Penistone, Stocksbridge and Hoyland Express, etc. — 1915-07-24 (Penistone, South Yorkshire, England)

RELEASE OF FRED BACKHOUSE.  A Crime Expiated.  Piccadilly Murder Recalled.  ' To-day (Friday) Frederick Lewder Baskhouse will be released on ticket-of-leave from the Maidstone Convici Prison, having served • fifteen years of life sentence for his share in the Piccadilly murder of July 10th, 1000. Baokhouse and his brother in an affray at Piccadilly mortally wounded a police constable, Jno. William Kew. at Piccadilly, by shooting him with a revolver. The brother. • Charlee Benjamin Baskhouse, pa id the extreme penalty of the crime, and was hanged. The younger brother. Frederick. who was then 19. was sentenced to death. hot I his sentence was commuted to one of peas! servitude for life. Ibiring his lonf captivity Frederick Backhonse has been an exemplary prisoner, as is proved by the fact that his release has matured in a minimum of time. He appears to have been very industrious, and comes back to freedom with expert knowledge of bookbinding to help him Make a fresh start in life. The Piccadilly tragedy will be fresh in the minds of a great many of our readers. It created a profound sensation at the time. However, it may be well to recapitulate briefly the essentials of the story. Frederick Hackbouse was summoned at the Rotherham Police Court on the 9th of July. Laoo, for an assault upon the wife of Charles. For that offence he was fined, and P.c. Kew, the resident officer of Piccadilly, was instructed to collect. the fin' or to carry out arrest under commitment, In the meantime the brothers Charles and Frederick had purchased at Parkgate a revolver and some cartridges, and later the same evening, in consequence of information received at the High Nouse Hotel of a conversation which had taken place there between the brothers and other persons. Police-constable Kew went to the home of the Backhouses and said: "1 sin entitled to search you both. Charles and Fred." lie attempted to get hold of Charles, and immediately he did so Charles drew out the revolver, aimed deliberately at the lower part of the constable's body, and fired. The constable doubled up, and said: !" Why have you done that, Charles? You have shot me and I have never done you any ' harm." There was one witness of the affair, a man named Wheeler, but he was so terrified he ran away. The report was heard by ' a man named Inkefinan William Gibbing. who came on the scene, and saw the wounded constable holding Charles. Ile also saw . Charles pass he revolver to Frederick, who fired a second shot at the constable. The constable, however, was able to arrest Charles, and he took him as far as his own house some seventy yards away. Frederick followed them, and was found outside the policeman's window, where he admitted that • both of them had shot hew, and where he was arrested, hew was only aware that the I elder brother had shot him, and it appears that the first shot, and not the second. was I fatal. Cpon being charged. Frederick again admitted that both he and his brother had shot the policeman, and further added that i they were drunk at the time. They were I committed by the Rotherham West Riding I magistrates Uf the Assizes on July 17th. At I the Assizes held on July 2Sth. the Back' houses were sentenced to death by Mr. Justice Ridley, after they had been brilliantly defended by Mr. E. A. Mitchell-Tunes, now N.C., who urged, in an impassioned speech. I that the unhappy conduct of the men was innocent of anything approaching murderous I intent. Charies Backhouse was hanged at  Armley Gaol on August 15th, in company with a man named Tom Mellor, convicted for child murder at Holbock. Mellor also being a former resident of Swinton. On .August Mb the Governor of .Armley Gaol received an intimation that the death sentence upon Frederick Backhouse, who had been recommended to mercy by the jury, had been commuted to one of penal servitude for life The lesser penalty has now been paid and reaches its conclusion to-day. In the interval between the tragedy thus briefly recalled, and Backhouse's final release, his family have removed from the district.