James Smith (1936 – 28 November 1962) was the sixth-to-last criminal to be executed in a

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prison. He was

hanged 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 ...

for the murder of Sarah Isabella Cross in her sweetshop at the corner of Hulme Hall Lane and Iron Street,

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Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. Smith, born in Edinburgh in 1936, had entered the shop on Friday 4 May 1962 and battered 58-year-old Cross to death in order to rob her of around £6 from the till. A total of 5 glass screw-top

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and

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bottles (made by Wild Bros of Heywood) were used to club the victim, each of which shattered to pieces as a result. Smith left coins scattered on the shop floor as he made his escape through the rear exit. The victim's body was subsequently found lying behind the counter. Forensic experts discovered Smith's

fingerprint A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfa ...

on a door frame which had been painted two days earlier by Cross's husband, a factory worker, and was still slightly tacky. Smith's fingerprints were already on file because of a previous conviction. As a result, Smith was quickly arrested at his home on Corfe Street, Beswick, by Detective Chief Superintendent Eric Cunningham and Detective Inspector Tommy Butcher. The broken glass bottles from the murder scene were sent to the North West Forensic Science Laboratory at Preston, where they were carefully reassembled using a tube of glue. Smith's house was searched and microscopic particles of glass (recovered using a modified

vacuum cleaner A vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum, is a device that uses suction, and often agitation, in order to remove dirt and other debris from carpets, hard floors, and other surfaces. The dirt is collected into a dust bag or a plastic bin. ...

) were found on Smith's clothing and also down the sides of a settee. The tiny fragments of glass recovered from Smith's home fitted perfectly into the reassembled bottles from the murder scene. The 26-year-old father of two, who worked as a £15-per-week rubber moulder at

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, went on trial on 15 October 1962 before Mr Justice Stable and a jury. The hearing lasted three days and it took the jury just 20 minutes to find Smith guilty of murder. This verdict automatically resulted in him being sentenced to death because under the terms of the

Homicide Act 1957 The Homicide Act 1957 ( 5 & 6 Eliz. 2. c. 11) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was enacted as a partial reform of the common law offence of murder in English law by abolishing the doctrine of constructive malice (except in ...

, killing in the course or furtherance of theft or robbery was a capital offence. Smith was subsequently

at Strangeways prison (

), on the morning of Wednesday, 28 November 1962. His executioners were Harry Allen and assistant John Underhill. A few hours later, on the same day that he was executed, Smith's body was buried in an unmarked grave in Manchester prison cemetery. This practice was standard procedure because bodies of executed prisoners were regarded as property of the British government, and therefore remained in the custody of the prison where they had been executed. Because the prison cemetery was located inside the prison walls, there was no access for the general public. Smith's body remained in the prison cemetery until many years later, when (in 1991 and again in 1993) the remains of all the executed prisoners were exhumed and cremated and the ashes interred in plots C2710 and C2711 at Blackley Cemetery, Manchester.

References

External links

Greater Manchester Police newsletter which mentions the case
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, James 1936 births 1962 deaths 20th-century executions by England and Wales 20th-century executions of British people British people executed for murder British people convicted of robbery 20th-century British murderers People convicted of murder by England and Wales