Hi my name's Kevin Hicks welcome to my YouTube channel the History Squad. Now today's video
has been voted for by my Patreon members. Hey guys. This is the story about John Lee
John Babbacombe Lee the man who couldn't be hanged now I first heard about this as
a young teenager listening to the folk rock group Fairport convention because they did a
whole uh album about John Lee and so I've known about it I've been to Babbacombe,
it's down in Devon now a suburb of Torquay I understand, but it all begins with a murder.
The murder victim Miss Emma Keyes lived in the most beautiful house right on the waterfront at
Babbacombe Bay, The Glenn. It was a thatched house I've seen a photograph of it, absolutely beautiful
now she was a dower kind of a lady, a bit religious, well to do though I'm sure because
she had servants. She had John Lee, was nominally called her butler. There was a cook, Elizabeth
Harris, that's John Lee's half-sister then Eliza and Jane Neck who were her lady servants,
so she quite well to do to have those. She was in dispute with the local fishermen over fishing
rights so she could get quite angry from what I can gather but there's an extra character here,
he was a caller from the should we call him the Victorian set from the cliffs above, the well to
do, and that was Reginald Templar a solicitor so you'll hear a little bit more about him later on.
The brutal murder of Miss Keyes took place overnight 14th, 15th of November 1884. It
was around about 3:30 in the morning that the maid Eliza raises the alarm when she smells smoke. She
goes downstairs discovers the body of Miss Keyes who's been beaten round the back of their head.
She says that John Lee was already there and had blood stains on his on his shirt. John Lee reckons
he was fast asleep in bed when the maid wakes him up. Everybody now is awake, the place is on fire.
Miss Keyes is dead. John Lee goes outside smashes one of the dining room windows cutting his hand
in the process, he says to let the smoke out he then runs over to the Cary Arms, the local pub,
where the landlord is woken up and he comes over to lend a hand. They put the fire out but the
landlord asks for a hatchet to help chop some of the smoldering wood away from the beams. The
hatchet is lifted out of the wood pile and it is found to be covered in blood the police will match
the hatchet to the wounds later on. What John Lee does now is he goes and raises the alarm with the
police. The next morning the police searched the property. In a drawer near to where John Lee slept
they found a razor-sharp knife. Miss Keyes was found to have had her throat slit so deep
she'd almost been decapitated. Also near to where John Lee slept, an empty paraffin can was found.
Three fires had been set in the dining room including one near the body of Miss Keyes.
The police surmise it's to burn the evidence. John Lee being the only man in the house,
he's arrested, suspect number one. But you know his own sister actually gave a statement
to say that he’d threatened Miss Keyes and he threatened to burn the house down and watch
it burn from on top of the cliff. The trial was swift. Now Reginald Templar, remember that name,
was his original defense attorney but he was ill, he had a mental illness so he had to withdraw
from the trial, but he now pays somebody else to defend John Lee. Now his defense attorney, this
new guy brings up a little subject here, he says Elizabeth, John Lee's half-sister, was pregnant.
Who was the lover? Was there another person involved? Because the house was all locked up, so
nobody had broken in. Was there another person in the house? Well they ignored that and John Lee was
found guilty and sentenced to death. He will be executed by hanging on the 23rd of February 1885.
Throughout the trial you know John Lee, he proclaimed his innocence,
and just a few days before the execution date, he's visited by a vicar and John Lee confesses to
him that there were two other people involved in the murder and he’s advised to make a statement,
which he did, which was then sent to the Home Secretary who refused clemency.
John Lee, he's gonna hang. And on the day of the execution
it's all set up and guess what Kev has made a model. Here it is. Now this is what should happen.
The excess rope is tied up, there is the condemned man he will step onto the trap door,
the hangman will pull the lever and he will plunge to his death through the trap doors.
That's what's supposed to happen. Let's just do a quick demonstration of that because I've made the
model and I'm quite pleased with it. The original gallows had been moved from place to place,
they weren't built purposely just for this hanging, but what should have happened is quite
straightforward. Now I'm holding the excess rope I just couldn't quite get it to work,
but all they had to do was press the lever to remove the bolt, the trapdoor gives way,
job done that's what should have happened, but what really happened was this. John stands
on the trap door the lever is pulled nothing happens, he feels the trapdoor give a little bit
but it doesn't go through. The executioner plus a couple of the guards stamp on the trap door and
it moves a little bit. Can you imagine being John, waiting for that drop? He is then maneuvered away.
From what I understand is he still has the bag over his head, they bring in warders to check it
out, they think that this has happened or that's going wrong so they even shave off a little bit
of the trap door. John is then brought all the way back on, he stands there and the lever is pulled.
Nothing happens. This poor man is taken to the one side again still with the rope around his neck for
goodness sake. They check it and they try it out, they put a sack of concrete on and it works, fine.
So they bring the poor man back. Now the third time pull the lever nothing happens.
The Chief Constable said it was actually four times,
well three or four times let's face it it's enough for any man because the medical officer
steps in now and he says enough's enough. This man has been through too much. He is taken back
to the condemned cell. Can you imagine his state of mind? What are they going
to do? They're going to bring me back out? Well what happens now is the governor of the prison
uh goes to London, meets with the Home Secretary and his sentence is commuted to life.
John Lee would spend the next 22 years in prison, but you know he'd always proclaimed his innocence,
all the way through the trial, all the way through his prison time. He'd even said to James Berry
the executioner just before the attempted first execution that he would take the secrets of who
was there in his heart to the grave. Well Reginald Templar, do you remember him? The solicitor,
the man who paid for the defense attorney for John Lee. Well this is the alternative story from John
Lee. He says the night of the murder four of them were down in the kitchen, that is his what his
half-sister Elizabeth and Reginald Templar her lover and the father of her unborn child. This
is a bit of a scandalous thing going on because uh Reginald is, he's up there, he's one of the toffs.
Elizabeth is just a common cook. Scandal in the making, unmarried mother all of that, illegitimate
child. John Lee he's also with a young lady downstairs but having a few drinks, bit of a laugh
they wake up Miss Keyes. She comes down, she is furious. Oh what's going on? She has a blazing row
with Reginald, he loses his temper and goes into a rage, a fit. Now don't forget this guy is unstable
and he hits her several times around the back of the head with a hatchet. He cannot afford
you see to be found out, he would be ruined. Together now they move the body upstairs,
they set the scene spread the paraffin around and set fire to the house. That is the alternate
story. Well John Lee though, what if John Lee was actually innocent? Now don't get me wrong because
he wasn't a good guy. What happened to him in the end? He becomes a minor celebrity, he sells his
story for a small fortune, he marries a nurse, they have a child and then when she's pregnant
the second time he abandons her to the workhouse. He's not actually that nice, and he absconds with
his new lover I believe to the United States of America and died in 1945 in Milwaukee,
in the northern part of the United States. It's a heck of a story, the man they couldn't hang.
Well I hope you enjoyed our video there a bit of a strange story but it's a true one, so if you did,
like, share and subscribe and don't forget to press the all notification button so you know
what's coming on down the line. A big shout out to our latest patreon member John Passoa, thanks
very much John for joining our little community there, without you guys I wouldn't be able to do
these great models so thanks a bunch and thanks a million to everybody out there. Bye for now.