THE WORST AND TERRIBLE EXECUTION OF ALAN JAMES GRIERSON FOR THE ROBERT BAXTER'S LAST HANGING..

On Wednesday the 30th of October 1935, Robert Baxter would conduct his final execution, at London’s Pentonville prison. His sight was failing and he could no longer adequately see what he was doing. He was removed from the Home Office list the following day.

The subject of this execution would be 27 year old Alan James Grierson who was to die for the murder of 62 year old Louise Bertha Gann. Grierson was recorded as being 5’ 8 1/2” tall and weighing 182 lbs.

He was given a drop of 6’ 2”. Baxter was assisted by Henry Pollard. Despite his failing eyesight, the hanging was carried out in a satisfactory manner, according to the LPC4 form.

Outside the prison, Maxine Gann, Louise’s daughter, sat in her car with friends while the execution took place.

In April 1935, Grierson had met Maxine Gann at a club in Hammersmith. Louise had been asked to look after a flat at 19 Gloucester Road in Regent’s Park, London, owned by her long time friend Dorothy Riley who was going to Scotland on holiday.

She moved into the flat on the 1st of June 1935. Maxine moved in the following day, having lent Grierson £1.10s.

On the 3rd of June Grierson telephoned Maxine to say he was homeless and so he was invited to the flat. He stayed until the 7th of June. Before leaving he stole some of Dorothy’s jewelry and pawned it.

He telephoned Maxine on the 10th and apologised for the theft, after which he was allowed back to the flat. He claimed to have got a new job, as a car salesman, which was to start on Monday the 17th of June. He then stole more jewelry.

On the 21st of June he told the Gann’s that he had to take a car to Torquay for his company and invited them to join him. Maxine agreed to go and was to meet Grierson at Oxford Circus at 1.20 pm. the following afternoon, Saturday the 22nd. Grierson failed to show up and Maxine couldn’t get a reply from a phone call to her mother.

She hurried to the flat where, with the help of a neighbour, she managed to gain entry. Louise’s battered body was found in her bedroom, the door of which had been forced. She had been struck repeatedly with a flat iron. Louise died later in hospital without regaining consciousness. Further items were missing from the flat.

Grierson’s description was circulated and he was arrested in Weybridge, Surrey, on the 1st of July, after his new landlady recognized a photo of him in her Sunday paper.

He was tried at the Old Bailey before Mr. Justice Porter on the 10th to the 18th of September, 1935. Much of the early evidence was circumstantial.

But later on in the trial a pawnbroker identified Grierson as the person who had pawned an antique silver cruet set, that Maxine could definitely state had been present when she left the flat on the Saturday morning.

The jury needed just 30 minutes to return a guilty verdict. His appeal before the Lord Chief Justice and Justices Humphreys and Singleton was dismissed on Monday the 14th of October by the Court of Criminal Appeal.

A petition for his reprieve was signed by 8000 persons. The well known abolitionist, Mrs. Violet Van der Elst, held a demonstration against outside the prison, and challenged the police to arrest her.

(They often did for obstruction) The police banned a sandwich board man, whom she had employed, from walking up and down outside Pentonville advocating the abolition of capital punishment.

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