John Lee: The Man Who Could Not Be Hanged

While the bizarre events of the life of John Babbacombe Lee are far in the distant past, they can still comfort and amaze us in current times. A man who was innocent and therefore saved again and again from the gallows speaks to us on a very human level, and allows us to hope that we will not remain unsung heroes, but that one day we will all receive our due~ even if through unexplainable circumstances.

John Lee had a rough start in life.After leaving school he was convicted of theft and spent time in prison, where he was released in 1884. After his release John 'Babbacombe' Lee returned to "The Glen", the home of Miss Emma Keyse in the hamlet of Babbacombe, Devon where he had been employed as a younger man years before. Miss Keyse took him on as a servant. On November 15, 1884 the mistress of the house was discovered murdered. The murderer had cut her throat, beaten her, and had also attempted to burn the body. Lee's record caused him to be the immediate suspect. Although when he was first approached Lee seemed horribly distressed at the loss of his employer and friend, he was convicted on very little circumstantial evidence, including a cut on his arm, which he claimed had happened attempting to rescue the members of the household from the fire. Throughout his trial and imprisonment , however, Lee remained calm. Lee upheld that he need not be afraid throughout the entire ordeal, due to his faith that God would not allow him to be punished for a crime he did not commit.

John Lee was sentenced to die on February 23, 1885 and that is where the real story begins.

James Berry was the executioner assigned to the execution of John Lee. Rumor has it that he had for many years been haunted by dreams of an execution that would not complete, whether that is true or not, Berry was known to be meticulous in the details of hanging John Lee. James Berry tested the trapdoor on the platform multiple times, as was standard, and found that it worked every time perfectly. Or at least it worked perfectly until the time for the hanging arrived. John Lee stood on the platform with a noose around his neck three times. Each time when the lever was pulled the trapdoor failed to give way. The trapdoor was tested again and again without Lee standing on it and each time it fell away as intended, but each time Lee stood over it it failed. All over the globe the news went out, proclaiming Lee to be the man who could not be hanged. Lee continued to proclaim that it was his innocence and divine intervention that caused the failure of the trapdoor. Eventually his sentenced was commuted to a life sentence in prison, although he was eventually released from that as well.

What forces were at work that saved John Lee from the hangman's noose? The religious will often see this a proof of the power of faith, or as evidence to the hand of God and the love that he shows to his faithful. Whatever caused these events, God, circumstance or other forces beyond our understanding ~ in these hard times it gives us something to hope for. Even if the only hope that we have is as simple as holding out for the idea that there are some things yet unknown, and our universe is just a bit more magical than we dare believe.