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Click here to subscribeAn inscribed and dated Chinese Shoushan stone seal with a Buddhist lion Dim.: 3,5 x 3,5 x 3,5 cm We have more lots available exclusively on our website www.rm-auctions.com! Condition reports and high resolution pictures are available on our website at www.rm-auctions.com. Further questions are always welcome at info@rm-auctions.com
BERRY JAMES: (1852-1913) English Executioner, 1884-91, recognised for his important contribution to the science of hanging with his refinement of the long drop method developed by William Marwood,improvements which were intended to diminish the mental and physical suffering of the prisoner. An extremely rare A.L.S., James Berry, two pages, 8vo, Bradford, 22nd March 1889, to Lewis [Strange] Wingfield ('Dear Friend'), on the printed stationery of the Executioner's Office. Berry informs his correspondent that he has received his letter and invitation to lunch in London, continuing to comment on his health, 'Since I have returned from Shepton Mallet I have a severe attack of chills on my chest & lungs and this is the first day I have been down from my bedroom but I am thankful I am no worse' Berry further writes on the subject of his work, 'I have an engagement in Dublin Kilmainham Gaol on the 8th April, Kirkdale Liverpool on the 9th and Swansea on the 10th so I must brace myself together and try and get some strength before the time comes for one to leave home again for business…' Berry also recalls a jovial case of mistaken identity the last time he was in his correspondent's company, remarking, 'I was quite amused at the social gathering of friends guessing me a foreigner and the other was not so far wrong in stateing (sic) I was a musician as I have always had a strong attachment to music and singing. My wife gave a hearty laugh when she read it.' With some very light, extremely minor age wear, VG Berry, the first British hangman with sufficient literacy skills to be able to write of his experiences, performed 131 hangings during his career including that of William Bury, a man considered a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders. Infamously, in 1885, Berry was also the executioner who failed to hang John Babbacombe Lee (1864-1945), the controversially convicted murderer who became a cause célèbre known as 'the man they couldn't hang'. As the present letter confirms, Berry had been at Shepton Mallet gaol to conduct the execution of Samuel Rylands (also referred to in some reports as Reylands) on 13th March 1889. Rylands had been convicted of the murder of Emma Jane Davies, who on the night of 2nd January 1889 had gone missing after walking to collect milk from Yeobridge. Failing to return home that foggy and frosty morning, her anxious family searched the route she would have taken. They found her body lying in a muddy ditch, a blind-cord around her neck, the body gashed and cut, and her dress thrown over her head, which was almost severed from her body. The police, having been called, found a bloodied razor nearby alongside a man's footprints. On the 4th January Rylands, a local labourer, was arrested. There was no direct evidence linking him to the crime, although milk was found on his hat and it had been noted he was seen perspiring heavily and had wet and muddy boots on the day of the murder. Indeed, it was pointed out to the jury in the case, that it was better to acquit a guilty man than an innocent one be convicted, such was the circumstantial evidence. However, convict him they did. Interestingly, in what was undoubtedly a reference to the Jack the Ripper murders, The Times of 22nd February 1889 reported, 'It was apparently an aimless and motiveless crime by whomsoever committed. It was probably the morbid results of reading the accounts of the horrors which of late have appeared in the newspapers. In this instance, however, there were no traces of any outrage with the view to gratifying the murderer's passions'. On 8th April 1889, Berry visited Kilmainham gaol, Dublin, to conduct the execution of Peter Stafford, convicted of shooting a farmer to death during a dispute. At the gallows Stafford resisted violently when Berry tried to pinion him, fearing his end and struggling for freedom. In a fraught scene, Stafford had to be forcibly taken by warders to the scaffold, where he cried, 'Lord have mercy on me! God forgive me my sins!' before Berry, with great difficulty, carried out the sentence. Berry gave a drop of 6ft 6in, Stafford's weight being 11 stone, and death appeared to be almost instantaneous, the spinal cord being completely severed and the blood vessels of the neck ruptured. Two days later, on 10th April 1889, Berry attended Swansea gaol to perform the execution of Thomas Allen, a black seaman said to be a Zulu. Berry was to write later in his account of the execution for The Post: 'One of the worst jobs I have ever tackled was the execution of Thomas Allan (sic)… Thomas was a black man, a big strong fellow, with muscles like iron bands, and it well nigh beat me to hang him.' Allen had been convicted for the murder of Frederick Kent, the landlord of the Gloucester Hotel, Swansea. Allen had hidden within the premises after closing time in order to steal the days takings. Upon being discovered a struggle ensued which resulted in Allen being shot in the thigh and Kent being mortally wounded with a cut-throat razor. Making good his escape, the police followed Allen's footsteps left upon the snow covered ground. The fleeing murderer had left his cap behind, and from this he was identified. He had also left a razor in the bedroom, this being the weapon that had inflicted the various wounds. Once discovered Allen found himself at the hands of a lynch mob and ultimately in gaol. Convicted of murder, Allen was led to the gallows. The hanging did not go well. Berry would later explain, '…the poor fellow sank down into the pit. The rope did not quiver. “Dead, dead!” Exclaimed the governor… but the words were scarcely out of his mouth before the man at the end of the rope began to struggle. The doctor assured me afterwards that nearly three minutes elapsed before [he] died, and he thought it would have been better if I had given my victim another six inches. He was probably right.' Despite Berry's reference to a third execution in the present letter, his presence at Kirkdale gaol, Liverpool on the 9th April was not required. The prisoner Charles Parton, under sentence of death, on 5th April 1889 for the murder of John Fletcher, was granted a reprieve and his sentence was commuted to one of penal servitude for life. OWING TO RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED BY THE SALEROOM WE CANNOT DISPLAY THE COMPLETE DESCRIPTION FOR THIS LOT - PLEASE CONTACT IAA DIRECTLY FOR THE FULL DESCRIPTION
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