San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-18
BY John Ellis
Official Hangman of Great Britain
CHAPTER TX.
Concluded from Last Sunday


keeping with the cheerful sunlight that soften
ing the harsh outlines of the gloomy prison buildings
And the particular task that awaited me within
one of the very very few cases in all my years
of experience that really worried me. felt that in
this instance British justce-usually magnani-
mous-had not erred on the side of mercy.
Perhaps if / tell you the circumstances under
which first set eyes on the morrows doomed victim
of the gallows you will understand my feelings
better.
few minutes after my arrival in the prison
was conducted to a spot from which l could obtain
that glimpse of the condemned person which, as
have often said hangman is bound to take if he is
to calculate the required length of drop" accu-
rately. They took me to window in what is known
the Magistrates Room, which overlooked the ex-
ercise yard.
Peering through furtivey, saw most extraordi.
nary thing. He whom the Law had declared must
die in little than twelve hours time was playing
cricket!
Yes-enthusiasticaly playing cricket! And what
child he looked! For gazing down upon
Henry Jacoby, the hotel pantry boy, whose murder
Of Lady White in an exclusive West End London pr-
waite hotel mystfed the whole of Britain until he
lifted the veil himself.
His crime was most obviously the unreasoning
frightened act of one whose mental growth had not
kept pace with his tender years-for he was
only eghteen-but the authorities refused to give an
extension of life to this youthful murderer.
When saw the youth playing cricket, an old tin
stuck against large door served for wckets and
a piece of rough-hewn wood was his bat. And
there Henry Jacoby played his last game with uni
formed warden acting as bowler.
Whatever feelings had about this case were
doubly confirmed as stood and watched that incon-
gruous scene. Jacoby was laughing and chattering
and enjoying himself as only youth who has
not in the world. And thought then that it
was wrong to hang that child.
In saying that do not desire to abate one lot all
the sympathy due to the bereaved relatives of the
murdered lady. Nothing can excuse such fearful
crime committed that fatal night in the Spen-
Ger Hotel, in Portman street
The crime that brought youthful Jacoby to the
gaows which in its early days attracted the
attention of numerous famous criminoogists besides
those officially connected with the police force. For
in its bare elements the murder of poor Lady White
presented as complete and insoluble mystery as
a novelist invented.
The victim who was the widow of a former chair
man of the London County Council, hadn't known
enemy in the world. She had not been robbed in
spite of the fact that many articles of valuable jew
elry were lying exposed on her dressing table.
Yet she was found dying on her bed in quiet,
exclusive hotel by her maid one morning, the inju-
ries of her skull being dreadful that she could not
be removed. She died without regaining conscious
And not only there no apparent motive
for the dastardly deed, but experts disputed among
themselves to how her assailant gained entrance
and made his escape without leaving the slightest
trace.
In private hotel of this class there is no free
passage in and out. All doors are locked, almost as
much by day as by night Not one of these doors
showed the slightest sign of having been tempered
with. The same applied to the windows.
Neither was there a single finger print anywhere
to guide the Scotland Yard men, who were early on
the job of hunting down the assassin. The thing
positively uncanny, and afforded an open field for
every imaginable conjecture.
Suddenly the whole affair took most amazing
turn. One phrase of three words uttered by a mere
eighteen-year-old pantry boy in the hotel dispeed
the atmosphere of mystery that had up till then de-
fed penetration by the sharpest wits
Il did it' nonchalanty remarked Henry Jacoby.
And following these words he proceeded without
the slightest hesitation to tell the whole tragic story
II sat on my bed" he stated until about ten
minutes to two. made up my mind to go upstairs
to the visitors bedrooms to try to get some money
to steal it, if there any there.
1T occurred to me to prepare for emergency in
case got caught up there, thought would take
a hammer with and use it if | was caught and