The execution of Fredrick Jones H.M. Prison Gloucester Monday Jan Monday 8th 1872 aged 20 years - hanged by Calcraft Murder of Emily Gardner The last scene in connection with the terrible tragedy enacted in Cheltenham a month ago was witnessed by a few persons within one of the airing yards at the County Prison at eight o’clock on Monday — almost before daylight. Frederick Jones was then executed for the murder of Emily Gardner. He was twenty years and eleven months old on the day of his execution, his victim was only eighteen. Jones could neither read nor write, he had been sent to school when young, but had always avoided it and run from school duties. On the evening after his trial, feeling that he had no hope of life, he began to make to the Chaplain the confession about the murder. He never insinuated anything reflecting upon his victim beyond the incidents which aroused his jealousy. He said he loved her passionately and again and again he protested that he desired to obtain the forgiveness of the family of the dead girl. As he could neither read nor write so his confession made from time to time was written down by the Chaplain and read over to him on Sunday night, when he ascertained it was accurate. 'I had been very jealous of her for some time and for a month or more it used to come into my mind very often that if I could not have her, nobody else should. This was because I thought she used to make more free with the lodgers than she ought to. She used to tell me about the larks and bits of fun with this chap and another, and this made me jealous of her. About a week before it happened a young fellow told me that her and her sister had certain bad books called I thought it was wrong for respectable girls to have such books and spoke to them about it, but they denied it and it was agreed between me and the girls that the next time we met this young fellow again Alice would question him and then pitch into him. This made me feel very jealous and I swore that if I caught her speaking to anybody I would kill her. On Friday night before it happened, I was going through the kitchen of her father’s house and as I passed I saw one of the lodgers and her sitting together. He had his hand on her knee and she was asleep or pretending to be asleep. This made me very savage because I thought that it showed there was something else between them. There was Mrs , a neighbour who lives opposite, in the house at the same time, and as we left the house together I asked her if she noticed it and if she thought it the right thing to do. I thought more of this than anything else. Emily was drawing some beer and one of the lodgers reached over her shoulder to draw some for himself. The Murder of Emily Gardner I spoke about his leaning over her shoulder and he called me jealous. On the Sunday afternoon it happened she went and sat in the same room with the lodgers. I asked her several times to come and sit where I was. She would not, but stopped in that one room all the time. I was drinking most of the day and all that afternoon. I went to my tea and returned about 6 o’clock. It was then that I took the razor from the place where it used to be kept and after a bit Emily and Alice said they were going for a walk and asked me if I would like to go with them. They said 'Now Fred, are you coming along?'. I said I would. We walked towards Swindon but did not go quite all the way and I had the razor in my pocket all the time. I felt inclined to throw it away several times, but something seemed to keep me from doing it. We came back again and I went home to have my supper. After I had it I went over to their house again. When Alice was ready to go home, Emily put on her things to go with her, and they asked me to go along. After we parted from Alice and were going on home again it came to my mind I would kill her if she would not tell me she cared for me and I said to her 'You seem to care for those humbuggin lodgers more than you do for me, for you have been sitting in their company all the evening'. I also told her of having seen Jack’s hand on her knee on Friday night. She said 'Don’t bother me, I shall do as I like'. I said 'Do you care for me or not?', but she would not tell me. I said 'I will make you tell me or I will cut your throat with your father’s own razor'. She then screamed murder three times and I said 'I will murder you if I am to hang for it the next minute'. I then placed my hand across her chest, she stood against the wall and I was too much for her. I cut her across the throat and she fell against me and knocked me down and we fell together and that was how I was covered with blood. Somehow or other in the scuffle my face got cut. I was determined to kill her and I cut her again. I dragged the body, as they said, to the ditch that it would not be run over or that and went home. I never know any harm by her in all my life and I love her now. I should not like to live and do not dread what is before me, and I pray every hour for the Lord to have mercy upon me and forgive me.' executioner Calcraft The morning of the execution arrived, the prisoner having slept soundly awoke at 6 o’clock. As the time approached for the prisoner to leave his cell he accepted a piece of cake from one of the Warders and asked for a little brandy, which he was given. He then walked down the winding staircase to the pinioning room and resigned himself to Calcraft the hangman. At a few minutes to eight he walked into the Courtyard; at the foot of the scaffold he halted, he then kissed the Chaplain and ascended the steps and stood erect on the platform. The few seconds which elapsed before the hangman’s preparations had been completed seemed almost an age. The culprit stood unsupported, but the deathly pallor upon his countenance showed how great the effort he was making to meet his death with calmness. Though he stood wonderfully firm there was nothing of hardihood or bravado in his demeanour. The rope was put around his neck and in another second or two the bolt was drawn and with a jar to the framework of the gallows, as the rope tightened, the murderer was dead. There was a convulsive throe and then, with the exception of a few slight convulsions, all was over. Death, as a surgeon present stated, was instantaneous. The body remained suspended for the time prescribed by law and then was taken down and a formal inquest was held upon it by Mr Ball acting coroner for the district. At the inquest Captain Wilson, Governor of the Prison stated that he was present at the trial and condemnation of the prisoner — that he had witnessed the execution and the body of the man the Jury had viewed was that of the man who had been so condemned, and executed. A singular coincidence has been noted as being connected with the day of the execution. The first evening lesson for that day presented in the new Dictionary and as read in the Cathedral was the chapter in Genesis wherein God says to Noah —'Who so sheddeth man’s blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man'.