San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-30
By John Ellis
Official Executioner of Great Britain

!. !" 4 ! /:
age it this middle-aged EM##a
lover of religious turn of
mind would go to Birming- 81
ham to visit the woman he * 49,
ought not to have loved and lssz
never abated one jot of his
attentions for all the active M
opposition of Mrs Harrisons sons.
The rift in the affair, which
neither quaels nor threats could Who H., I H.n,
produce, came at last through jeal- Nor. Than Tw
ousy Some time in October he Wom ,on
began to doubt Mrs Harrisons Photographers HI
constancy, and from that time mat Of HI. Pc. pos
tiers went quickly toward the tragic
crisis.
On the morning of the 18th of that month Mrs.
Harrsons sons departed for their work. leaving her
alone 1t is probable that Davis was lurking about,
watching, for very shortly afterward neghbor saw
him steal into the house.
Two voices raised high in angry talk told of a
quarrel in progress. No doubt Davis was reproach-
ing the woman, while she both denied his allegations
and challenged his right to control her movements.
A woman's scream rings out The neighbor runs
sffrighted into her garden, and glancing over the
partition WALL sees Mrs. Harrison stagger forth with
her head hanging horribly one side, and moaning,
What shall do? What shall / do ?"
The neighbor, seeing blood jumps at once to
dreadful conclusion. Without waiting for proof, she
cries as Davis appears and makes for the street:
Murder! Stop him! He has cut womans
throatw
The woman's instructive cries saved the police
the trouble of hunting for John Davis crowd
gathered Tin the usual miraculous fashion and pre-
vented Davis from escaping. He was in the
hands of the police, and Mrs Harrison died hour
after being removed to the hospital.
Davis took the line of denying the murder He
declared Mrs. Harison's wounds were self inflicted.
She had complained, so he said, of very bad head
ache, and had then suddenly taken out of his hand
the razor which he going to shave with, and had
cut her own throat
This explanation was easily rebutted, and the
jury's duty only too clear, so they found him
guilty without much hesitation
few days after he was sentenced to death the
postman handed me letter which could tell by
glance at the envelope in reference to Daviss
execution. ] assumed it would be request to act
once more as assistant but to my delight twas
offer to carry out the capital sentence in the senior
capacity, with another man as my assistant.
Naturally, i accepted with alacrity. / do not
think my wife ever fully approved of my adopted
profession, but when told her had received this
appointment to carry out an execution on my own
she really for the first time manifested an open
anxiety that should succeed and give satisfaction
went to Warwick, filled with a due sense of the
importance of the occasion. Never in my previous
FIVE years as an assistant had fully realized the
weight of responsibility that falls upon an execu-
toners shoulders.
If the doomed man Davis had been phegmatic
fellow as are so many occupants of the condemned
CELL perhaps would not have felt my position so
keenly. His behavior from the moment he was sem
fenced to the hour Of his execution very different
from the average man in his position, and this nat
urally affected me considerably.
Davis never seemed to completely recover from
the shock of the passing of the death sentence.
questionably he was awfully upset when he came