The man who couldn't be hanged three times (4 photos)

On the cold morning of February 23, 1885, a small but important crowd gathered at Exeter Gaol: the executioner, a priest, a doctor, the governor, and a few witnesses.





On the scaffold stood twenty-year-old John Lee—a former cabin boy, a petty thief, and, according to the court, the murderer of the elderly widow Emma Key, for whom he worked as a servant. The evidence was circumstantial: he was the only man in the house on the night of the murder, a fresh cut was found on his hand, and his past was not reassuring. The sentence was clear and unwavering: death by hanging.

James Berry, one of the most experienced executioners in Victorian England, was appointed executioner. He had personally checked the gallows mechanism the day before and the next morning: the trapdoor opened easily, the noose was new, everything worked perfectly. John Lee calmly listened to the priest's final words, a white cap was placed on him, and the noose was tightened. Berry pulled the lever, and to everyone's surprise, nothing happened. The trapdoor remained in place.



The condemned man was removed, and the executioner checked the mechanism again. Everything worked perfectly again. Lee was returned to the planks, and the procedure was repeated. The second time, the same result was achieved. For the third time, the hatch again refused to open. The doctor present at the execution became hysterical and demanded that the execution be stopped. The crowd outside the prison walls was already shouting for a miracle.

The Home Secretary received an urgent message and cancelled the execution. John Lee returned to his cell alive. A month later, his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and in 1907, after twenty-two years of exemplary behavior, he was released altogether. He lived until 1945 and died at a ripe old age, forever remembered in history as "the man they couldn't hang."





The commission's official version: due to dampness and bad weather, the hatch planks swelled and warped slightly under the weight of a man. Modern forensic experts believe the cause was improper installation of the hinges and the fact that the hatch was tested without a 70 kg load.

John Lee himself claimed to the end of his life that he was saved by the "hand of God." Executioner James Berry wrote in his memoirs (1886) that he still cannot explain what happened and that it was the most terrible day of his career. And the British still tell this story as one of the most mysterious chapters in their criminal history.