The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-03-04
Hangman .Calcraft.

stream III tlt NHVut'lS VI istll'tpii hllp" IL
30 jaantng clerks and holiday-making
schoolboys as the River Lee, where cock
ney youths t,l,c their aquatic diversion
on Saturday afternoon during the Sum
mer months. On the day, when the
river was deserted lean, pVnsire and
clerical person would frequent the banks
with Il book in one hand and fishing
rod in the other 1t was Calcraft, the
hangman. Where he came from, who
he was, why he had chosen his particu
lar profession, nobody ever know. lie
gend had it that he was a convict who
had been pardoned on the condition that
he would adopt the eXecutioners profes-
sion. Others averred that he had en-
braced it through certain morbid love
of death. Calcraft never betrayed his
secret, and all biographies Of the man
are fictitious. This alone is certain, that
he has executed, with punctuality and
dispatch, some of the most noted Grim
mails in the country. He entered the
business in 1888, about fifty years after
the Tyburn tree had been removed, and
the gallows was set up almost every
Monday morning in the narrow passage
between Fleet street and l.udgatc Hill,
known as the Old Bailey. He first
came into public notoriety at the hang
ing of James Greenacre in 1887. This
, man had murdered Hannah Brown, Il
woman to whom he had been engaged to
be married, and then cut the body into
pieces aud hid portions or it in various
parts Of London, the trunk being placed
under sack and concealed under some
lagstoucs under the Pineapple toll bar,
in Edgcwaro road. He confessed that
Hannah Brown had deceived him by
pretending to have some 5wooorty,
and tsat one might she called at
his lodgings and laughed at her
trick. III his rage lie swucl> her v..A
six ROLLER, aud the blow proving
mortal Il, formed the resolution OF cDt-
ting up and couc.a!iut the body 80
criminal case sane, the Uii Of nr
HoJd has stirred SO muvl excitement in
London. on tie NIGHT O. Gto.u4crr's
execution hundreds oi persons .,cpt ON
the at... o. the prison and o. 81. ~rp
u.cl.gs Church, and bows remained
aii nigh. cn-.ns ID ha lamp posts
The crowd, iu ia, streets Will Il away
iheui.a,in rbal jokes ami drunken
Lroais. t,ranae,c, when h' pleeai to
tAc ...'.o&s. wa, totally unnamed. lle
couli no. AuGeu.a.e the responses TO the
ordinary and had to be supported or he
wouil hav, fallen. Grceuacrss c,-ru-
tioa brought fame TO CalcrG.. lie did
not rest long ON hi, laurcls. Three
years later he was called ON to cary out
the sentence Of the law on Francis B.n
iamin Courvosicr Swiss valet, found
guilty Of the murder of his master, Lord
William Russell Lord William, who
was in his sd year, lived alone in his
house in Norfolk street, Park Lane,
with his establishment of two maids and
Couryoisicr, the body servant. On the
morning of the murder the housemaid
found his study in disorder and enter
ing his bedroom with Courvoisicr saw
that his head was nearly severed from
his body. Two bank notes supposed to
have been taken from Lord William $
body, were found behind the skirting
board of the buffers pantry. Those
notes convicted Courvoisicr. He was
hanged on July 6, 1910. Upward of
10000 persons were present at the
I. Al i I'll .l.,, ,