The Man They Could Not Hang

"John 'Babbacombe" Lee was one of the most notorious criminal figures of Victorian England. Convicted of the brutal murder of his elderly employer, he was condemned to hang but miraculously survived three execution attempts. The Babbacombe murder grabbed every available headline in 1884 and Lee's colourful life became the stuff of popular legend. As this engrossing new book reveals, the truth behind the legend is just as compelling." "In November 1884, elderly spinster Emma Keyse was found hacked to death in her burnt-out villa at Babbacombe Bay in south Devon. The man accused of her murder was, in classic 'whodunit' style, her young butler, John Lee. In a travesty of a trail - in which there were no defence witnesses, and Emma Keyse's death certificate had already recorded 'wilful murder by John Lee' - it was inevitable that Lee would be found guilty. The case gained its real notoriety, however, when Lee's sentence was to be carried out. Three times they tried to hang Lee and three times the scaffold's trap - which worked perfectly when he was not standing on it - failed to operate. Lee's sentence was commuted to life and his 'escape' was attributed to, variously, providence, witchcraft, incompetence, conspiracy and sabotage. Upon his release, after twenty-three years in prison, John Lee appeared to have achieved personal happiness when he married Jessie Bulled in 1909. However, a mere two years later, Lee deserted his family and disappeared. Accounts of his death emerged from Australia, Canada and the USA and it was even reported that he was alive during the London Blitz." "In this book, Mike Holgate and Ian David Waugh have uncovered new evidence on the identity of the murderer and on the reason behind the failure of the scaffold trap, and reveal the truth about John Lee's life and mysterious disappearance after his release."--Book jacket.