed the barrel in his mouth. O’Rourke was just behind him & as the Lieutenant barged into the kitchen Josiah smiled & said, “I suppose Lieutenant that it is inevitable that all good things must come to an end”. He then pulled the trigger & blew the back of his head off scattering blood & brains over the kitchen wall

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 located 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 34 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 Edward’s 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 they 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 was to be hanged later that day. Despite her situation she felt 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 going to pay for her crime.

At 5.50 pm from her window Doctor Edwards watched the final preparations being made on the gallows & the arrival of the officials & invited spectators.

She heard a cell door bang open further down the corridor & a woman screaming “Show me mercy! Please don’t hang me! I beg you!”. Jane gripped the bars on the window & closed her eyes. She could feel her arousal beginning to grow.

The noises outside subsided as the execution party dragged the struggling prisoner down the corridor & away from Jane’s cell towards the door leading to the courtyard.

Doctor Edwards’s watched, as ever transfixed by this type of spectacle, as Amanda was dragged struggling & fighting to the gallows steps & then up them to the platform above.

The prisoner was a pretty blonde woman with a petite but womanly figure. She was dressed in a white blouse & full white satin skirt. She sobbed helplessly as the Governor read out the sentence.

The executioner stepped forward, cuffed Amanda’s hands behind her, placed a black hood over her head followed by the noose which he pulled tight around her shaking slender neck. He stood back & at a nod from the Governor pulled the lever that released 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. Amanda’s struggles weaken, fade to twitching, & then after 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 was hand-cuffed, taken from her cell & led into an interview room where the three men sat waiting. They looked at the condemned woman trying to conceal their curiosity as to why she had asked to see them.

They took in the fact that despite the fact that she was a proven monster Jane Edwards was still a very attractive woman. Her brown hair was now worn short & her delicate features were only slightly detracted from by the prison pallor of her skin, a result of hardly being outside at all in the last few weeks. She had retained her figure & as a death row prisoner she was being allowed to wear her own clothes, in her case a tight fitting white dress which undoubtedly sat well on her. She nodded briefly at the men as she sat down.

O’Hanlon asked “Why have you asked to see us Doctor Edwards?”

Jane replied, “To give you this Captain”, she handed 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 smiled slightly as they recalled 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 said, “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 responded, “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.

She continued, “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 looked 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 no doubt 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 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 fucked 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 each of those girls orgasmed as Josiah raped 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 be attending the execution?”

O’Hanlon nodded, “Yes, we will be there, as will those surviving Refuge girls who want to see justice done for their dead friends”.

Doctor Queen nodded, stood she said, “I think we are done here. So I shall see you all again on Friday at my execution”.

At that O’Rourke went to the interview room door & knocked on it. The prison guards came in & then escorted Jane out to take her back to her cell. The three men looked at each other. O’Hanlon was the first to speak, “What do you reckon Doctor?”.

Harris replied, “Fascinating, truly fascinating. Jane Queen may be a mass murderer but she is also a truly remarkable woman”.

O’Hanlon pointed at the notebook left on the table by Jane & said, “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 smiled 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”.

On the Friday morning April & Beth were waiting at the lodgings they shared for the police carriage to collect them & take them to the prison. They were both wearing their old Refuge girl uniforms one last time. April placed her blue & white sailor hat on top of her short blonde curly hair.

She looked at her friend who, as does she, looked very smart in her white blouse, blue skirt & jacket, her hat perched on top of her short black hair. April said, “Are you up for this Beth?”. The blonde girl knew that her friend had a more sensitive nature than her.

Beth nodded & said with determination, “We need to do for all the other girls the Edwards’s killed April”. They hugged each other tightly.

When they arrived at the prison they were lead through the building & into the courtyard. They both gasped when they saw the scaffold looming above them. They went & stood next to the other four surviving former Refuge girls who were also dressed in their old uniforms. The two who hadn’t been able to testify due to the injuries they sustained in the blast were in wheelchairs. They all embraced, their faces grim but resolute.

O’Hanlon, O’Rourke & Harris walked across to them & the Captain said. “If it gets too much for any of you no-one will think any the less of you if you simply turn round & go back inside”.

The girls all clasped hands with each other & April said, “We are determined to see this through Captain for the sake of all those Refuge girls who can’t be here”.

O’Rourke said, “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 opened & the execution party entered the courtyard. The hangman led the way resplendent in a black suit & top hat. He was followed by Jane, escorted on either side by two prison guards. The prison chaplain brought up the rear reading the traditional prayer for the dead from a bible.

Doctor Edwards was wearing the same tight fitting white dress that she had on during her interview with the Captain, Lieutenant & the Doctor. She appeared composed though her face was deathly white.

As a result of the struggle it took to get Amanda Holmes to the platform Jane’s hands were cuffed behind her before she was taken from the death cell. As she walked towards the thirteen steps leading to the gallows platform she looked at O’Hanlon & briefly nodded her head. Her glance fell on the Refuge girls & they all stared back at her. Doctor Edwards & April’s eyes met. Jane’s were expressionless & cold while April’s were grim & unwavering.

The execution party mounted the scaffold steps & when they arrived at the platform the two guards placed the condemned woman on the trap, the noose dangled just in front of her face.

The prison governor climbed the wooden steps & went & stood in front of the prisoner. He took a piece of paper from his inside pocket & started 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 tightened. April & Beth glanced at each other. They were 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 met they realised that they were both experiencing the same unexpected sensations. April & Beth took deep breaths & returned their gaze to the gallows platform above

The executioner pulled a black hood over Jane’s head & then placed the noose around her neck. As he tightened the rope he carefully puts the knot at the front side of the prisoner’s neck. Jane’s body tensed as she knew that this meant she was 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 execution 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 was as agonising & protracted as possible.

The spectators understood that this execution was going to be a bit different as the hangman untied the other end of the rope from the pole supporting the cross beam & was joined by the two prison guards.

A collective gasp went up from the spectators as they realised how the condemned woman was going to be hanged. April & Beth grasped each other’s hands so tightly their knuckles were almost white. They pressed their thighs together under their blue skirts as their panties got even wetter, their juices oozed from their vaginas & soaked into them

There was deathly silence broken only by Doctor Edwards’s increasingly rapid breathing which moved 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 white dress & her legs kick desperately beneath the well-fitting 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 dress, the skirt of which 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 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 white dress again covers her legs down to her ankles, her head, on top of her significantly elongated neck, lolls to the side

By digging their fingers into the palms of each other’s hands, gritting their teeth & breathing deeply April & Beth managed to resist the almost overwhelming need to come. While they were both still virgins they had 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 walked over to the girls & O’Hanlon asked, “How are you doing girls?”. April & Beth’s flushes have faded & the other four girls though pale, & somewhat shaken, are composed. They all assured the Captain that they were okay.

Doctor Harris said, “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 nodded 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 & Doctor Edwards”. He looked & smiled at the two injured girls & continues. “I will visit both of you at the hospital”.

He turned to April, Beth & the two other girls & handed them each his card. “Please contact my assistant Miss Barnes to arrange an appointment”. With that they all turned & filed out of the courtyard back inside the prison leaving Doctor Edwards’s lifeless body hanging on the gallows

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