The Cold Gray Tower

I was linked by a colleague to a very fascinating article on the history of capital punishment in Canada. Often times we consider the ethics of capital punishment, but when the question of "Who wants to throw the switch" comes up, everyone scatters. This is very telling to me.

This blogger shows some interesting historical details concerning the Canadian "hangman". Regardless of your views on capital punishment, this is an interesting read.

Thank you Mr. Lincoln for this article.



Kingston's Cold Gray Tower

I awoke early on this cool day. It is still winter nothing has changed since last night. But the day was colder still as I looked across the road at the tall, imposing gray stone tower that stands to the side of one of the main thorough Fares of Kingston, Ontario.

I asked someone what it was and the answer was simple, “Hanging!”

No kidding? – yep – Hanging!

As you look at it closer the design is something special. There are windows – or at least at one time there were windows. Now they are covered in. The stone work is very unique and would have been completed by experts in stone masonry of their day.

It sits just north of the old and infamous Women’s Prison building in Kingston. It is also just a short distance north up the road from the famous and ancient Kingston Prison ground – or KP as my other friends know it.

On Friday February 13th I had written about Peterborough’s Last hanging.

This Gray Stone Tower sparked another thread of thinking as I stayed so close by – literally across the street from where it stands quietly as a reminder of our gruesome past in Canada.

(Perhaps as some of my American Readers that follow this Blog – there will be some extra thinking going on – in that a number of your states still carry on the practice of Capital Punishment – the Death Sentence)

The information that I share here was hard to find. I was searching for information on the Cold Gray Tower standing alone in Kingston as a testimony to our past… but found nothing. But what I did find was an amazing. Please read all of the article related to the link below – “capitalpunishment”.

I point to one man referred to in the article… Arthur B. English. His was also known as “Arthur Ellis”… and was a cousin to a man that used the name “John Ellis” in England.

The quote from the article tells the story better…
“1865 – Arthur B. English was born in England. He was the cousin of England’s official hangman John Ellis. Arthur English became the hangman in the Middle East and South Africa. English then became the Official Executioner for the Dominion of Canada in 1913. His pseudonym was Arthur Ellis. He officiated at 549 executions. He died in 1938 and is buried in the Mount Royal Cemetery, Quebec. Arthur Ellis continued to be the pseudonym of the Canadian Executioner until the last execution in 1962, and abolition of capital punishment in 1976.” – end quote…

Can you imagine… he attended to 549 deaths by hanging. In the Peterborough Story of the last hanging in our city – he did that one too. As the official “Hangman” for Canada… he traveled everywhere to do the “job”.

Quoting the article again…
“1867-July-01 – After Confederation, the Dominion of Canada’s Department of Justice kept the record of names, dates, and places of 705 executions in Canada until the last two on December 11, 1962 at the Toronto ‘Don’ Jail. Two of the first hangings after Confederation in Ontario were John Hoag in Walkerton, and Ethan Allen in Kingston.”

That is 705 people(known and recorded) killed with a sharp stretching of their neck. “Arthur Ellis” watched it happen 549 times. Do you suppose that he had a rather difficult time with his “dreams”? I do.

Something needs to be known about hanging before I go further with this thought… quoting again the article as it told of Canada’s early Hangman – John Radclive(Radcliff)
“1890 - Canada’s executioner was John Radclive (Radcliff). He held this position until 1912 when he died. His one contribution to the "science of hanging" was the construction of a gallows that had a rope go over the top beam. One end of the rope was fastened around the neck of the accused and the other end held an iron weight (350 lbs.) which was dropped thus yanking the victim off the ground and dislocating his neck, resulting in instantaneous death (a technique affectionately known as the "jerk'em up gallows").”

The article shared also…
“The new technique was not a success for Radclive, as Birchall (Oxford County Jail) died of strangulation 18 minutes after the weight fell because the "drop" did not dislocate his neck. Radclive discarded his invention and went back to conventional hanging. Radclive died in Toronto in 1912 from excessive drinking after hanging 132 persons. He was one person who used his real name when acting as executioner. He used the alias of Thomas Ratley for his social life.”

Enter Arthur Ellis…
“1913 - With the loss of Radclive in 1912, there was a need for an experienced hangman for the Dominion. Arthur English, an ex-English army officer serving in the Middle East as an executioner was unofficially approached by the Canadian government to move to Canada.

English came from a family of executioners who worked in England for almost 300 years and whose uncle was then an official hangman in England under the pseudonym of John Ellis. English accepted the offer and moved to Montreal where he took the trade name of Arthur Ellis after his uncle.”

When he did the hanging there was a problem. He had continued to use the practice used by Radclive – dropping a 350 pound weight – the jerk-em up gallows.

The article states these gruesome thoughts…
"1935 - Ellis’ last hanging was done at the famous Bordeaux Jail in Montreal on 28 March 1935. Ellis had been called to Montreal to execute Leon Gagliardi, Angelo Donafrie and Mrs. Thomasina Sarao after they were found guilty of killing Nicholas Sarao in an intricate insurance scam.

Ellis was now 71 years old and had either assisted at or performed over 600 executions throughout his career in England, the Middle East and Canada. He was a master at his trade, yet this hanging would be his last because of a disastrous set of events that had him boycotted from further hangings. It seems that when Ellis went to weigh Mrs. Sarao at the Women's Jail he was not permitted access and had to be satisfied with the weight handed to him on a piece of paper. Based on the weight given to him Ellis calculated the length of rope needed to break Mrs. Sarao's neck.

On the morning of the hanging Mrs. Sarao walked to the gallows some 32 pounds heavier than what had been scratched on the piece of paper and when she plunged to her death the extra weight supplied enough force to decapitate her. It was not the first execution in which Ellis had miscalculated the condemned person’s weight.

On August 25, 1926, Ellis was called to carry out the execution of 240 pound Dan Prockiw at Headingly Jail. Prockiw, a former real-estate owner in Winnipeg, had been convicted of the March 18th beating death of his common-law wife, Annie Cardno. The drop was too much for Prockiw’s heavy body and the result was it jerked his head right off his body.

However because it was a woman that was decapitated, the execution of Mrs. Sarao marked the end of Ellis' 22-year career as Canada's "Official" Hangman and it effectively ended the practice of allowing the public to attend hangings. Ellis died three years later in his hotel room in Montreal. Although open public hangings were discontinued since about 1869, members of the public could still acquire a pass to attend a hanging inside the jail walls."

Did you catch that Mr. Ellis was 71 years old when he did his last hanging – the disastrous one of Mrs. Sarao. He died 3 years later in a lonely hotel room.

Back to the Cold Gray Tower in Kingston. From what I can gather (and perhaps have read between the lines to gather) the tower was built make the Hanging less of a community show – which people from all around gathered to see. The Cold Gray Tower was perhaps the first demonstration of humanitarian effort in our country.

Personally – every automobile accident that I have attended – being often the first one to help had left a deep mark on my memory. The same is true of each death that I attend as a Hospital Chaplain. You never forget.

I can feel pity for “Mr. Arthur Ellis” and his family.

Away back in my early days in Walkerton, Ontario and my early involvement with that jail, I met one of the guards that had attended the last hanging in that jail. That man was never the same after that job of “witnessing”… he drank himself to sleep to sooth the misery and nightmares that he had.

As I stared at the Tower for a long time… I was very quiet… very quiet.

I wonder what God thought at each of those moments of finality – when someone said, “May God have mercy on your soul…”. Perhaps it should have also included… “and May God have mercy on our souls as well.”

~ Murray Lincoln ~