Thieves, prison archives reveal the hangman’s gruesome toll
left the cell for the final time his parting words were: “They know me in Llanelli. Remember me to them.”
The earliest records show that among the earliest hangings in the town was “one Edwards of Llandefeilog” who hanged at Pensarn for pilfering in 1739. The jail records also note that Elinor Williams, of Jobs Well in Johnstown, was hanged not far from her home at Royal Oak for murdering her child.
Perhaps rather harsh a punishment of death came to two lads who were strung up and hanged for stealing cider from the then Greyhound Inn in the town. In 1633, Father Arthur, an Irishman, was hanged, drawn and quartered for “conspiring the King’s death, and for cursing him”. Although Carmarthen may formerly have had something of a record as a “fighting town” (or what is normally described today as antisocial behaviour), it has one of the lowest crime statistics of any town in the UK. Remarkably, a young girl avoided the gallows after murdering her siblings. In 1742 the eightyears-old was tried at Carmarthen Assizes. She had been charged with the murder of her brother and sister, aged six and four. It transpired that the children were scared by stories of cruelty inflicted by the Spaniards and the expected Spanish invasion. It was then during the night that the children thought a thunderstorm was the invading Spaniards. The younger siblings begged their sister to kill them and she killed them with a blade used to trim hedging before attempting to use the blade on herself. Records show this child was acquitted at her trial. But it was not only the criminals that drew notoriety, one of Carmarthen’s most eccentric men was known as “Evans the Hangman’’ Robert Ricketts Evans, lived in Fernhill, Llangain, made famous by poet Dylan Thomas, and immortalised in one of his most famous poems. The son of a Carmarthen solicitor, Robert Ricketts Evans, was better educated than most other hangmen, but abandoned his studies in favour of a life of leisure and sensationseeking. Twice married, he boasted of many sexual conquests. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of prizefighting.
As a youngster, he had a deepseated longing to participate in capital punishment.
Evans, who later changed his name to Anderson, was heard to say: “Hanging is launching poor devils over the Jordan, far away from the temptations of this wicked world.”
His longing turned to reality and he assisted top London hangman, William Calcraft, who carried out more than 300 executions during his career.
Anderson is known to have carried out two triple executions on his own, the first in Gloucester in January 1874, four months before Calcraft’s retirement.
The second was in Liverpool a year later.
Anderson last assisted Calcraft in May 1874, when James Godwin, a hearth-rug maker, was hanged at Newgate for the murder of his wife.
Anderson’s interest in hanging grew deeper, and he personally devised a new technique which enabled Calcraft to perform his duties more humanely.
In a letter to the Home Secretary in December 1875, he wrote: “For upwards of 20 years I have, from humane motives, devoted my attention to executions.
“I have attended nearly all the principal ones that have taken place in this kingdom, giving my advice and assistance to the executioner.
“In no single instance where I have been present has the slightest failure occurred or any unnecessary suffering been caused to the unfortunate culprit.
“In cases where I have acted alone – in triple executions as at Liverpool and Gloucester – my plans have been completely successful.”
Anderson also deplored the employment of ‘ignorant brutish persons’ as hangmen. He proposed executions should be carried out by prison officers with him giving assistance and advice.
But like Calcraft, some of Anderson’s triple hangings were not as successful as he claimed.
According to a report in the Times in 1874, one of his woman victims lived longer than the others, owing to her spare figure.
Anderson carried out no more hangings after the triple execution in Liverpool.
He took no active part in executions after that, though he continued to take a keen interest in them for the rest of his life.
Anderson died at the age of 85 on August 26, 1901, and was buried in Llangynog Church. In his obituary report in the Journal in 1901, it said: “Wales has lost one of the most eccentric of her sons, one around whose memory will ever hang like a veil, weird, creepy, sensationalism.”
The obituary also said that ‘Evans the Hangman’ had at last “shot his bolt”.