Background and Early Life
Twenty-two-year-old John Wilson Vickers became the first person executed in England and Wales since August 1955, and the first under the new Homicide Act, which became law on March 21, 1957. Section 5 of this Act made murder committed in the course or furtherance of theft a capital crime.
Vickers, originally from Penrith in Cumbria, had been a small-time thief since the age of 11 and was known to the police. At the time of the offence, he was living in lodgings in Carlisle.
The Murder of Jane Duckett
Seventy-two-year-old Miss Jane Duckett, whom Vickers thought was deaf, owned and ran a small grocery shop in Tait Street, Carlisle. Vickers decided to rob her.
Around 2 a.m. on Monday, April 15, 1957, she heard the sounds of someone on her premises and, wearing only her nightdress, went downstairs to investigate. He hid behind the stairs, but Jane saw him and ran at him. She put up a fight, during which he punched and kicked her to death. In his panic, he left the shop empty-handed.
Neighbours reported that the shop had not opened and the milk had not been taken in. Police forced an entry and found Jane’s body at the bottom of the cellar steps.
Arrest and Trial
Vickers was arrested within three days, and the scratches on his face appeared to support the story that Jane had defended herself.
He was tried at Carlisle on May 23, 1957, before Mr. Justice Hinchcliffe. In court, Mr. D. J. Brabin, representing Vickers, told the jury that there had been no intent to kill Jane, only to rob her, and that as he hadn’t taken anything, the charge should be reduced to non-capital murder.
The prosecution, led by Mr. Jack di V. Nahum QC, argued: “Surely if a man of 22 kicks and punches an old lady of 72 he intends to cause her grievous bodily harm. If you are satisfied that Vickers did this, then he murdered her during the commission of a theft.”
The jury preferred this argument. Vickers was thus convicted and sentenced “to suffer death in the manner authorized by law,” as the death sentence read under the new Act. Note there was no mention of the method of execution or burial of the body within the prison, although nothing had actually changed regarding either.
Appeals and Execution
Vickers appealed on the grounds that there was no malice aforethought in the killing. The three Lords of Appeal decided that this point of law needed to be clarified and adjourned the case so that it could be heard by the full panel of five Law Lords. The appeal was unanimously dismissed.
There followed an attempt to take the case to the House of Lords, which was vetoed by the Attorney General, Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller. Despite efforts by Labour parliamentary groups led by Sidney Silverman M.P. and religious groups, the Home Secretary, R. A. Butler, denied a reprieve.
Vickers was duly hanged at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 23, 1957, by Harry Allen, assisted by Harry Smith. This was the first hanging in Britain since August 12, 1955, when Alec Wilkinson was executed at Armley Prison in Leeds. A crowd estimated at 6,000 stood silently outside Durham Prison that morning.
This was Harry Allen’s first job as No. 1. As he was leaving the prison, he was attacked by the well-known anti–death penalty campaigner Violet van der Elst, and his bowler hat was damaged.
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