John Lee – The Man They Couldn’t Hang

Why not research the rich heritage of Babbacombe? This true story one of the most famous events in Devon and even the UK.

On Saturday 15th November 1884, Emma Ann Whitehead Keyse was murdered in Babbacombe and found hacked to death in her burnt out cottage. The culprit, who denied it to his death bed, was purportedly, her employee John Henry George Lee. This story is famous for failed attempts to hang him and his unusual life before, during and after his life sentence in prison.

John Lee was from nearby Abbotskerswell and was to become notorious as “The Man They Couldn’t Hang”. The story is made all the more bizarre as no property or valuables were stolen on the fateful night so no real motive was uncovered.

On the surface, this looks like a relatively straight forward case of murder. John Lee saw little sympathy and on execution day, which was Monday 23rd February 1885, there was a susbtantial crowd waiting for the execution outside Exeter Prison. However three times they tried to hang Lee and three times it failed.

Taken back to his cell and grabbed rapturiously by the press as “The man they couldn’t hang” the Home Secretary decided that John Lee should serve a life sentence. “You say you are innocent, I wish I could believe you” (Sir Henry Manisty – Judge at Lee’s trial)

John Henry George Lee was born 1864 at Abbotskerswell in Devon. He served a life sentence was released and married in 1909. However he deserted his sick and pregnant wife and child in the workhouse in 1911. He left Britain for America with a woman who claimed to be his wife. He died in 1945 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

John Lee petitioned a succession of Home Secretaries until 1907 when he was finally released from Portland Jail. After his discharge, John

‘Babbacombe’ Lee toured the country re-counting his story and his innocence, with tales of his life in Victorian & Edwardian prisons and his day of execution. There was even a silent feature film outlining his alleged ‘incredible life’.

They say John Lee still stalks the streets of Newton Abbot with a rope around his neck. He must have caught a flight home!