John 'Babbacombe' Lee - The man they couldn't hang'

In 1884, Lee was employed as a footman at the Glen in Babbacombe, Torquay. In November of that year there was a fire and Miss Keyse the mistress of the house was found dead, with her throat cut. It seemed that the fire was started to conceal the crime. The police quickly arrested Lee for the murder, based on some circumstantial evidence.

On February 5th,1885, he was found guilty of murder at Exeter Assizes in the Guildhall, and sentenced to hang despite protesting his innocence. He is said to have told the judge when asked why he was so calm, ’The reason I am so calm, is that I trust in the Lord, and he knows that I am innocent.’

Early on the morning of February 23rd, 1885, John Lee was led to the gallows in the Exeter prison courtyard. The press who were to witness the execution, later accounted that everything was fairly emotionless. He was walked to the trapdoor, the noose placed round his neck, the lever pulled to draw the bolt - the trapdoor didn’t budge. The hangman, John Berry pulled the lever a second time - the trapdoor again failed to open, it was stuck fast. Lee was taken back to his cell, and workmen where called to fix the fault and test the mechanism. When ready, Lee was returned to the scaffold, positioned with the noose around his neck and Berry for the third time, pulled the lever - the trapdoor again refused to budge. The witnesses were stunned, unable to explain what had happened.

The newspapers rushed to their deadlines, reporting on the 'man they could not hang'. The Home Secretary was contacted, who authorised a delay and after a Parliamentary debate, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

Lee served 22 years in prison, and was released in 1907. He married a Newton Abbot girl in 1909 and after having two children, disappeared in 1911. It was later said that Lee was killed in the blitz, but it was never confirmed.