Posted on 06/23/2023 6:46:47 PM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1784, no fewer than 15 men hanged on the public scaffold outside London’s Newgate Gaol. Per the next day’s Parker’s General Advertiser and Morning Intelligencer,
William Smith, Isaac Torres, Charles Barton, Patrick Burne, Patrick Birmingham, John Lynch, James Farrel, James Davis, Daniel Bean, Archibald Burridge, Robert Ganley, and Thomas Randal, for burglary; Peter Haslet alias Edward Verily, for personating and assuming the name of Thomas Howard, of his Majesty’s ship the Pallas, with intent to receive his wages; and Joseph Haws and James Hawkins for a street robbery. The above unhappy men came upon the scaffold a little before seven o’clock; they all seemed devout and penitent, and behaved in every respect as became their miserable situation. The plat-form dropped about a quarter before eight, and at the same moment they were all launched into eternity. The concourse was immense; the windows and roofs of the houses commanding a view of the fatal spot, were crowded, and many thousands of people were assembled in the Old-Bailey before six o’clock.
Despite the immense concourse, this gigantic hanging of miscellaneous thieves rates little better than footnote mention in the period’s press. England was gallows-mad; CapitalPunishmentUK.org makes it 56 hangings in 1784 in London alone. There would be an even larger mass execution (20 people) the next February....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
‘gittin ‘er done.
In the 1850’s they hanged a seven year old boy for stealing mail, or taking mail; then they also hanged a 17yo house girl for stealing a necklace that was later found in a couch in the Lord’s home. It was blown off as ‘she was just a servant girl’ ...
You know the Old Bailey well, no doubt?
That was clearly an overly harsh penal system. Just as todays has went equally extreme to the other direction (in Dem ran big cities).
That might deter crime in San Francisco, LA, and Oakland. Or maybe not.
Worth a try.
It would certainly cut down on repeat offenses.
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