The Goodale Mess is the name given by the press to a disastrous execution that was performed
at Norwich Castle on the 30th of November 1885. Now before we get into the gruesome details,
and there are going to be gruesome details, we need to take a moment to examine how
hanging as an execution method changed and evolved during the Victorian period
Prior to this hanging was a drawn-out affair where once the supporting block had been removed the
condemned prisoner would slowly asphyxiate taking many cases up to 15 minutes to die
a slow and unpleasant death. The eyes bulge, the face contorts and becomes blue and engorged.
Do you think that bag over the head is there for the benefit and dignity of the prisoner
far from it that face covering is there to protect the witnesses from the gruesome and
horrific details of a hanging. Now the victorians like to consider themselves to be a more civilized
and decent people so the act of execution by hanging was set to become yet another of
those pioneering changes brought about by the victorian period. The architect of this change
was William Marwood who performed the first long drop execution at Lincoln Castle in 1872.
Long Drop is designed to snap the neck cleanly as a result of a carefully calculated drop
to a sudden neck breaking stop. Quick. Painless. Clean. Humane. Very much the victorian way.
One of the curious effects of this change though is it changed the common executioner from being
anyone, often hardened criminals themselves, who could kick away a stool to being a qualified,
intelligent, professional proficient in maths, physics, and biology. It became a skilled career.
You get professionals such as Albert Pierrepoint, James Berry, even whole family businesses like
the Billingtons. We're going to do a separate episode on the evolution of hanging in later
weeks but for now i'm going to talk about one of these professional executioners, James Berry
from Bradford in West Yorkshire and particularly the episode he'd become most known for the Goodale
Mess. Now Robert Goodale was a 45 year old market gardener from Walsoken in Cambridgeshire and he
was charged and convicted for the willful murder of his wife Bethsheba Goodale. His wife of 22
years. She had been struck about the head three times with a bill hook and thrown in a well to
her death. The jury took a whole 20 minutes to convict Goodale and he was remanded to
the condemned cell at Norwich Castle to await his execution. James Berry arrived at the castle and
checked the gallows. Now the gallows were three years old at this point and they consisted of a
single beam across a black painted trapdoor very much like this one that we're showing you here.
He checked the trapdoors were level and opened correctly leading to an 11 foot deep brick pit on
the lower side to which Goodale would be suspended after the drop he checked the rope which had been
supplied by norwich castle and had been used to hang another man the previous week and selected
a drop length of 5 feet 9 inches based on the 15 stone weight of Goodale. So far so good
At 7 55 am the 30th of november 1885 in the absence of any last-minute reprieve Goodale
was brought in procession from the cell to the gallows. His legs were bound. A white hood
placed over his head and as the bell of Saint Peter's church struck the final bell of eight
Berry pulled the lever, the trap door opened and Goodale fell. To the horror of everyone
a bloodstained noose snapped back up out of the pit. The drop had decapitated Goodale.
Berry described the incident in his autobiography. "We were horrified however to see that the rope
jerked upwards and for an instant i thought that the noose had slipped from the culprit's head
or that the rope had broken but it was worse than that for the jerk had severed
the head entirely from the body and both had fallen together to the bottom of the pit".
According to the press the Governor of the jail burst into tears at the site. I'm not surprised.
The subsequent inquest however appointed no blame on anyone berry was confirmed as sober
and as competent. The judge did not consider the drop too long for the weight of the condemned man
even if the laws of physics disagreed, and the coroner even reached a verdict that the
deceased had come to his death by hanging in accordance with the judgment of the law,
which i suppose was technically correct. The press however had a field day criticizing both
Berry and Marwood's methods and on the 2nd of december, the day after the most vicious press
commentary the Home Secretary received a letter calling for a review of capital punishment.
What this review gave us was the Home Office approved table of official drop length guidelines
because, you know, there's no part of life or death that the government can't micromanage and
surprisingly the recommended drop length for a 15 stone man of Goodale's build remained at five foot
nine inches. If you're interested i can put a link to the table in the comments it's on wikipedia.
This remains to be the only complete decapitation by hanging in english judicial history although
Berry did have three other executions that resulted in deep neck wounds. Personally i
think he needed to account more for the strength of the neck in each case. Berry retired six years
later and following his retirement, he became involved in evangelical christianity, and became
one of the Edwardian ages most prominent campaigners against capital punishment. Join us
again for some future episodes on execution in the meantime though don't have nightmares good night.