FIRST WORLD WAR TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS

Britain's Traitors, Spies and Killers 1914-1918. The scale of battlefield slaughter in the Great War makes us forget that the processes of criminal trial and execution continued at home throughout the period. This fascinating book is an account of capital punishment during WWI, with details of the trials and executions of over 30 murderers and traitors. Chapters on the public hangmen consider their training and methods, including John Ellis who took his own life shortly after retiring as chief executioner in 1924. Between 1900 and 1964 there was one execution on average every two or three weeks, and during the period covered by this book the average was one every month. The author starts with razors as a murder weapon and goes through murder methods including the axe, poker, gun, knife and beating. 71-year old Charles Frembd killed his wife with a razor, probably under the influence of Alzheimer's, but insisted he was of sound mind which together with the fact that he was German led to his death sentence. The Bloomsbury Mystery was a poker murder involving the dismembered body of Emelienne Gerard whose lover was a butcher. The famous pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury was called in, but in the years following the execution a question arose as to whether the butcher's imprisoned accomplice Bertha Roche might have been the actual killer. Spilsbury was also instrumental in convicting George Smith, the Brides in the Bath murderer, demonstrating to the jury how it was possible to kill someone in only a few inches of water. Smith hurled abuse at witnesses and finally admitted that he was "a bit peculiar", though denying murder. Another famous trial was that of Sir Roger Casement, an English diplomat who collaborated with the Germans to eject the English from Ireland in the cause of Irish nationalism. John Ellis said Casement met his death more bravely than any other condemned man. 174pp, photos.