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Dennis John Whitty (1941 – 17 December 1963) was, along with his accomplice
Russell Pascoe Russell Pascoe (1940 – 17 December 1963) was (along with his 22-year-old accomplice Dennis Whitty) the third-last prisoner to be executed by hanging in a British prison. He was 23 years old. Pascoe was executed at 8.00 am in Bristol's Horfi ...
, the third-to-last prisoner to be
executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...
by
hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...
in a British prison. Whitty had been convicted for his part in the murder of 64-year-old Cornish farmer William Garfield Rowe on 14 August 1963.


Murder of William Rowe


Background

During 1963, Whitty and 23-year-old Pascoe were living with three young women in a caravan at Kenwyn Caravan Park, on the outskirts of
Truro Truro (; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England; it is the southernmost city in the United Kingdom, just under west-south-west of Charing Cross in London. It is Cornwall's county town, s ...
,
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
. Whitty was working as a labourer at Truro Gas Works. Pascoe had previously worked as a labourer at Nanjarrow Farm, at Ponjeravah,
Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I * Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine g ...
, near Falmouth, and knew the farmer, William Rowe. Rowe was somewhat reclusive, living in the untidy sitting room of his farmhouse, the four bedrooms unoccupied after his mother and brother had died. Local rumour held that Rowe had a large sum of money concealed on the premises, and he had been the victim of a burglary in 1960, during which £200 and some other items had been stolen.
David Mudd William David Mudd (2 June 1933 – 28 April 2020) was a British politician. Mudd was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, in June 1933. He was educated at Truro Cathedral School and was a member of the Tavistock Urban District Council from 1959 to 196 ...
, "Double Hanging for £4 at Constantine", ''Murder in the Westcountry'', Bossiney Books, 1975, pp. 90–100


Murder

On the night of Wednesday, 14 August 1963, Whitty and Pascoe travelled to Nanjarrow on Pascoe's motorcycle. They were armed with a
starting pistol A starting pistol or starter pistol is a blank handgun or, more recently, an electronic toy gun or device with a button connected to a sound system that is fired to start track and field races as well as some competitive swimming races. Tradit ...
, a knife and an iron bar. Whitty was wearing dark jeans and a dark,
double-breasted A double-breasted garment is a coat, jacket, waistcoat, or dress with wide, overlapping front flaps which has on its front two symmetrical columns of buttons; by contrast, a single-breasted item has a narrow overlap and only one column of b ...
blazer with silver buttons. When they knocked on Rowe's door at around 11.00 pm and the old man opened it, Whitty used this uniform-like clothing to support a story that they had crashed a helicopter nearby, and he asked to use Rowe's telephone. They then attacked Rowe; Whitty with the knife and Pascoe with the iron bar, leaving the farmer dead with six or seven wounds to the head, a fractured skull, a broken jaw, a severed finger and five chest wounds, including one knife wound to the heart. They searched the house for the money, but came away with only £4 that Pascoe found in a piano, and Whitty's haul of a watch, two boxes of matches and some keys. They split the money and took £2 each, returning to the caravan at Truro. The girls they lived with later testified that Whitty was "grinning all over his face", and that Pascoe was seen wiping blood from Whitty's face. The following day, Pascoe's girlfriend confronted Whitty with a copy of the evening newspaper, which contained details of Rowe's murder. She asked Whitty, "You went to Constantine. Did you do this?" Whitty replied, "Yes I did." The girl later claimed that Whitty and Pascoe threatened to kill the girls if they told anyone what they knew.


Arrest and trial

On 16 August, a policeman saw Pascoe riding his motorcycle in Constantine, stopped him and asked him to report for routine questioning at the murder headquarters. Pascoe claimed that he had been in the caravan in Truro at the time of the murder, but when Pascoe admitted knowing Rowe and working for him in the past, the police realised that Pascoe had worked for Rowe at the time of the burglary in 1960. Whitty was then also brought in for questioning. The following day, each man was questioned and told that they were suspected of committing the murder. Whitty and Pascoe each blamed each other, with Whitty accusing Pascoe of beating Rowe with the iron bar, and then forcing Whitty to use the knife. Whitty admitted stabbing Rowe but stated, "Pascoe made me stick him." Pascoe told the police that Whitty had instigated the attack, admitting only to knocking Rowe out with the iron bar. He claimed that Whitty "went mad with the knife", then took the bar from Pascoe and repeatedly struck Rowe with it. When charged and cautioned, Whitty replied, "We are both over twenty-one, so I suppose we can hang?" He subsequently gave a written statement outlining the events on the night of the murder, and his claim that Pascoe had forced him into continuing the attack on Rowe. At Rowe's farmhouse, police found a small diary in a desk, with descriptive notes written in
Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
, referring to the whereabouts of various sums of money. Having translated the notes, the executors of Rowe's will used them to find a number of caches of money, including in a safe set in concrete, covered by straw in a cowshed; and a large glass jar containing hundreds of banknotes, hidden elsewhere on the property. The full amount that was eventually found was not revealed, but was referred to as "thousands of pounds". At the trial at
Bodmin Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor. The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordered ...
Assizes, beginning on 29 October, the murder was described as "brutal and savage in the extreme". Whitty was defended by Mr
Norman Skelhorn Sir Norman John Skelhorn, KBE, QC (10 September 1909 – 28 May 1988) was an English barrister who was Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales from 1964 to 1977. Early life and education Skelhorn was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, t ...
, QC, who entered a plea of 'not guilty'. Skelhorn claimed that Whitty had either been acting under the influence of Pascoe, or that Whitty's psychiatric background was such that he may be guilty of
manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...
on grounds of
diminished responsibility In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental funct ...
. He clarified that Whitty was suffering from a hysterical condition and experienced blackouts. Whitty himself claimed that he had seen "strange and unnatural things", such as doors opening on their own and pictures changing places on walls overnight. He also said he believed in
ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...
s and had seen "a figure with wings" on a beach one night. A key defence witness was 19-year-old student (and future
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
politician)
David Penhaligon David Charles Penhaligon (6 June 1944 – 22 December 1986) was a British politician from Cornwall who was Liberal Member of Parliament for Truro from October 1974 until his death in 1986. He was a popular figure in all parties, and was se ...
, whose father was the owner of the caravan site where Pascoe and Whitty had been living with the three girls. He testified that Whitty was prone to epileptic fits which (Whitty claimed) caused him to be violent. The jury debated for four and a half hours before returning with guilty verdicts for both Whitty and Pascoe, and they were sentenced to death by the Judge, Mr Justice Thesiger. On 2 November 1963, the two men were driven to separate prisons: Whitty to Winchester Prison and Pascoe to Horfield Prison in Bristol.


Appeal and execution

On 23 November, Whitty and Pascoe's appeals were heard and rejected by the
Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...
, and the executions were set for Tuesday, 17 December. Clemency was refused first by Home Secretary Henry Brooke and then by the Queen. Whitty was executed by Robert Leslie Stewart (assisted by Harry Robinson) at Winchester at 8.00 am on 17 December and was buried in an unmarked grave within the walls of the prison. Among the protestors outside Winchester Prison were Whitty's fiancée, Bridget Hamilton (who collapsed as a clock chimed the execution hour) and a group of
Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...
. Pascoe was executed at Horfield by Harry Allen (assisted by Royston Rickard) at exactly the same time. Only two more prisoners were subsequently executed in Britain, in August 1964: Peter Allen (hanged by Stewart at HMP Walton) and Gwynne Evans (simultaneously hanged by Allen at HMP Strangeways), for the
murder of John Alan West The murder of John Alan West on 7 April 1964 was the crime which led to the last death sentences being carried out in the United Kingdom. West, a 53-year-old van driver for a laundry company, was beaten and stabbed to death by Gwynne Evans and ...
. Pascoe's last moments were the subject of a
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
documentary in 2012, presented by
Gethin Jones Gethin Clifford Jones (born 12 February 1978) is a Welsh television presenter. He was an active rugby union player while at Manchester Metropolitan University and, after graduation, he began his television career on Welsh language channel S4C a ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitty, Dennis 1941 births 1963 deaths 20th-century executions by England and Wales 20th-century executions of British people People convicted of murder by England and Wales British people executed for murder 20th-century British murderers