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The Man they Could Not Hang

Babbacombe Lee

John Lee was one of Britain's most celebrated murderers, but it was not the crime that made him famous. Instead he was known as "the man they could not hang."

Born in Abbotskerswell in August 1864, the farmer's son had worked as a servant for wealthy spinster Emma Keyse, who on November 15, 1884 was found dead at her home, The Glen, at the foot of Babbacombe cliffs. She had been bludgeoned about the head, her throat cut and attempts had been made to burn her body.

Lee, who protested his innocence, was convicted of the murder. But when he went to the gallows at Exeter Gaol on February 23, 1885, he escaped the dreaded drop three times because the trap door failed to open. His sentence commuted to life imprisonment, he served 22 years before released from Portland Prison.

Later he emigrated and settled in Milwaukee where in March 1945, he died from a heart attack - aged 80.