Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-01-11
WOMAN AND YOUTH
HANGED FOR KILLING
FORMERS HUSBAND

son and Frederick Bywaters were
executed Tuesday for the murder of
the woman's husband, Percy Thomp-
son. on October 4. last.
Bywaters was executed in Pen.
tonville prison at 9 o'clock. Mrs.
Thompson was hanged a few min
utes later in Holloway jail.
The executions took place without
demonstrations on the part OF the
crowds that had gathered outside
both jails. Women marched In
drilling rain before the walls of
Holloway Jail carrying placards in
scribed: eff these are hanged, the
judge and jury are also guilty of
murder" and Murder can not abol-
ish murder"
The crowds gathered in the early
hours of the morning, aware that
British custom allows only few
officials to witness executions.
After last-minute efforts to re-
prieve the prisoners had failed,
Mrs. Thompson and Bywaters were
visited by their relatives. Mrs.
Thompson, in the course of her last
interview with her parents, brother
and sister, said: 81 am prepared. I
have nothing on my soul"
Bywaters, who made en- eleventh.
hour attempt to save Mrs. Thomp-
son by a confession" met his
death calmly, reports indicated.
Mrs. Thompson, who collapsed
last evening, had to be carried to
the scaffold.
Bywaters maintained that Mrs.
Thompson had had no part in the
killing of her husband and insist
ed that he had slain Thompson in
self defense. The woman, in her
last interview with her family, as
sured them that she went to death
with no guilt on her soul.
History of the Crime
The executions of Bywaters and
Mrs. Thompson brought to an eEd
one of Englands most sensational
murder cases since the Crippen af-
fair and, incidentally, provided the
first instance of capital punishment
Of a woman in England for fifteen
years.
Percy Thompson, a shipping clerk.
was stabbed to death in a dark
street near his home in Ilford, a
London suburb, October 4, last, while
returning from a theater with his
wife. When found, tie body was
propped against a wall, and his beau
tiful young wife was kneel4ng nearby
in q hysterical condition,
Upon the strength of her story to
the police, Bywaters, a 20-year-ol1
steamship, steward was arrested two
days later and accused Jointly with
Mrs. Thompson of murder. The po-
lice submitted at the hearing an al
legged confession in which Bywaters
appeared as declaring his love for
Mrs. Thompson had prompted the
act
Later letters were produced in
which Mrs. Thompson, addressing
Bywaters in the most endearing
terms, urged him to study the eff
feet of various poisons on the hu-
man system and told of bungling
several attempts on her husbands
life by introducing various sub
stances into his food. One letter
told of using powdered glass from
three electric light bulbs, but with
mo effect"
Interest in the case was intense,
and when the trial opened December
7, it was shown that Bywaters had
been a close friend OF Thompson's
for some time.
Bywat tiers himself declared on the
stand that he had seen Thompson
strike his wife, and he pleaded that
in attacking the husband he did not
intend to kill but to chastise him. He
declared he was forced to STAY In
self-defense. The evidence showed
that Bywaters and Mrs. Thompson
had been together the afternoon be-
fore the attack.
The jury, which included one WON
an returned verdict of guilty
against both defendants December
II, and sentences Of death were i'm
mediately pronounced. Mrs. Thomp-
son collapsed in the prisoners dock,
moaning:
II am not guilty! I am not gull
typ but Bywaters did not even
finch, although also proclaiming his
innocence.
The lord chief justice on Decem.
Der 81 dismissed the appeals of the
condemned couple, and appeals for
clemency were carried to home office.
the last resort, but without avail.
Petitions in favor OF Bywaters
wese signed by more than million
persons, but compare lively few came
out for Mrs. Thompson. Public sym
pathy for the man was based largely
on the belief that he was the unwill-
ing tool of the woma~, who was
eight years his senior.
The last message between the two
was entrusted last evening to the
Bishop of Stepney, who carried to
Mrs. Thompson from Bywaters some |
word which she took to the scaffold |
as a secret.
Shortly after her talk with the |
bishop in which she protested her
innocence, Mrs. Thompson collapsed. |