Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

In 1999 a female corpse with black objects on its feet was unearthed in Heilongjiang (China).

In 1999 a female corpse with black objects on its feet was unearthed in Heilongjiang (China). Experts revealed her tragic experience: was she buried alive? For more than 200 years, a woman's skin, muscles, and joints remained intact. This female body was in the coffin, with a distorted posture and open mouth. Although it has become a mummy, it is not difficult to see that its expression is in great pain. The mummy was about 164 cm, the whole body was black as coal, and the placenta was not removed from the mummy before dying. The placenta was attached to the buttocks. Looking closer, the left hand and foot are mutilated. According to the archaeological team, it was a young woman in her 25s from the mummy's face and bones. According to Chinese tradition, the person who dies before being buried is cleaned and straightened by the limbs. The Mystery of the Cause of Death: Did you die of chronic poisoning or difficult childbirth? When the female mummy was found, her skin was still y...

Col. Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle

Col. Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, born on December 17, 1874, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was a prominent figure in the United States Marine Corps during the early 20th century.  Known for his extraordinary skills in hand-to-hand combat, Biddle left a lasting legacy as a tough and fearless military officer. During his service in World War II, Col. Biddle was assigned to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina.  It was there that he became famous for his unique training methods. Biddle would challenge his trainee Marines to engage in hand-to-hand combat with him using their bayonets, demonstrating his exceptional expertise in close-quarters combat. The incident where Col. Biddle was surrounded by bayonets occurred in 1943. This event showcased his extraordinary confidence and skill as a combat instructor.  He fearlessly ordered the trainee Marines to attempt to kill him with their bayonets, challenging them to disarm him. Despite the potential dan...

A PAINFUL STORY OF HOW DRUG CARTEL KIDNAPPED A WOMAN FROM HER HOUSE AND HUNG HER HALF NAKED AS A WARNING TO THEIR ENEMIES.

the dominant organized crime group in this part of Mexico, The note said some Gulf Cartel members were responsible for the kidnapping and killings and apologized for their actions. Half-naked woman hanged on a bridge Members of a drug cartel kidnapped a woman from her house and hung her half-naked on a road bridge as a warning to their enemies.  It is likely that the incident happened in Mexico... ,5 alleged Mexican cartel members charged in kidnapping of 4 Americans Five alleged members of a powerful Mexican cartel were charged with aggravated kidnapping and murder on Friday in connection to the kidnapping of four Americans, and the killing of two of them, in the border city of Matamoros. The Attorney General's Office of Tamaulipas announced the charges a day after the Gulf Cartel allegedly took responsibility for the kidnapping.  The five men were found tied up near a pickup truck on Thursday morning and a handwritten note was found placed on the windshield of the truck, who...

The Painful Murder Of Czeslawa Kwoka In Auschwitz Extermination Camp, By Phenol Injection In The Heart.

Her name was Czeslawa Kwoka, and her crime was being Polish, Catholic, and 14 years old.  Her red triangle was for political prisoners, because of where she was born in Poland.   After this photo was taken, she was killed in Auschwitz extermination camp on March 12, 1943 with a phenol injection in the heart.   Just before the execution, she was photographed by prisoner Wilhelm Brasse, who would later testify against the executioner of Czeslawa, a woman.   Just before the photo, the executioner punched Czeslawa in the face, as the hematoma on her lip shows.   This is the face of a terrified little girl, who didn't even speak the language of her executioner.   She had lost her mother a few days before.  But she dried her tears to look presentable for the photo.  They took her hair and her life, but they couldn’t take her dignity. She was only one of about 250,000 children and minors who were executed in Auschwitz-Birkenau. T...

Worst Deaths In History

Worst Deaths In History-Balthasar Gerard- balthasar gerard(alternative spellings gerards or gerardts. c. 1557 – 14 July 1584) was the assassin of the Dutch revolt's leader, William the Silent of the House of Orange (William the Silent, and later known as the "Father of the Fatherland").  He killed William the Silent in Delft on 10 July 1584, by shooting him twice with a pair of pistols, and was afterwards tried, convicted, tortured, and executed. Gérard was born in Franche-Comté (then belonging to Holy Roman Empire, afterwards to France).  He came from a Roman Catholic family with 11 children and was a great admirer of Philip II, king of Spain and the Netherlands. He studied law at the University of Dole. On 15 March 1580, King Philip had offered a reward of 25,000 crowns, peerage and an inheritable estate to anyone who killed or captured William the Silent, to whom he referred in his decree as a "pest on the whole of Christianity and the enemy of the human race...

The"Wooden Horse or Spanish Donkey"

The wooden horse, or Spanish donkey, was an extremely painful and horrific medieval torture device. It was first used by the Holy Inquisition in France and then in Spain and Germany, and then it migrated to the Americas, gaining focus during the colonial period.  The main design was the same wherever it was used. It was a triangular wooden box with a very sharp top end (ie, where the horse's spine would be). The apparatus was constructed of wood, with planks nailed together to form an elongated and sharp ridge that would serve as a horse's loin.  These were held up by four legs fixed to a stand, about 6 or 7 feet (1.8 to 2.1 meters) high, with wheels installed on the underside of the legs so that the whole device could roll on the floor. A head and a tail would join together to make the torture device look like a huge almost “funny” wooden horse. The accused would have been ridden on the horse, with weights on his ankles and hands tied to his back. They were expected...

THE HORRIBLE EXECUTION OF TERESA LEWIS FOR THE MURDER OF HER HUSBAND.

Teresa Wilson Bean Lewis who became only the second woman executed by Virginia, when she was put to death in 2010, at the age of 41. Teresa had first met Julian, a widower, in the Spring of 2000 at the Dan River Inc. fabric factory where they both worked. By June of that year, they were married and Teresa moved into Julian’s trailer on five acres of land in Keeling, in rural Pittsylvania County, Virginia.Julian’s son, Jason, had died in an accident in December 2001 and his father had received his life insurance payout, a sum in excess of $200,000, which he placed in an account that was only accessible by him. In August 2002, Julian's son Charles was required to report for National Guard duty so Julian made a will and took out a $250,000 life insurance policy on him. Both only named Teresa as the secondary beneficiary. In other words, she would get nothing if Julian died and was survived by Charles. Sometime in the Fall of 2002 Teresa met Matthew Shallenberger in Walmart. She and Sh...

Firing Squad to Gas Chamber: How Long Do Executions Take?

Utah brought back the firing squad this week as a backup execution method, with some proponents saying it’s the fastest and most humane way of killing condemned inmates in an era when lethal injections have dragged on as long as two hours. “It’s the only method we have in this country for which people are trained to kill,” said Fordham Law Professor Deborah Denno, an expert on capital punishment. “It appears the death is the quickest.” Last summer, a federal judge wrote in an opinion that firing squad should probably replace the needle as the U.S. execution method — even though he thought another was more foolproof. “The guillotine is probably best, but seems inconsistent with our national ethos,” Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote. With states considering alternatives from the electric chair to the gas chamber, here’s a look at how long it takes to kill a condemned inmate with each method: Popularized during the French Revolution as a humane alternati...

Meet Paul Alexander, The Man Who’s Lived In An Iron Lung For 70 Years

The life of Paul Alexander could easily be viewed as one of tragedy: A man who cannot breathe on his own, paralyzed from the neck down for seven decades due to polio. However, Paul Alexander never let his polio or his iron lung stand in the way of him living his life. The iron lung is a pod-like, full-body mechanical respirator. It breathes for you since you cannot take in oxygen normally. If you’ve contracted paralytic polio, you’ll die without the support of the iron lung and you virtually cannot leave it. In fact, all the doctors believed Paul Alexander would die back in 1952, when he contracted polio at age six. He has vivid memories of being in the hospital’s polio ward, and hearing the doctors talk about him. “He’s going to die today,” they said. “He shouldn’t be alive.” But that only made him want to live all the more. So from the confines of his iron lung, Paul Alexander did what very few people are able to do. He taught himself to breathe a different way. Then, he not only sur...

AN UNFORTUNATE SOVIET FEMALE SOLDIER LIES DEAD, SHORTLY BEFORE BEING EXECUTED..

An unfortunate Soviet female soldier lies dead, shortly after being executed by her German captors. 1941. Red Army female soldiers did not have a life to envy. The Germans called them "rifle broads." I believe there was actually a German Directive to kill female soldiers outright, similar to the 'commando order'.  Their fellow Russian male soldiers called them "field mattresses." The propaganda machine is quick to replace that with the timeless woman-knight archtype ('polianitsy'). Behind the lie of smiling hyper-snipers was a war against life itself. Nobody knows how many times it ended like this. You see a photograph like this and wonder about the human mind on the other side of the lens. Was he documenting reality, possibly the nihilism of war? Or is she a hunting trophy. Imagine how many hands and minds a photo from early 1940s, taken by a nobody halfway around the world and long dead, of 1 subject out of tens of millions, has to go through befor...