John 'Babbacombe' Lee famously dubbed the man they could not hang' was accused of the murder of Miss Emma Anne Whitehead Keyse.
In the early hours of November 15 1884 in the hamlet of Babbacombe, Devon, Emma Keyse was discovered brutally murdered.
Her throat was slit, she had three wounds to her head John " Babbacombe" had also attempted to burn the body.
He
was sentenced to be hanged at Exeter Prison on 23 February 1885. When
John was about to be executed however, He was sentenced to be hanged at
Exeter Prison on 23 February 1885.
When John
was about to be executed however, the noose was tied around his neck but
when the executioner pulled the lever to remove the floor beneath him
to hang him, it stayed up.
The executioner then
tested the door and it worked so led john up again. Again however it
did not work and the miraculous process was achieved for the third time
also It's nearly 140 years since a gruesome murder in Torquay - and yet
still today the story of John Babbacombe Lee.
The Man They Couldn't Hang' remains partially shrouded in mystery. It's probably one of England's strangest true crime stories.
Three
times Lee was lead to the gallows on February 23 1885. Three times the
trapdoor failed to open - despite successful attempts with a dummy
between each attempt.
But historians who have
studied the case in detail say that many questions remain unanswered
about what really happened to Miss Emma Keyse, who was found savagely
murdered on November 15, 1884 at her beachside home, next to what is now
the exclusive Cary Arms. The elderly spinster was found in the lounge
with her head almost hacked off and her body on fire.
Her
young 20-year-old servant, John Lee, who slept in the pantry next door
raised the alarm and rescued the three other women in the house who were
sleeping upstairs in the smoke-filled house.
Lee
was found guilty after a shambolic four day trial, partly because he
was the only man in the house at the time of the murder. The law at the
time meant he was not allowed to defend himself at his trial, where the
most damning evidence came from his step-sister and Miss Keyse' cook
Elizabeth Harris. She told the court that she had once heard Lee say he
would set fire to the house and burn it down around Miss Keyse.
But
in a twist after the trial Miss Harris was found to be pregnant - and
historians now believe that the father of her child was the lawyer who
rapidly offered to defend Lee in court, Reginald 'Gwynne' Templer -
whose family built Stover country park.
Historians
found that Templer was a regular visitor at the house, and was said to
have been there on the night of the murder and slipped away. By the next
morning he was back at the family home in Newton Abbot and stepped in
to offer his services to defend Lee in court.
The
case might have been long forgotten, except for the fact that Lee
survived and his death sentence was changed by the Queen to life in
prison. Did the hand of God intervene to save an innocent man? Or was
the mechanism rigged by the guilty party who didn't want Lee's death on
their conscience?
The historians say that
anybody who reads the court and coroner's records at the time will see
that there is no real case against Lee - but despite that, the coroner
called him 'the murderer' during the inquest, long before his trial.
It
was only after Elizabeth Harris was found to be pregnant that an
alternative theory about the murder began circulating. Some claimed that
a high-profile member of English society – possibly a Member of
Parliament, or even Royalty – had begun a dangerous affair with the
young cook which resulted in her pregnancy.
But
historian Ian Waugh, who spent 20 years researching the case and has
read every document available in the public domain, said: "It’s my long
held personal opinion that Lee, most likely, wasn’t the man who killed
Emma Keyse. I don’t think she was violently hacked to death merely
because she was aware her cook was pregnant allegedly by a local
solicitor."
Mr Waugh believes that money have
been the issue. And possibly the death was linked to smuggling. Today
the little cove at the bottom of the steep hill is overlooked by Peter
de Savary's luxury Cary Arms hotel and spa.
"I
think we need to look closer at other illegal activities going on around
the home of this elderly, by then broke, bitter spinster.
She
had already taken legal action against Babbacombe fishermen. It was
also likely that she was aware of the smuggling and other money-making
dubious activities on her doorstep in this tiny bay.
"She
was killed, in my view, because she knew too much. What she was aware
of straddled the class system in Torbay and beyond at the end of the
19th century. Basically, she had to be silenced. Blaming ‘the only male
in the household’ on the night of the killing was a gift to those
desperately seeking ‘silence’. Enabling the illegal activities to
continue.
"The real reason behind the murder
has, so far, eluded any accurate coverage. We need to look closer to
home to reveal the reason an elderly Victorian lady was killed in that
lonely dark bay house. It’s still a very sensitive subject in some
circles - the truth is out there, it won’t go away. "
Comments
Post a Comment