Hi my name's Kevin Hicks welcome to my YouTube
channel the History Squad. Now today's video has been voted for by my Patreon members.
Hey guys. This is the story about John Lee John Babbacombe Lee the man who couldn't
be hanged now I first heard about this as a young teenager listening to the folk rock
group Fairport convention because they did a whole uh album about John Lee and so I've
known about it I've been to Babbacombe, it's down in Devon now a suburb of Torquay I
understand, but it all begins with a murder. The murder victim Miss Emma Keyes lived in the
most beautiful house right on the waterfront at Babbacombe Bay, The Glenn. It was a thatched house
I've seen a photograph of it, absolutely beautiful now she was a dower kind of a lady, a bit
religious, well to do though I'm sure because she had servants. She had John Lee, was nominally
called her butler. There was a cook, Elizabeth Harris, that's John Lee's half-sister then
Eliza and Jane Neck who were her lady servants, so she quite well to do to have those. She was
in dispute with the local fishermen over fishing rights so she could get quite angry from what I
can gather but there's an extra character here, he was a caller from the should we call him the
Victorian set from the cliffs above, the well to do, and that was Reginald Templar a solicitor so
you'll hear a little bit more about him later on. The brutal murder of Miss Keyes took place
overnight 14th, 15th of November 1884. It was around about 3:30 in the morning that the maid
Eliza raises the alarm when she smells smoke. She goes downstairs discovers the body of Miss Keyes
who's been beaten round the back of their head. She says that John Lee was already there and had
blood stains on his on his shirt. John Lee reckons he was fast asleep in bed when the maid wakes him
up. Everybody now is awake, the place is on fire. Miss Keyes is dead. John Lee goes outside smashes
one of the dining room windows cutting his hand in the process, he says to let the smoke out he
then runs over to the Cary Arms, the local pub, where the landlord is woken up and he comes over
to lend a hand. They put the fire out but the landlord asks for a hatchet to help chop some
of the smoldering wood away from the beams. The hatchet is lifted out of the wood pile and it is
found to be covered in blood the police will match the hatchet to the wounds later on. What John Lee
does now is he goes and raises the alarm with the police. The next morning the police searched the
property. In a drawer near to where John Lee slept they found a razor-sharp knife. Miss Keyes
was found to have had her throat slit so deep she'd almost been decapitated. Also near to where
John Lee slept, an empty paraffin can was found. Three fires had been set in the dining room
including one near the body of Miss Keyes. The police surmise it's to burn the evidence.
John Lee being the only man in the house, he's arrested, suspect number one. But you
know his own sister actually gave a statement to say that he’d threatened Miss Keyes and he
threatened to burn the house down and watch it burn from on top of the cliff. The trial was
swift. Now Reginald Templar, remember that name, was his original defense attorney but he was ill,
he had a mental illness so he had to withdraw from the trial, but he now pays somebody else to
defend John Lee. Now his defense attorney, this new guy brings up a little subject here, he says
Elizabeth, John Lee's half-sister, was pregnant. Who was the lover? Was there another person
involved? Because the house was all locked up, so nobody had broken in. Was there another person in
the house? Well they ignored that and John Lee was found guilty and sentenced to death. He will be
executed by hanging on the 23rd of February 1885. Throughout the trial you know John
Lee, he proclaimed his innocence, and just a few days before the execution date,
he's visited by a vicar and John Lee confesses to him that there were two other people involved in
the murder and he’s advised to make a statement, which he did, which was then sent to
the Home Secretary who refused clemency. John Lee, he's gonna hang. And
on the day of the execution it's all set up and guess what Kev has made a
model. Here it is. Now this is what should happen. The excess rope is tied up, there is the
condemned man he will step onto the trap door, the hangman will pull the lever and he will
plunge to his death through the trap doors. That's what's supposed to happen. Let's just do a
quick demonstration of that because I've made the model and I'm quite pleased with it. The original
gallows had been moved from place to place, they weren't built purposely just for this
hanging, but what should have happened is quite straightforward. Now I'm holding the excess
rope I just couldn't quite get it to work, but all they had to do was press the lever
to remove the bolt, the trapdoor gives way, job done that's what should have happened,
but what really happened was this. John stands on the trap door the lever is pulled nothing
happens, he feels the trapdoor give a little bit but it doesn't go through. The executioner plus
a couple of the guards stamp on the trap door and it moves a little bit. Can you imagine being John,
waiting for that drop? He is then maneuvered away. From what I understand is he still has the bag
over his head, they bring in warders to check it out, they think that this has happened or that's
going wrong so they even shave off a little bit of the trap door. John is then brought all the way
back on, he stands there and the lever is pulled. Nothing happens. This poor man is taken to the one
side again still with the rope around his neck for goodness sake. They check it and they try it out,
they put a sack of concrete on and it works, fine. So they bring the poor man back. Now the
third time pull the lever nothing happens. The Chief Constable said
it was actually four times, well three or four times let's face it it's
enough for any man because the medical officer steps in now and he says enough's enough. This
man has been through too much. He is taken back to the condemned cell. Can you imagine
his state of mind? What are they going to do? They're going to bring me back out? Well
what happens now is the governor of the prison uh goes to London, meets with the Home
Secretary and his sentence is commuted to life. John Lee would spend the next 22 years in prison,
but you know he'd always proclaimed his innocence, all the way through the trial, all the way through
his prison time. He'd even said to James Berry the executioner just before the attempted first
execution that he would take the secrets of who was there in his heart to the grave. Well Reginald
Templar, do you remember him? The solicitor, the man who paid for the defense attorney for John
Lee. Well this is the alternative story from John Lee. He says the night of the murder four of them
were down in the kitchen, that is his what his half-sister Elizabeth and Reginald Templar her
lover and the father of her unborn child. This is a bit of a scandalous thing going on because uh
Reginald is, he's up there, he's one of the toffs. Elizabeth is just a common cook. Scandal in the
making, unmarried mother all of that, illegitimate child. John Lee he's also with a young lady
downstairs but having a few drinks, bit of a laugh they wake up Miss Keyes. She comes down, she is
furious. Oh what's going on? She has a blazing row with Reginald, he loses his temper and goes into a
rage, a fit. Now don't forget this guy is unstable and he hits her several times around the back
of the head with a hatchet. He cannot afford you see to be found out, he would be ruined.
Together now they move the body upstairs, they set the scene spread the paraffin around
and set fire to the house. That is the alternate story. Well John Lee though, what if John Lee was
actually innocent? Now don't get me wrong because he wasn't a good guy. What happened to him in the
end? He becomes a minor celebrity, he sells his story for a small fortune, he marries a nurse,
they have a child and then when she's pregnant the second time he abandons her to the workhouse.
He's not actually that nice, and he absconds with his new lover I believe to the United States
of America and died in 1945 in Milwaukee, in the northern part of the United States. It's
a heck of a story, the man they couldn't hang. Well I hope you enjoyed our video there a bit of a
strange story but it's a true one, so if you did, like, share and subscribe and don't forget to
press the all notification button so you know what's coming on down the line. A big shout out
to our latest patreon member John Passoa, thanks very much John for joining our little community
there, without you guys I wouldn't be able to do these great models so thanks a bunch and thanks
a million to everybody out there. Bye for now.
