Hanged at Durham by Steve Fielding

Author:Steve Fielding
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780750953368
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-07-26T00:00:00+00:00

38

THE OLD SOLDIER

James Riley, 30 November 1920

James Riley bit his lip hard as he heard sentence of death passed over him. Although he had often cursed that he would ‘swing for her’, now that he stood convicted of the murder of his wife, the reality of the situation hit home.

Fifty-one-year-old Riley had been too old to be called up during the latter days of the war, when the country’s very future hung in the balance, but despite his age – he was 49 at the time – he had volunteered for duties and had seen action in both India and Greece, where he was taken ill, contracting malaria.

By the autumn of 1920, James Riley and his wife Mary had been married for over twenty years. Theirs was a tempestuous relationship. No stranger to the police, Riley had been warned numerous times about his behaviour when, on Saturday 2 October, police once more called at Riley’s house. Mary told them that her husband had come home drunk and tried to pick yet another quarrel. When she failed to rise to the bait, he began to beat her, and her cries alerted the neighbours. Although the police calmed him down, in their presence he was heard to make threats that he would kill her. ‘I’ll swing for you Mary, I swear I will,’ he shouted.

Just seven days later, on 9 October, Riley finally carried out his threat. In the early hours, he knocked on a neighbour’s door and told them that he had killed his wife. He asked them to give him a chance to escape and not to notify the police for one hour. As Riley made off across nearby fields, they went to check if his story was true, and finding Mary Riley battered to death in her bed, they went to contact the police. Riley was picked up before sunrise.

He pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter at his trial before Mr Justice Swift. He tried to pass the blame on to his wife, claiming that she had been drinking heavily and had tried to start a fight with him. Riley said he tried to push her away and she fell heavily to the floor. They had exchanged further blows and he left her on the floor when he retired to bed. It was not until he awoke in the early hours that he realised she was dead.

His counsel argued that, since Riley had not intended to commit murder, he was guilty only of manslaughter. The prosecution pointed to his past behaviour and produced evidence from officers in front of whom he had made threats to kill his wife shortly before she was found dead.

As Riley awaited his fate in the condemned cell, local miners organised a petition for his reprieve. Although over 32,000 signatures were collected, it did not save the old soldier from making an eight o’clock appointment with his executioners.

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