San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-09-27
By John Ellis
Official Executioner Of Great Britain
CHAPTER vi.
(continued from Last Sunday


f 1928 by Weekly. Rights Reserved
LONDON, September 90
IF man in my position worried himself very much
about the possibilities of the innocence of men he
has hanged he would very quickly be inside
lunatic asylum. Consequently have always been
glad that have the faculty of quickly putting out Of
my mind anything unpleasant connected with
execution have performed.
To outsiders however, ] am aware this question
of the hanging of possibly innocent men is one Of
intense fascination. Several times in my career !
have been the storm centre of agtatons of this kind
One of these cases springs to my mind at the moment
the Hooded Man" mystery at Eastbourne, Eng
land, which a very unusual case.
Let me state right away that in none of my cases
have felt any computations about the man am to
hang Ihave supreme faith in the justice of British
law. If there is doubt, the condemned man inva-
riably gets the benefit of it. and proof of this
may say that quite half the men l have been en-
gagged to execute have been repreved.
Therefore, if John Williams, the Hooded Man"
of the Eastbourne murder case, had had any really
truthful basis to his pleas of innocence he would
most certainly not have persisted on the gallows.
The AsSizes Court jury thought him guilty, the
judges in the Court of Criminal Appeal thought him
guilty, and the Home Secretary, the final arbter of
his fate, evidently thought the same.
, In face of all this he must surely have been
guilty. And yet there many features in his
that have bothered me. Certain points were dealt
with in way that strikes me as unsatisfactory. al
though still firmly believe it he who shot In
spector Walls, of Scotland Yard.
From the point Of view of the public one of the
most attractive things in the case was the air of mys
terry that surrounded the accused In order that
witnesses who would have to swear to identification
should not be prejudced in any way, John WiliamSs
face was hooded" when he made his police court
appearances, and from this he obtained the of
1.-THE Hooded Murderer"
1t was believed too, that behind the mask of the
name John Williams he concealed his true name,
and that showed him to of high-bred stock,
and though at the time for family reasons the full
truth was concealed from the world, it is now pos
sibe for me to draw the veil that hid so many facts
in the Eastbourne murder.
In its essentials this murder was not very re-
markabe affair. 1t simply the case of bur-
glar, surprised by officer, shooting the latter and
escaping There is surely nothing romantic in that
but there many side issues to it that it rose
eventually to a frSt-clasS mystery and aroused
heated discussions.
The scene Of the murder was at No 6 South Cliff
avenue EastbOune, the residence of Countess
Sztaray The Countess was leaving her home to 20
out driving with friend when the coachman in
formed her that he had observed man like bur
glar CrOuched on top of the porch. Immediately on
hearing this the Countess drove back to the house
and telephOned the police.
"A vivid story of the dramatic series of telephone
messages which preceded the murder was given by
Constable John Luck at the inquest.
81 sent telephone message to Inspector Walls"
he said, Immediately after | had received tele-
phone call from the house of the Countess. The
Countess message was, Send constable here at
once, there is lying on the porch of the
front door and we think he viii get in through the