Execution  of Edward Smart H.M. Prison Gloucester Monday 12th May 1879 aged 35 years Hanged by Marwood The murder for which Edward Smart suffered the utmost penalty of the law on Monday in Gloucester Gaol did not excite very wide interest, but is certainly one of the most remarkable to be found in the annals of crime. The case presents these singular features — a man committed murder with the deliberate purpose of being hanged, never after deviated from his eccentric desire and actually underwent the fatal sentence; the plea of insanity raised on his behalf being disregarded. Such were the facts that their announcement was recieved with a general conclusion that the man was mad. At noon on the 2nd April Mr. Charles Cox, commercial traveller of Charfield, was driving toward Thornbury when his horse became restless; this called his attention to blood on the road, and then a startling spectacle met his gaze. Beside a heap of stones just off the road lay the inanimate form of a woman, her hat over her mouth and kneck. Close by sat a man with folded arms, apparently unconcerned, though his hands and face were stained with blood. Mr. Cox asked 'What’s the matter', to which came the startling reply from the man 'Oh, I’ve only murdered this woman'. Mr. Cox drove on ‘til he met a roadman named Till whom he sent to watch Smart while he went on to the Police Station. Till found Smart in the same attitude, and the conversation that ensued between them was thus recounted by Till at the trial. 'I said to him, ‘Good morning, Governor; what is the matter with the poorwoman?’. He said, ‘I have cut her throat’. I said, ‘God bless the man. How come you to serve her like that there; was she your wife?’. He said, ‘No, she was a stranger to me’. I said, ‘Bless the man. Why didn’t you let the poor woman go her way?’. He said, ‘How far is any Police Station?’. I said, ‘About a mile’. He said, ‘I suppose they will soon be here’. I said, ‘Very likely’. Then Supt. Critchley drove up and asked, ‘What have you had happen here?’ and Smart again replied, ‘I have killed the woman’. Naturally, expecting violence, the Superintendent called Till to hold his horse while he secured the murderer, but the latter replied lightly, ‘Oh, I can’t do anything’ and as the Officer was alighting added ‘Alright, I will get up with you’: this he promptly did. He then said, ‘There’s a parcel down there’. The Officer asked, ‘Whose?’. ‘The woman’s’ was the reply'. On the way to the Police Station the prisoner asked, ‘Do you know the woman?’. ‘No’, returned the Superintendent, ‘Don’t you?’. The prisoner simply answered ‘No’. The Officer then cautioned the man and said, ‘You know the charge against you is a very serious one — you must be cautious what you say as it will be my duty to give it in evidence against you at your trial’. The prisoner answered ‘All right’. They drove on to Thombury Police Station where he was searched and in his possession were found a coal hammer wrapped in a handkerchief, a razor and two knives all stained with blood. Examination of the body of the woman showed that she had received several blows in the face from a blunt instrument, and her throat had been cut from ear to ear. The prisoner said he had taken the hammer from his Aunt’s house adding, ‘I was tired of my life and did this for devilment’. He said he had previously met another woman whom he had resolved to kill but had been deterred by some children coming on the scene. He denied he had any quarrel with the deceased and there was nothing to suggest the commission of robbery or outgage. It appeared the woman’s name was Lucy Derrick and that she was of the lower class and had left her home in Bristol telling her friends she meant to walk to Gloucester to join some man; the identity of such was never established. The culprit was tried at Worcester before Mr. Justice Hawkins. The Jury, after hearing all the evidence, deliberated in private for an hour and three quarters and returned into Court with a verdict of guilty, appended to which was a recommendation for mercy. The Judge, in passing sentence of death, begged the prisoner not to look for mercy but to prepare for his end, and still the prisoner testified no emotion whatsoever. From the day of his arrival in Gloucester Gaol where the sentence was to be carried out, the man maintained to the last the same frame of mind as had moved him to commit the crime. Mr. Clifton, his Solicitor, had been making zealous efforts since the trial to get the sentence commuted and had forwarded an address to the Home Secretary; but to no avail. On the Saturday, Mr. Clifton received a communication that the Right Hon. Gentleman saw no reason to prevent the law taking its course. On the Sunday, the Chaplain administered Holy Communion to the culprit; in the evening Smart spent some time reading the Bible and ate a good supper before retiring to bed. Just after seven in the morning, the Under Sheriff entered the cell and claimed the body in the usual legal form. Then to the scaffold and Marwood, the executioner — a rather short, middle-aged man attired in pepper and salt trousers and waistcoat, black jacket and bowler; a noticeable adornment of his attire being a massive Albert chain. His whiskers and moustache are neatly trimmed, and his hard, shrewd, but not unkindly eyes, quiet, resolute and penetrating. When he has knotted the rope to his satisfaction and taken sundry measurements to ensure for his victim a free drop, he stands patiently surveying the scene. As the hour of eight approaches, Marwood brings forth the leather straps with which he purposes to pinion the culprit and just before eight strikes he enters the condemned cell. Marwood is as adept in pinioning as he is in every other department of his work and without a word he proceeds to secure a strap round the arms and body of-the man so as to leave only the wrists free; he gives the necessary signal and the Under Sheriff leads the way to the gallows bearing his white wand of office. The Chaplain continues reading the burial service, but no sooner is the culprit on the platform than Marwood rapidly pushes forward his work. Another moment and the noose is slipped around his neck, then he draws from his pocket a white cap which he adroitly places over the culprit’s face and without the slightest hesitation, and while the Chaplain is reading a prayer, nimbly slips to the back of the gallows where he strikes the handle of a lever and in an instant the platform falls in with a crash and the pinioned form falls, the rope alone remaining visible. But the long drop has failed to attain its object. Those who have the nerve to look down into the pit see that for four minutes the suspended body swerves and jerks convulsively and the medical gentlemen state that respiration continues during that period. Marwood, evidently chagrined, stands silently gazing at his victim. At last the stillness of death ensues and the body is left to hang for the hour the law demands to ensure the extinction of life. When the cap is removed from the face it is viewed by the medical gentlemen and Marwood. The lividity of the face suggests doubt whether death is due to strangulation or dislocation of the neck, he was seen to still breathe for several minutes on the end of the rope. Marwood emphatically declares the latter effect accomplished but the drop should have been a foot deeper. When the black flag is hoisted over the prison porch the news is rapidly transmitted through the city and the knowledge that a fellow creature has been put to death is received with awe. Excerpts from The Gloucester Journal 1879 Murder of Lucy Derrick