JACOBY HANGED.
HIS LAST WORDS. “JUSTICE OF SENTENCE.”
At nine o’clock yesterday morning Henry Jacoby, the pantry-boy, paid the extreme penalty of the law at Pentonville Prison for the murder of Lady White in a private West-end hotel, where he was employed. He remained calm to the end. At the appointed hour of execution he walked unaided to the scaffold and met his death unflinchingly. Ellis was the executioner, and the sentence was carried out in the presence of the Governor of the Prison, Major Blake, the prison doctor, the chaplain, and the Under-sheriff, Sir B. Kynaston Metcalfe.
When Ellis and his assistant entered the condemned cell Jacoby rose and took a step or two towards the executioner. He glanced at the chaplain, who had been his constant attendant during the time he had been in prison, and a smile of gratitude flickered on his lips. This soon died away, and with a face as emotionless as a mask he left the cell, walking steadily and unaided to the scaffold, but a few yards away. Within ten seconds of leaving his cell Jacoby was dead.
A gentleman who saw Jacoby constantly while he was in prison told a Press representative that the lad’s resignation to what he regarded as the inevitable was touching to see. “Jacoby was deeply attentive to the ministrations of the chaplain,” he said, “and his fair, curly head was often bowed in prayer. The officials liked him for his quiet manner and for the way in which he made clear his gratefulness for his treatment.”
A crowd of 300 or 400 people gathered outside the prison, and when the clock struck nine a number of men removed their hats. As the crowd was clearing away from the gates of the prison a well-dressed man appeared carrying sandwich boards bearing the words “Humanity, Civilisation,” crossed through in red ink. He walked the full length of the prison frontage, and then disappeared as quickly as he came.
At the inquest, which was held in the prison by Mr. Walter Schroder, Major Blake, the Governor of Pentonville, stated that from the time Jacoby left the condemned cell to death taking place was under ten seconds. Major Blake received the following letter from the condemned man on Tuesday:
Dear Sir – I am just writing these few lines to thank you and all the officers who have looked after me since I have been here. If you would not be put to any inconvenience, I would like you to thank those men for me. Once again thanking you for all the kindness of you all. – Yours obediently, H. JACOBY.
It was about midday on March 14 that Lady White was found murdered in her bed with her head severely battered, and after the affair had remained a mystery for some days Jacoby was arrested. He then made statements, amounting to a confession, which the defending counsel at the trial at the Old Bailey sought to exclude on the ground that the police had used Third Degree methods. Jacoby was sentenced tb death on April 28, the jury making a strong recommendation tbomercy on the ground of his youth, and because they did not believe that he entered Lady White’s room with the intention to kill. Jacoby’s appeal was later dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Throughout Tuesday strenuous efforts were made to secure a reprieve. Two members of the jury with Jacoby’s counsel and solicitor presented a petition signed by several hundred people at the Home Office. They were not received by the Home Secretary, it being stated that this course was contrary to official procedure in a case of capital punishment. The party then proceeded to Buckingham Palace, where they placed before one of the secretaries the grounds of Jacoby’s appeal.