Martha Place - the first woman executed in the electric chair

 Martha Place was the first woman to be executed by the electric chair. She murdered her stepmother and attempted to murder her husband. 

Martha was born on 8 September 1849 in New Jersey, USA. Her birth name was Martha Garrettson. Martha married Wesley Savacool, and they had a son. But the marriage was short-lived. Wesley left, and Martha could not look after her son. So she agreed to have him adopted. 

In 1893, she married William Place. He had a teenage daughter named Ida from a previous marriage, and it seems Martha was very jealous of her. She resented the girl because she was very popular and she was close to her father. She also wanted her son to come and live with them, but Place refused, much to Martha’s annoyance. The couple grew apart. 

On 7 February 1899, Martha had a row with 17-year-old Ida. Martha threw carbolic acid in Ida’s face. She then killed the girl by suffocating her. attacked William Place with an axe when he came home from work. Place managed to escape and summon help. 

When William Place came back from work, Martha attacked him with an axe. Fortunately, William survived. Martha ran upstairs, perhaps thinking William was dead. He managed to stumble outside, where neighbours saw him and called the police.

The police found Martha unconscious. She had attempted to kill herself by turning on gas taps. The police also found the dead body of Ida Place. Martha was, at first, taken to a hospital, but when she recovered, she was charged with the murder of Ida and the attempted murder of William.

At her trial, Martha claimed to be innocent. However, not surprisingly, the jury did not believe her and she was found guilty. Martha was sentenced to death. The governor of the state of New York, Theodore Roosevelt, refused to commute her sentence to life imprisonment. On 20 March 1899, Martha Place was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison. 

Ruth Ellis - the last woman hanged in Britain

 Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain. She was born on 9 October 1926 in Rhyl, Wales. She was one of six children. When she was 17, she had a son by a Canadian soldier. 

After the Second World War, Ruth was living in London. In the 1940s, she worked in factories but she could not earn enough to support herself and her son. Ruth became a nude model and by 1950 she was an escort. In 1950 she married a man named George Ellis. They had a daughter but the couple soon separated. However, by 1953 Ruth had a job as manager of the Little Club in Knightsbridge. It was there that she met David Blakely. 

Blakely was a racing driver. He was also a heavy drinker. He moved in with Ruth even though he was engaged to another woman. Ruth met another man, Desmond Cussen, and she moved in with him. Ruth and David Blakely continued their relationship, although they were both seeing other people. Blakely was abusive. 

He asked Ruth to marry him, but she had a miscarriage in January 1955 after Blakely punched her in the stomach. Blakely later decided he never wanted to see Ruth again. 

On 10 April 1955 Ruth took a taxi to a flat where she knew Blakely was staying. As they arrived, she saw him drive off in his car. She paid the taxi driver and walked to the Magdala Tavern where she thought he would be. Ruth waited till Blakely emerged from the pub. She drew a revolver from her handbag, and as he searched for his car keys, she shot him. Ruth fired six bullets at Blakely. The first shot missed. The second shot hit him and caused him to fall to the ground. 

She fired three more bullets into him. Her last shot ricocheted off the ground and hit a bystander in the hand. 

Ruth was immediately arrested by an off-duty policeman. Psychiatrists who examined her found she was not insane. Ruth went on trial on 20 June 1955. There was no doubt that she shot David Blakely. The prosecution merely had to prove the intent to kill. The prosecution lawyer asked, 'When you fired the revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely, what did you intend to do?' Ruth answered, 'It's obvious that when I shot him I intended to kill him'.

The jury found her guilty of murder, and she was sentenced to death. However, many people felt that her sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment. A petition was signed by 50,000 people, but the Home Secretary refused to grant a reprieve, and Ruth Ellis was hanged on 13 July 1955. 

Guenther Podola - the last man hanged for killing a policeman

 Guenther Podola was the last person to be hanged in Britain for the murder of a policeman. He was born in Berlin, Germany, on 8 February 1929. In 1962, he moved to Canada but he was deported for burglary. He then moved to Britain. Podola arrived on 21 May 1959. 

Podola burgled Verne Schiffman's flat, stealing jewellery and furs worth £2,000 (a huge sum in those days). Later, bizarrely, he tried to blackmail her. He wrote to her claiming he had photos and tape recordings of her. He did not. Since she had nothing to hide Mrs Schiffman told the police. (Why Podola tried to blackmail her when she had nothing to hide is a mystery. If he had not done something so strange, he might well have got away with the burglary). 

On 13 July 1959, Podola phoned her from a public phone box and again he tried to blackmail her. This time her phone was tapped and Mrs Schiffman kept him talking until the police traced the call. Two policemen, John Stanford and William Purdy arrested Podola at the phone box. However, Podola broke free and ran into a nearby block of flats. 

The police captured him again and one of them, Stanford, went to fetch the patrol car. Podola then produced a gun and shot William Purdy.

Podola fled the scene, and he hid in a hotel for the next three days. However, in the dead policeman's pocket was an address book. It belonged to Podola. He must have dropped it when he was arrested, and the policeman picked it up. The police soon identified the book's owner and traced him to the hotel where he was hiding. On 16 July 1959, armed police went to the room occupied by Podola, and they forced open the door. Podola, who was standing by the door, was hit on the head as it opened and was knocked unconscious. 

When he recovered, Podola said he had no memory of shooting a policeman. Before, he was tried for murder; a court hearing was held to decide if he was fit to stand trial. A jury had to decide if he was genuinely suffering from amnesia. Expert witnesses testified for both the prosecution and the defence, but after retiring for three hours the jury decided he was faking it. Podola then went on trial for murder. He still claimed he could not remember what happened, but he was found guilty and was sentenced to death on 26 September 1959.

Guenther Podola was hanged on 5 November 1959. 

Charlotte Bryant - murder by weed killer

 Charlotte Bryant was convicted of poisoning her husband with arsenic. She was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1903. In 1922, she met a British soldier named Frederick Bryant. The two married, and after leaving the army, Frederick worked as a farm labourer. Charlotte had five children, though they may not all have been Frederick's. In 1933, a horse trader named Leonard Parsons began lodging with the Bryants. He also began sleeping with Charlotte.

Frederick Bryant accepted the situation. In May 1935, he fell ill. A doctor was called and he diagnosed gastroenteritis. This time Fredrick recovered. However, he fell ill again in August 1935. Once again, he recovered. Leonard Parsons left their home in November 1935. 

On 21 December 1935, Frederick fell ill for the last time. He complained of severe stomach pains. A doctor was called and Frederick was taken to a hospital. He died on 22 December 1935. An autopsy showed he died of arsenic poisoning. 

The police naturally suspected his wife, Charlotte. A search of her house revealed a burnt can of weed killer in the garden. It contained traces of arsenic. The police discovered that a chemist in the town of Yeovil had sold the weed killer. The law required anyone who purchased arsenic weed killer to sign a poison register. Whoever bought the weed killer had signed the register with an X. Charlotte Bryant was illiterate. She was made to stand in an identification parade, but the chemist did not pick her out. 

On 10 February 1936, Charlotte Bryant was charged with murder. On 27 May 1936, she went on trial in Dorchester. A witness named Lucy Ostler said that on 21 December 1935 she saw Charlotte give Frederick a drink. Later, he vomited and complained of stomach pains. Lucy said she found a burned weed killer can in the ashes of a boiler and she threw it in the garden.

A chemist testified that he found an abnormally large amount of arsenic in the ashes under the boiler, far more than he would normally expect to find. It was evidence that someone had tried to burn something containing arsenic in the boiler. Leonard Parsons was also called as a witness and he claimed he had seen Charlotte with some weed killer. 

The court also heard about Charlotte's relationship with Parsons, which did not help her case. (It was, after all, the 1930s, when attitudes were far less liberal than they are today). On 30 June 1936, Charlotte Bryant was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to death. 

However, a different chemist said that the expert at the trial had greatly overestimated the amount of arsenic in the ashes in the boiler. That would, of course, undermine the claim that Charlotte had tried to burn a can of weed killer in the boiler. The defence appealed against the guilty verdict but the appeal was dismissed. She was hanged on 15 July 1936. 

While awaiting execution, Charlotte began learning to read and write, with help from the prison guards. She wrote a letter in which she named the person who, she believed, poisoned Frederick. However, the prison authorities redacted the name. It remains unknown if she was guilty or not. 

John Robinson - Hanged by a matchstick

 On Friday, 6 May 1927, a man deposited a trunk at Charing Cross Railway Station in London. By Monday, 9 May, the trunk was beginning to stink. Staff alerted the police and when the trunk was opened, it was found to contain several paper parcels. They contained parts of a body. The murderer had cut off a woman's head, arms and legs and then wrapped them and the torso in parcels and placed them in the trunk. The woman had suffered blows to the head but she had died of asphyxiation. 

However, the murderer was inept. Some items of clothing were also found in the trunk. They were traced to a Mrs Holt, who suggested they had been stolen some time before by a Mrs Rolls, who she had once employed as a cook. 

It turned out that Mrs Rolls was actually Minnie Bonati, aged 36. She was separated from her Italian husband and she was a sex worker. 

The police appealed for information. A taxi driver remembered collecting a man with a heavy trunk outside a block of offices in Rochester Road in London. He drove the man to Charing Cross Railway Station. 

Two vital clues were found in the trunk. A teatowel had a label with the name 'Greyhound' stitched onto it. It was traced to the Greyhound Hotel in Hammersmith, London. A woman named Mrs Robinson worked there and police found her husband, John, had an office in Rochester Road.

Unfortunately, neither the taxi driver nor the railway employee could identify John Robinson. However, the police found a tiny but vital clue. In a wastepaper basket in Robinson's office, they found a bloodstained match. It was found to be the same blood type as Minnie Bonati. At first, Robinson denied all knowledge of the murder but he could not explain how the bloody match got there. 

Eventually, Robinson admitted to killing Bonati but he claimed it was an accident. According to him, she visited his office, and she became abusive and demanded money. He pushed her over, and she hit her head and died. He said he panicked and dismembered the body. Not surprisingly, the police did not believe him. 

Nor did the jury. A pathologist said the injuries to her head were not sufficient to kill her. Bruises on the victim's chest suggested that Robinson knelt on her and he may have suffocated her. On 13 July Robinson was found guilty of murder. He was hanged on 12 August 1927.

Herbert Rowse Armstrong - the only British solicitor to be hanged

 Herbert Rowse Armstrong was the only British solicitor to be hanged for murder. He was born in Devon, England, on 13 May 1889. He qualified as a solicitor in 1895, and he moved to the small town of Hay-on-Wye in 1906. In 1907 he married a woman called Katherine and they had three children. Armstrong served in the British army during the First World War, and he reached the rank of major. After the war, he returned to being a solicitor. 

By all accounts, Armstrong was dominated by his wife, Katherine. For instance, she would not allow him to smoke, except in one room and never outdoors. However, Katherine became mentally ill. In July 1920 Armstrong persuaded her to make a will leaving all her money to him. 

Then in August 1920, she was admitted to an asylum. She was released in January 1921. Unfortunately, she then became physically ill and she died on 22 February 1921. At first her death was ascribed to natural causes, but she had actually been poisoned with arsenic. Armstrong wrote in his diary 'K. died'. Perhaps he grew tired of her controlling ways but he also benefited financially from her death. 

Later that year, a rival solicitor in the town, Oswald Martin, received a box of chocolates. He did not eat any of them himself but a guest did and became violently ill. The chocolates were examined and it was found that arsenic had been injected into them from the bottom. 

On 26 October 1921 Armstrong invited Martin to tea. When Martin arrived selected a buttered scone and handed it to his guest, saying 'excuse my fingers'. Shortly afterwards, Martin became violently ill. His father-in-law was a chemist and he suspected Martin had been poisoned. He sent a sample of Martin's urine to be examined it was found to contain arsenic. It was now obvious that Armstrong was trying to kill his business rival. 

The police began investigating. Armstrong kept inviting Martin to tea. Fortunately, Martin kept thinking of excuses to refuse.

On 31 December 1921, Herbert Armstrong was arrested for attempted murder. The police discovered that Armstrong possessed a considerable amount of arsenic, which he had divided up and placed in 20 paper packets. The body of his wife, Katherine, was exhumed and was found to contain arsenic. On 19 January 1922, Armstrong was charged with her murder. The trial began on 3 April 1922. 

The defence claimed that Katherine committed suicide by swallowing arsenic. But a doctor testified that it would have been impossible for her to rise from her bed, just before she died and obtain the arsenic. She was too ill. A nurse testified that Katherine said, 'I am not going to die am I? Because I have so much to live for, my children and my husband'. It was obviously murder, not suicide. 

Armstrong claimed that he used arsenic to kill weeds but he could not satisfactorily explain why he had sachets of arsenic. He was asked why he put arsenic into paper packets. Why didn't he simply pour arsenic from the original container onto the roots of weeds? Armstrong replied, 'I really do not know. At the time it seemed the most convenient way of doing it'. It seemed more likely that he kept sachets of arsenic to poison people.

Armstrong was found guilty of the murder of his wife, Katherine and he was sentenced to death. Herbert Rowse Armstrong was hanged on 31 May 1922.

The Shark Arm Case, Sydney

 The Shark Arm Case happened in Sydney, Australia, in April 1935. Fishermen caught a 14-foot-long live tiger shark. It was put on display in Coogee Aquarium but at about 5 pm on 25 April 1935 (Anzac Day) the shark regurgitated a tattooed human arm. The arm was well preserved and it had a tattoo of two boxers. It had a rope tied around its wrist. A medical examination showed it had been cut off, not bitten off. The shark had eaten the arm at least 8 days before. Clearly, this was a case of murder, not an accidental death. But where was the rest of the body?

A man named Edwin Smith recognized the description of the tattoo and told police the arm might belong to his brother James. He had gone missing weeks before. The police were able to obtain fingerprints from the hand and they confirmed that it did belong to James Smith. He was a construction worker and a boxer. He was 40 years old. His wife had reported him missing on 8 April 1935.

Police found out that James Smith had last been seen drinking with a friend called Patrick Brady. Afterward, they went to a cottage hired by Brady. The owner of the cottage said that a mattress and a tin trunk had gone missing. The police thought that Brady murdered James Smith and placed his body in the tin trunk. Perhaps one arm wouldn’t fit so he cut it off and tied it to the trunk. He then dumped the body in the sea but a shark swallowed the arm.

The police also found evidence that James Smith had worked for a man named Reginald Holmes. Holmes was a wealthy boat builder but he was also involved in drug smuggling. He admitted Smith had worked for him. However the two men had fallen out and, the police believed, Smith had been blackmailing Holmes. He was killed to silence him.

On 16 May 1935, the police arrested Patrick Brady. Then on 20 May Reginald Holmes was arrested. He now told police that Brady killed Smith. He said Brady brought the severed arm to his house and tried to blackmail him with it, threatening to kill him too if he did not pay a sum of money.

However, on 12 June Reginald Holmes was found shot in his car. Without his testimony, there was not enough evidence to convict Patrick Brady. He was brought to trial in September 1935 but Mr Justice Jordan directed the jury to acquit him. Patrick Brady was formally acquitted on 12 September 1935. He died in 1965.