Armley Prison opened in Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1847 and was constructed on the then modern Panopticon principle with four wings radiating from a central tower.
It was a grim and forbidding building in line with Victorian ideas of imprisonment and was responsible for housing prisoners sentenced in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
It also took over the duty of carrying out West Riding executions from York Castle, as recorded in our historical survey of execution sites from the late 18th century to abolition in 1964.
Ninety-three men and one woman were to suffer the death penalty at Armley between 1864 and 1961, an average of almost exactly one per annum.
Under the name of HM Prison Leeds, Armley continues in service to this day as a Category B local men’s prison.
Executions at Armley Prison
There was to be only one public execution outside the jail—a double hanging on the 10th of September 1864.
It was of murderers James Sargisson and Joseph Myers.
Myers had tried to cheat the hangman by cutting his throat while in prison, but was saved by the surgeon.
The hangings were reported in detail by The Leeds Mercury newspaper, which claimed that between 80,000 to 100,000 people had come to watch the event on that Saturday morning.
At five minutes to nine, the prison bell began to toll, and inside the two men were pinioned by Thomas Askern of York.
They were led out onto the gallows supported on each side by warders and preceded by the Under Sheriff and the Chaplain.
Askern pulled down the white caps over their faces, but both men continued to speak; Sargisson’s last words to Myers were reportedly:
“Art thou happy lad?”
to which Myers responded:
“Indeed I am.”
Askern then operated the drop, which fell with a thud, their bodies being almost completely hidden from the crowd below the draped platform, operating via the short drop method.
Myers seemed to die almost immediately, but Sargisson struggled for some minutes.
As feared, the wound in Myers’ throat had reopened and there was an amount of blood on his shirt.
After hanging the customary hour, they were removed from the gallows and buried within the prison.
The Botched Hanging of John Henry Johnson (1877)
Botched executions were not uncommon at this time, and “a shocking scene” was reported by the Yorkshire Post newspaper following the hanging of 37-year-old John Henry Johnson on Wednesday the 3rd of April 1877.
Johnson had been condemned for the murder of Amos Waite, who had been showing interest in Johnson’s wife Amelia on Boxing Day 1876.
After a drunken quarrel in the pub where they were all drinking, Johnson went home, returning a little while later with a gun and shot Waite in the chest.
Thomas Askern was called to Leeds to dispatch Johnson and had made the usual preparations on the Tuesday afternoon.
However, when he pulled the lever the rope snapped, and Johnson plummeted through the trap into the pit below.
He was immediately rescued by the warders, who removed his straps and hood and sat him on a chair.
It took Askern 10 minutes to rig a new rope and reset the trap before Johnson could again be led up onto it.
This time the rope held, but it was reported that Johnson “died hard”, struggling for some four minutes on the rope.
His death was formally recorded as being from asphyxia, but no official mention was made in the medical report of the failure of the first attempt to hang him.
It was to be Askern’s last execution at Armley.
Charles Peace: The Infamous Master Criminal (1879)
The most infamous Victorian criminal to die at Armley was Charles Peace, who was hanged by William Marwood on Monday, February 25th, 1879:
“For that I done but never intended”
as Peace declared.
Peace was a violent career criminal who had murdered two people, one of them a police constable, and was serving a sentence of penal servitude for life for armed robbery and the attempted murder of another policeman who was trying to arrest him.
Peace was born in Sheffield in May 1832 to non-criminal parents.
By the age of 14, he was working in a steel rolling mill, where he was badly injured in the leg by a piece of red-hot steel, leaving him with a permanent limp.
After this, he turned to crime, with his first recorded conviction being for house burglary in 1851, for which he was given a month in prison.
His next conviction for the same offence came in October 1854, when he was sentenced to four years’ penal servitude at Doncaster Sessions.
This was followed by a six-year sentence in 1859 and an eight-year sentence in 1866.
He tried to escape during this term of imprisonment from Wakefield Prison, but was recaptured and spent the next six years in various convict prisons up to 1872, after which he returned to Sheffield.
In 1875, Peace moved out of Sheffield into the suburb of Darnall, where he met a Mr. and Mrs. Dyson.
Peace was a womaniser and began having an affair with Mrs. Dyson—or at least so he claimed, while she denied it.
She had certainly accompanied him to music halls and pubs, but it seems that she had rejected his sexual advances, which enraged him.
Peace threatened to kill Mr. Dyson, and Dyson in turn took out a legal injunction against Peace to force him to leave the couple alone.
Peace relocated for a time, moving to Hull and opening an eating house.
His burglaries continued, and one night he travelled to Manchester, armed as usual with a revolver.
Peace was spotted by two police constables in the grounds of a house at Whalley Range around midnight on the 1st of August 1876.
Police Constable Nicholas Cock tried to intercept him, but Peace drew his revolver and warned Cock to stand back, firing a warning shot.
Cock drew his truncheon and advanced towards Peace, who fired a second time, fatally wounding him.
Peace escaped back to Hull.
Two local young men, brothers John and William Habron, were arrested for the murder; William Habron was convicted and sentenced to death, but was fortunately reprieved and later granted a full free pardon when Peace confessed.
Peace’s second murder was that of Mr. Arthur Dyson on the 29th of November 1876, whose wife he still pursued.
He went to the Dysons’ home and during an argument shot Mr. Dyson through the head, killing him instantly.
Once again he escaped back to Hull, where he narrowly avoided arrest after Mrs. Dyson identified him as her husband’s killer.
A large reward was offered for his capture, making him the nation’s most wanted fugitive.
He moved constantly from town to town, eventually arriving in London, where he evaded capture for over two years.
Peace had always had a love of music and musical instruments, setting up as a dealer in them in Peckham, partially as a respectable front for his nocturnal burglaries.
He frequently carried his housebreaking tools concealed in a violin case.
He lived in comfortable middle-class style from the proceeds of his thefts, living with a “Mrs. Thompson” as his mistress.
This lady’s real name was Susan Bailey (née Gray), and she was eventually the one who betrayed him to the authorities.
His career as a London burglar lasted from early 1877 until the 10th of October 1878, when he was caught red-handed by three police officers while burgling a house in Blackheath.
Peace fired several shots at Constable Edward Robinson, wounding him, before being overpowered.
When questioned, he gave his name as John Ward and was tried and convicted under this alias.
Susan Thompson was also arrested for attempting to dispose of stolen goods; she disclosed to police that “Ward” was in reality the fugitive Charles Peace, hoping to claim the reward money.
A detective from Yorkshire travelled to London and positively identified Peace in Newgate Prison.
Peace stood trial at the Old Bailey in November 1878 for burglary and the attempted murder of the police officer, receiving a life sentence.
However, he had now to answer for the capital murder of Arthur Dyson and was conveyed by train to Sheffield on the 18th of January 1879.
During the journey north, he attempted to escape by throwing himself through the carriage window while the train was travelling at speed near Kiveton Park, but was recaptured.
His trial before Mr. Justice Lopes began on the 4th of February 1879, with Mr. Campbell Foster, Q.C., leading for the Crown and Mr. Frank Lockwood defending.
Mrs. Dyson was the principal witness, and forensic evidence established that the fatal bullet matched the rifling of the revolver recovered from Peace at Blackheath.
The jury deliberated for just 10 minutes before returning a verdict of guilty, and sentence of death was passed.
The Times observed that since the Franz Müller murder and the crimes of William Palmer, no trial had aroused such intense public interest.
In the condemned cell at Armley, Peace formally confessed to the 1876 shooting of PC Cock, thereby securing William Habron’s release and exoneration.
His execution took place on Tuesday the 25th of February 1879, attended by four newspaper reporters under Marwood’s supervision, utilizing the evolution of the long drop in the 20th century.
As Marwood attempted to place the white hood over his head, Peace asked for a glass of water (which was refused) and addressed the journalists.
His last words were reported to be:
“My last thoughts are for children and their mother, a wonderful woman, they mustn’t worry about me I know where I am going. I am going to Heaven.”
A waxwork tableau of Peace on the scaffold with Marwood was immediately installed at Madame Tussauds.
Hangmen at Armley: James Billington’s Debut (1884)
James Billington’s first execution as an official executioner took place at Armley Gaol on the 26th of August 1884.
He hanged a hawker from Sheffield named Joseph Laycock, who had murdered his wife and four children.
On the scaffold, Laycock asked:
“You will not hurt me?”
to which Billington replied in his broad Yorkshire dialect:
“No, tha’ll nivver feel it, for tha’ll be out of existence i’ two minutes.”
Emily Swann: The Only Female Execution at Armley (1903)
On Tuesday the 29th of December 1903, Emily Swann, the only woman executed at Armley, was hanged by William Billington and John Ellis.
She was executed alongside her 30-year-old lover, John Gallagher, for the murder of her abusive husband, William Swann, at Wombwell.
Standing hooded and noosed on the trapdoors of the double gallows, Emily said:
“Good morning John”
to which Gallagher replied:
“Good morning love.”
Emily then added:
“Goodbye, God bless you”
just before the drop fell, cutting short any further words.
20th-Century Capital Cases and Double Hangings
Edwin Sowerby (31/12/1920)
Twenty-eight-year-old Edwin Sowerby, a miner from Crofton near Wakefield, was hanged on Thursday, December 31st, 1920, for the murder of his former girlfriend, 19-year-old Jane Darwell.
He had taken the termination of their courtship severely to heart.
When he encountered Jane at a village dance in the schoolroom at Crofton on the night of October 25th, he walked across the floor and slashed her throat with a razor in front of numerous witnesses.
His defence of insanity resulting from wounds sustained during World War I was rejected by the assize jury in 20 minutes.
On the eve of execution, Sowerby gave all his personal possessions to his sister, retaining only a photograph—believed to be of Jane—which he carried onto the scaffold.
This was the 50th execution at Armley, carried out by Thomas Pierrepoint.
The post-mortem certified death by cervical fracture.
The Sheffield Gang Murders: Bostock and the Fowler Brothers (1925)
On the 3rd of September 1925, Thomas Pierrepoint carried out a double hanging at Armley, followed the next morning by a single execution.
The two men executed together on September 3rd were Alfred Bostock, who had murdered his pregnant mistress Elizabeth Sherratt at Rawmarsh, and 23-year-old Wilfred Fowler, a member of a notorious Sheffield street gang.
Wilfred’s brother and gang leader, Lawrence Fowler, was hanged alone the following day, the 4th of September, for the same crime.
The Fowler brothers had led a gang terrorising Sheffield in the 1920s.
When gang member Trimmer Welsh was bested in a fair fight by ex-boxer William Plommer outside a local pub, and a secondary ambush by Wilfred Fowler also failed against Plommer, the gang assembled an armed mob of a dozen men.
They attacked Plommer outside his home, beating, kicking, and stabbing him to death.
The executions of Wilfred and Lawrence Fowler effectively dismantled the violent gang culture in Sheffield.
Riley and Roberts: The Final Double Hanging (1932)
The last double execution at Armley was that of Thomas Riley and John Roberts on the 29th of April 1932.
It was carried out by Thomas Pierrepoint, assisted by Thomas Phillips and Alfred Allen, taking a reported 90 seconds from cell to drop.
Riley was hanged for the murder of 52-year-old Elizabeth Castle, who had befriended him, while Roberts was executed for the separate murder of greengrocer Alfred Gill.
Double executions were discontinued nationwide in 1954 and formally prohibited under the Homicide Act 1957.
Arthur Osborne (30/12/1948)
Arthur Osborne’s case was unusual in that he was executed on his 28th birthday.
Osborne was convicted of the murder and robbery of 70-year-old Ernest Westwood on the 25th of September 1948, stabbing the elderly man in his home before fleeing to Chichester to marry bigamously.
Despite a jury recommendation to mercy, the Home Secretary declined a reprieve, and Osborne was hanged on the 30th of December 1948 by Steve Wade and Harry Allen.
Walter Sharpe and the Decommissioning of A-Wing (1950)
The final execution in the old execution suite on A Wing took place on the 30th of March 1950, when 19-year-old Walter Sharpe was hanged for the robbery-murder of Leeds jeweller Abraham Harry Levine.
Subsequent hangings were relocated to an upgraded execution suite within the prison.
Zsiga Pankotia: The Final Hanging at Leeds (1961)
The final person executed at Armley Prison was 31-year-old Hungarian national Zsiga Pankotia, hanged by Harry Allen on Thursday, the 29th of June 1961.
Pankotia had fatally stabbed a wealthy market trader, Eli Myers, during a burglary at Myers’ home in Leeds.
Pankotia’s hanging concluded capital punishment at Armley Gaol, four years prior to the abolition of capital punishment in Britain in 1965.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Armley Prison in Leeds built?
Armley Prison (HM Prison Leeds) was constructed between 1843 and 1847 on Hall Lane in Armley, opening in 1847 to replace older local lockups and serve as the main prison for the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was designed on the radial Panopticon plan with four wings extending from a central inspection tower.
How many executions took place at Armley Prison?
A total of 94 judicial executions were carried out at Armley Prison between 1864 and 1961: one public double hanging outside the gates in September 1864, and 93 executions inside the prison precincts (92 men and one woman).
Who was Charles Peace?
Charles Peace was a notorious Victorian cat burglar and double murderer who killed PC Nicholas Cock in Manchester in 1876 and Arthur Dyson in Sheffield. After evading police for over two years while living a double life in London, he was captured, convicted, and hanged by William Marwood at Armley on February 25, 1879.
Who was the only woman executed at Armley Prison?
Emily Swann, aged 42, was the sole female executed at Armley. She was hanged on December 29, 1903, by William Billington and John Ellis alongside her lover John Gallagher for the murder of her husband William Swann.
What happened during the execution of John Henry Johnson in 1877?
During the execution of John Henry Johnson on April 3, 1877, executioner Thomas Askern’s rope snapped when the drop fell. Johnson fell into the pit uninjured, had his bindings removed, and sat in a chair for 10 minutes while a second rope was rigged, after which he was hanged successfully.
Who was the last person executed at Armley Prison?
Thirty-one-year-old Hungarian national Zsiga Pankotia was the final person hanged at Armley Prison, executed by Harry Allen on June 29, 1961, for the robbery-murder of market trader Eli Myers.
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