Victorian Britain - a place where justice was swift and brutal. It was a time when fear of the hangman's noose loomed large in the packed towns and cities of the rapidly transforming industrial nation.
The grim spectacle of Newcastle's final public execution took place 160 years ago. There was huge interest, and newspapers - enjoying major increases in circulation during the era - were keen to capitalise. The Newcastle Daily Chronicle on Saturday, March 14, 1863, boldly advertised: "A special edition will be issued this morning containing the fullest particulars of the execution of George Vass."
A 19-year-old local man, Vass was responsible for the murder of Margaret Docherty. On New Year’s Eve, 1862, he had been seen dragging Margaret towards the west walls of the city.
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She was raped, murdered, and her body unceremoniously dumped near the walls. Frightful Outrage And Murder Of A Woman In Newcastle ran a headline in one local paper.
Vass’s trial in February 1863 lasted a matter of hours with the jury finding the defendant guilty in just 20 minutes. His execution was a very public affair. Gallows were erected on top of the south west walls of Newcastle Gaol in Carliol Square.
Thousands turned out to view the spectacle. One eyewitness recalled: “Enormous crowds were anticipated. Looking down as far as the eye could carry, the whole thoroughfare had the appearance of a street paved with human heads. These people assembled as early as 5.30am.
"By 8 o’clock the crowds was so dense that dozens of people had fainted, and these were passed over the heads of the multitude to the outside. The story of the execution is soon told. The condemned man was under a minute in view before he disappeared from the gaze of the bloodthirsty mob.”
The Newcastle Daily Chronicle's account paid close attention to the moment of Vass's hanging itself. "The cap was drawn over the head, the noose adjusted, and his legs firmly bound at the ankles. The warders then left him and it was observed at that dread moment his knees began to tremble - but his agony did not last long, for the executioner hastening off the scaffold, drew the bolt, and the next moment a quivering corpse hung from the beam."
Women and children in the crowd fainted at the sight of the body dropping and the sound of its deadening thud. There was a "general low wail" before people began to drift away. The newspaper writer evidently had short shrift for people in the crowd, which he termed instead "a mob". Many, he said, were "in all probability thieves or worse than thieves", from "lurking places in the slums who congregate to see a hanging as the vultures swarm around carrion."
Warming to the task, he went on: "Densely packed, sweating, steaming, sweltering, like a flock of sheep closely penned on a hot day; swearing, laughing, struggling, panting and fainting, the crowd at an execution is a study fit, not for an artist, but it is a rare opportunity for the physiologist, the phrenologist, and the philanthropist." In the event, it was the last time a crowd in Newcastle would gather to watch a public execution.
Today, the body of Margaret Docherty lies in All Saints cemetery. There is no detailed record of what happened to George Vass’s body, other than it was buried in the grounds of Newcastle Gaol which would be demolished in 1925.
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