Her Majesty’s Prison Edinburgh has kept inmates in the city for over 100 years, though the days of hanging in the jail are long gone.
While capital punishment was outlawed in 1965, it was over ten years earlier that Saughton saw its last hanging - in 1954. Since opening in 1920, only four men ever took the short walk to the gallows at the Stenhouse prison.
From the very first execution in 1928, to the very last - it’s a dark period in the history of Edinburgh.
READ MORE - The six most ghastly Edinburgh spots we walk past without realising every day
Three of the men met their end at the hands of famed executioner Albert Pierrepoint, while one was hanged by Robert Baxter.
From the murder of a police man to the deaths of innocent children, we’ve taken a look at the tales of the four men that met their maker at Saughton.
Allen Wales
Wales had spent months courting Isabella Hain, an 18-year-old, who fell for him.
The pair married on December 2, 1926, near her home in Leith. For the first 11 weeks of their marriage, Isabella didn’t see her family at all.
When she finally did go back to see them, Isabella told them that the couple were arguing constantly and he had started beating her.
Nevertheless, she stayed with Wales and birthed his son on October 2, 1927. Even though her life was hell, the couple stayed together.
In June of 1928, Isabella and her mother were on Kirkgate when they met Allen - who began screaming at his wife accusing her of being a bad mother and seeing other men.
Her family finally pushed her to move back home with her son, and she agreed.
He begged for her back, and she continued to refuse. Just days after her 21st birthday, Allen burst into her home, shouting and brandishing a long-bladed knife.
He grabbed Isabella, dragged her into the street and continued to shout at the young woman. Neighbours gathered and watched in horror, as he brought the blade to her throat and sliced Isabella’s throat.
With numerous eye witnesses, Allen’s trial went on without much doubt - and he was sentenced to execution.
He was kept in a cell at Saughton for two weeks until August 13, 1928, when the hangman came to fetch him.
Robert Dobie Smith
Another tale of love gone sour, Smith was hurt after his 19-year-old girlfriend rejected him in 1951.
In a statement she said: “He was not best pleased when I broke my promise to marry him, but he did not say much to me. Under the influence of drink, he is usually morbid and feels the whole world is against him. When he is sober you could not wish to meet anyone nicer.”
On his 30th birthday, he had been heavily drinking and left a note which claimed he would kill the first policeman he found. He had stolen a shotgun and 25 cartridges from his father’s home earlier that day.
Anonymous phone calls to the police claimed a madman was running around, and officers quickly traced Smith. Sergeant William Gibson found him, and asked Smith what he was doing.
Instead of answering, he shot the sergeant and killed him instantly.
He was tried in July 1951, and used a defence of insanity. After just thirty minutes into the trial, a guilty verdict was made. He was hanged on September 15, 1951, in the walls of Saughton.
John Lynch
On a December afternoon in 1953, three-year-old Margaret Curran and four-year-old Lesley Nisbet were playing together outside the flats at Marshall’s Court.
Lesley’s mother Jane became alarmed when her daughter hadn’t returned by 5pm, and went to the local pub where her husband John was drinking with John Lunch. The couple continued searching together, to no avail.
Later that evening, a neighbour wanted to use the outside toilet but the door was locked. She managed to force her way in, to a horrific discovery.
The two young girls' bodies were found inside, having been asphyxiated. Police went door to door questoning neighbours, and on arrival at John Lynch’s house he told them: “Take me, I did it.”
He was tried in March 1954, and denied ever saying he had done it - claiming the police were attempting to frame him. Lynch was found guilty, and sentenced to execution on April 23.
Sign up to our Edinburgh Live nostalgia newsletters for more local history and heritage content straight to your inbox
George Alexander Robertson
Robertson became the last man to be hanged in Edinburgh in 1954.
He had married Elizabeth McGarry 19 years earlier, though their marriage had collapsed. They had split and she went on to remarry, though this had failed as well.
With Elizabeth taking care of two children with no job, she allowed Robertson back - despite his history of violence, abuse and jealousy.
It didn’t take long for his violent streak to return, and she threw him out of her home in February 1954. The family kept their door locked at all times, with a chair wedged against the handle and a poker close by - aware of the danger.
On February 28 the family were enjoying a night of singing and laughing with neighbours, and went to bed forgetting about their ritual with the door.
Elizabeth and her son - also named George awoke first when he entered the home, and were ordered into the kitchen by George. His sister, Jean, later told the court that she watched as he stabbed a knife into young George’s head.
He then pushed Jean onto the bed with a knife in his hand, though the sound of the front door opening was enough to make him dash downstairs. The two teens attempted to escape, the young man on the edge of death, though their father returned.
He was now carrying the body of Elizabeth, having stabbed her in the stomach. He taped Jean’s mouth shut, and George made a desperate dash for freedom - though his father beat him to death.
The man then propped his son and Elizabeth up in the kitchen, with Jean watching as he stuck his head in the gas oven.
When the police finally arrived, they found the two bodies along with Jean desperately ill from her injuries - as well as George still with his head in the oven.
The father appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court the following day for less than a minute before being remanded in custody. Four months later, the jury on his trial found him guilty within an hour.
On June 23, 1954, he walked to the gallows at Saughton - in the last hanging that would ever take place in Edinburgh.
READ NEXT:
Stunning Edinburgh snaps from 50s and 60s show an evolving city
15 images of Edinburgh fashion that'll take you right back to the 00s
The abandoned Edinburgh church that housed a huge cannabis haul worth £75,000
Remarkable new Edinburgh pictures show the city enjoying the swinging sixties
19 images of Edinburgh that will take you right back to 1982
