THE DEATH OF HENRY GASKIN FOR THE HEDNESFORD RIPPER " THE EXECUTION NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN"

 

Henry Gaskin - “The Hednesford Ripper”

27 year old Henry Thomas Gaskin was a coal miner who had previously been a soldier in World War I, having served two years in Portland prison between May 1914 and May 1916.  He had married Elizabeth Talbot on the 20th of July 1913.  On release from prison he was sent to fight in France, while his wife 23 year old Elizabeth had formed a relationship with another soldier by whom she became pregnant.  She moved out of the marital home at Longford Road in Cannock, Staffordshire and went to live with her mother, Emily Ann Talbot in neighbouring Hednesford.

Gaskin naturally wanted to try and resolve his marital problems.  On the 19th of February 1919 he sent a note to Elizabeth’s mother addressed to his wife, which read “Meet me round the pool at once.  Important!”  Elizabeth did as requested, meeting Gaskin at around 2.30 p.m. that afternoon on Rugeley Road.  He kicked and beat Elizabeth and left her dead at around 4.30 p.m. and went home.  That evening he went to the cinema before returning to the crime scene to attempt to conceal the body.

Elizabeth was reported missing by her mother when she didn’t return home that night.  A search for her was got up and Gaskin was spoken to by the police, but denied having seen her the previous afternoon.  

On the 21st of February Gaskin was interviewed a second time and held on suspicion.  Two days later on Sunday the 23rd he asked to speak to Inspector Wooley who was leading the investigation and offered to show the police where Elizabeth’s body was.  In those days coal gas was stored in gasometers which were sealed by having a water filled ring at the base.  Officers found Elizabeth’s head submerged in this outer ring and her decapitated body in a nearby calvert.  The subsequent post-mortem discovered an horrific catalogue of injuries.  The body had been ripped open, one leg nearly severed and a length of gas piping forced down her neck.  This was done to prevent the body floating according to Gaskin.  He told the police that he had first strangled her in the woods before attempting to dismember the body.  He made a lengthy written statement which was read at the inquest on Elizabeth, by Mr. S. M. Morgan the coroner in the Council Chamber at Cannock. The details of the murder were so horrific that one of the coroner’s jurors fainted and had to be taken out of the chamber to recover.

Gaskin was tried at Stafford on the 4th of July 1919 before Mr. Justice Roche.  His defence was the usual one of insanity but this was not supported by the physical evidence.  It was clear to the jury that Gaskin had put a lot of thought into the crime.

It appears that the motive for the crime was that Elizabeth wanted to divorce him.  The appeal was heard before the Lord Chief Justice and Justices Darling and Sankey and dismissed on the 21st of July 1919.

As Stafford prison no longer had an execution facility, Gaskin was transferred to Winson Green in Birmingham, where he was hanged on at 8 a.m. on Friday the 8th of August 1919.  The execution was carried out by John Ellis and William Willis.  Gaskin weighed 187 lbs. and was given a drop of 6’ 3”.  Some 200 people waited outside the prison to see the notices of execution posted on the gate. The inquest was held before the Birmingham Coroner, Mr. Isaac Bradley. The usual evidence of identification was given by the governor, Mr. E. Goldie Taubman and the prison doctor, Dr. William Cassels, testified that death had been instantaneous. 

The wood in Hednesford where Elizabeth was murdered came to be known as Gaskin’s Wood.  It lies in a triangle bounded by the A460 Rugeley Road and Valley Road.

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