THE HORRIBLE EXECUTION OF FREDERICK WILLIAM MAXIMILIAN JESSE FOR BRUTAL MURDER OF HIS AUNT....

 


Unemployed 26 year old Jesse was convicted of the murder of his aunt, 50 year old Mabel Jennings-Edmunds at her home at 156 York Road, Lambeth on Saturday the 21st of July 1923. 

Mabel ran a lodging house at the address and her tenants had become concerned about her disappearance.  They asked Jesse about it and he assured them that she had gone to Sheerness for a holiday with a man named “Reg”.

However, another tenant, Mrs. Hannah Morris became suspicious of this story and informed the police.  She also told them that she had heard Jesse and his aunt quarreling and noted that he had a black eye. 

The police interviewed all the residents and Jesse made a statement in which he claimed he had killed his aunt after she had been nagging him all day.

On the 23rd of July an envelope was fished out of the river Thames by police and found to contain Mabel’s marriage certificate and a letter.  The letter said “To those concerned: You will find my wife in the house, but before you read these lines, I shall be in the river.  R.P.” 

On the 28th of July a handwritten note arrived at 156 York Road, claiming to be from Mabel’s estranged husband, Edward Edmunds who had left Mabel and gone to Canada, saying that he had killed her and then drowned himself in the Thames.

The letter was taken to the police who searched 156 York Road and found Mabel’s body lying on her bed.  She had been strangled and her legs had been cut off through the thighs.

Jesse was again questioned and made a confession to Det. Insp. Cooper.  He told Cooper that he had got into a physical fight with Mabel over money that he owed her (about £40) and his doing nothing about selling a piano for her. 

He alleged that she had followed him back to his room where she had struck him and thrown a liquid in his face.

When his sight cleared, he realized that he had strangled her and decided to dismember the body.  Having cut her legs off he found the task too gruesome to continue with.  He then decided to shift the blame onto Mabel’s husband. This confession squared with the physical evidence. 

Jesse was tried at the Old Bailey on the 17th and 18th of September 1923, before Mr. Justice Swift.  The jury took just 35 minutes to reach their verdict.  His appeal before the Lord Chief Justice sitting with Justice Salter and Sankey was dismissed on the 17th of October.

Jesse was hanged by John Ellis and Robert Baxter at 9.00 a.m. on Tuesday the 1st of November 1923 at Wandsworth prison. 

Jesse was 5’ 7” tall and weighed 149 lbs.  Ellis gave him a drop of 7’ 6”.  He was described as “young and muscular” on the LPC4 form.

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