The extreme penalty of the law was carried out in HM Prison, Gloucester on Friday morning when Charles Houghton was executed following the judgement of Mr Justice Swift at Hereford Assizes for the murders on September 7th of two elderly ladies, the Misses Elinor Drinkwater Woodhouse and Martha Gordon Woodhouse by whom he was employed at Burghill Court near Hereford.
The crime which Houghton has expiated on the scaffold was a terrible one. Houghton had been in the services of the Woodhouse family for 22 years, first as a footman, then as a butler. In the summer of 1926 he became intemperate in his habits and as a consequence on September 6th he was interviewed by the two ladies and given a notice of dismissal. He was asked to leave within 24 hours and given a months wages. He protested against the shortness of the notice and was told he could remain until the end of the week.
Houghton seemed to feel his condition keenly but he attended family prayers the next morning and served breakfast. A little later two reports of a gun were heard in the kitchen and Miss Elinor Woodhouse was found lying in a passage just outside the kitchen door and Miss Martha Woodhouse further along the passage. When the police got Houghton out of his room he had seven wounds, evidently caused by a razor, in his throat.
Since the passing of the capital sentence on November 5th, the condemned man has been in the cell set apart for condemned prisoners in HM Prison, Gloucester. The actual date of the execution was postponed pending an appeal against the sentence, but this was subsequently withdrawn. His solicitors from Hereford who had been entrusted with the defence, placed further evidence as to Houghton’s state of mind before the Home Secretary and it was hoped as a result that a reprieve would save the prisoner from the scaffold.
The Home Secretary however regretted that he was unable to interfere with the sentence.
Shortly before eight o’clock on Friday morning, the folding doors separating the condemned cell from the execution chamber were opened and Houghton had but a few steps to take on to the spot from where he met his death. The arrangements for the execution had been made by the County Under Sheriff of Herefordshire in conjunction with Mr Harry Whyte, Prison Governor.
The executioner was Pierrepoint with an assistant who had not been named, (who is required by the Home Office to be competent to act in the case of an emergency).
At eight o’clock on Thursday evening, as required by the regulations, twelve hours before the execution, an Official notice was posted announcing the hour at which the execution would take place.
On Friday morning shortly after 7.30, the bell of St Mary-de-Lode commenced to toll and the officials arrived at the main gate. Just before eight, the tolling of the bell was at longer intervals and at eight o’clock it ceased.
The little gathering outside the prison did not number more than 25 at any time, and there was nothing to interest them until about 8.15 when two Warders appeared and posted the two Notices proclaiming the sentence had been carried out. It is understood the execution was carried out with great expedition. Immediately afterwards there was a general exodus of Warders going to breakfast.
The Coroners inquest was conducted in the Committee of Visitors Rooms at 10.30 on Friday morning and the Jury were told they had been called together to do their duty in respect of the offender Charles Houghton who had been indicted — tried and convicted of murder, then sentenced to death. the law provided that the judgement of death should be carried into execution in the prison in which the offender was detained. The responsibility of the Jury was to identify the offender, that he was the person sentenced to death and the sentence had been carried into effect.
The various officials gave their evidence, testifying that all the stipulated requirements had been met in full. The coroner thanked all present for their diligence and formally closed the inquest.
The closing scene of the tragedy was the burial of the corpse which took place in the space reserved for such offeneders against the north wall of the Prison.
Excerpts from the Gloucester Journal 1926
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