Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Monday 28 December 1903

The Wombwell Murder.

Preparations for the Execution.

Demeanour of the Prisoners.

Writing yesterday, our Leeds correspondent says there is every probability that on Tuesday the woman Swann and man Gallagher will be hanged in Armley Gaol for the murder of the former’s husband at, Wombwell in June last. It is said that movement has been started in the Barnsley district with the object petitioning the King for reprieve for the woman, but it has only met with a half hearted response, but a very small amount of sympathy is being extended towards one who could be guilty taking part in so heinous a crime.

The authorities at Armley Gaol meanwhile have heard nothing of the petition or possible reprieve, and arrangements are being made by direction of the Under-Sheriff (Mr. Edwin Gray, of York) for duo carrying out of the sentence tomorrow morning. It is understood that the Brothers Billington will undertake the task, and that the execution will take place in the shed which has been used for the purpose during the past few years. The old scaffold arrangement, on which Charles Peace, Otto Brand, and several other notorious criminals have expiated their deeds, has been done away with. After having been pinioned in their celts, these men had form part of a mournful procession which had to walk a hundred yards so in order reach a terrible-looking erection, and then had mount a dozen steps.

The present arrangement is simple and effective. The prisoner walks along the corridor from his cell, unconsciously almost finds himself on drop, the hole into which he falls being dug out the ground, and the process of execution occupies but a very few minutes. This system was introduced at Warwick Gaol the early seventies, and has been adopted at most of the prisons throughout the country. At Leeds the place of interment is within a few yards of the death chamber.

Until the service was held in the gaol chapel Christmas Day, Emily Swarm had not been allowed see her paramour Gallagher. While people outside were “hailing the glad tidings of peace,” the wretched pair were ushered into a curtained pew the chapel. Returning to their separate cells the culprits had their Christmas dinner, which far better fare than is ordinarily doled out prisoners, and were left to their individual meditations.

Mrs. Swann is said to has been seen daily since her conviction by the Protestant chaplain, the Rev. H. Mansell, while Gallagher had received religious attention of the two Roman Catholic visitors, the Rev. Fathers De Yos and McGlone, who have been taking duty during the absence, through illness, of the Rev. Father Hassing, the accredited chaplain of that faith. Mrs. Swann is said have had frequent fits of hysteria, varied with periods of optimism, but her hopes reprieve have been dying out during the last few days, and she has now taken to staring her fate in the face She sleeps little, eats sparingly, and talks a great deal about the disgrace she has brought on her family. The callousness she exhibited at her trial has disappeared.

Gallagher is said to be resigned to his fate. He eats fairly well, and sleeps soundly. From the first he has held out hope of a reprieve, and pays marked attention the ministrations of the priests.

The only indication that the public will receive to-morrow morning of the execution will be posting a formal notice on the outside of the gaol that the dread sentence of the law has been carried into effect.