In the first in a monthly series, true crime author John J Eddleston looks at the issue of capital punishment in the UK

IN the 20th Century, there were 865 executions in the UK. The vast majority, 778, took place in English prisons. Wales came next, with 35 executions, then Scotland with 34. Northern Ireland made up a further 16 of the total, with two taking place on Jersey, in the Channel Islands.

That total of 865 consisted of 849 men and only 16 women, and you may think that all of them were people hanged for murder.

This is not the case. In fact, executions took place for four different offences between 1900 and 1964, when the last hangings took place.

It is true that 729 were murder cases. There were, however, 25 men executed for spying during both world wars.

Four men were hanged for treason, perhaps the most famous being William Joyce, the infamous Lord Haw-Haw, who faced the rope in 1946 for broadcasting pro-German propaganda.

That leaves us with six unaccounted for.

When asked to suggest what the fourth crime might be, all kinds of crimes are named, but few guess the correct one. The fact is that six men were hanged for rape, on British soil, in the 20th Century.

All six were US soldiers based in the UK in the Second World War. They were subject to US law as well as British and, at the time, rape was a capital crime in the US.

A total of six US soldiers were hanged, all at Shepton Mallet Prison, in Somerset, the final one being Aniceto Martinez on Friday, June 15, 1945.

Of course, many people believe that capital punishment should return. After all, 865 people were executed and that represents 865 guilty people. But does it? Four of those people, all of whom waited for the hangman to enter their cells and end their lives, have since had those death sentences overturned.

Timothy Evans was hanged at Pentonville in March 1950 for killing his wife and daughter.

He was subsequently pardoned after it was discovered that serial killer John Christie, who lived next to Evans, was responsible for the killings.

Derek Bentley was hanged for a murder committed by Christopher Craig on a rooftop in Croydon, supposedly for encouraging Craig to shoot by shouting: “Let him have it Chris.”

His sentence, too, has been overturned and the State has now admitted that he should not have been hanged.

George Kelly was hanged at Liverpool in March 1950 for a double murder at the Cameo cinema. His conviction was overturned as being unsafe.

Finally, we have Mahmood Hussein Mattan, hanged at Cardiff in September 1952 and since shown to have been innocent.

STILL, that is only four names out of 865, but there are others, too, who were almost certainly innocent and have yet to have their cases re-examined by the Court of Appeal.

What of John Alexander Dickman, who was hanged at Newcastle in 1910? My latest book shows he was almost certainly innocent, and even names the real killer.

What of Robert William Hoolhouse, a story I will cover later in the series? What of Louise Masset, Edith Thompson, and perhaps as many as 80 others, all of whom were hanged and all of whom may well have been innocent?

Of course, many of those who did receive the death penalty were guilty of the crimes they were accused off and some of those will also be covered in this series, such as Brian Chandler, Frederick Rushworth and Benjamin Roberts.

They were certainly guilty, but did even they deserve to die for their crimes? What if one of them had been your son, your brother, your cousin? Does a truly civilised society kill those who kill?

In the North, 144 souls were hanged. The first was Charles Benjamin Backhouse, hanged at Leeds in August 1900 for the murder of a police officer.

The last was a Hungarian named Zsiga Pankotia, also hanged at Leeds, in June 1961 for the murder of a man who said he had won the football pools.

Other executions have taken place at Newcastle, Durham, Hull and Wakefield. Even those most mundane of those stories give fascinating insights to the mind of those who kill.

Whatever your views on capital punishment, over the next few months there will be nine stories in this series, all of which ended with men losing their lives in the execution chambers of British prisons in the North.

You will read stories such as the man who buried his grandparents alive, the man who shot a girl he liked because he saw her kissing another man, the man who killed his wife and asked his neighbours for a head start before they called the police, and the soldier who tried to kill his ex-girlfriend, but killed her sister by mistake.

I hope you find these stories intriguing, fascinating and, yes, horrifying. But, most of all, I hope they make you think.

• John J Eddleston’s book on the Newcastle train murder, And May The Lord Have Mercy On Your Soul... is available from true-crimes.

co. uk, priced £12.99, and on Amazon as a ebook download.