He tortured and killed animals in his youth.

FICTION

This is a very popular misconception about Jeffrey Dahmer.  Animal abuse is an important "red flag" in children because it often leads to abuse of people when their age progresses.  There has been proven to be a link between violence against animals and violence against people, specifically domestic abuse and murder.  However, not all serial killers have animal abuse in their backgrounds.  Jeffrey Dahmer falls into this category.  He did have a deep fascination with dead animals though he found them that way instead of causing their deaths.  He "experimented" on road kill.  He would often skin dead animals and dissect them.  He even experimented with bleaching animal bones just like he would later do with human bones.  He said that he liked the sound of animal bones clinking together.

He was a cannibal.

FACT

He was, unfortunately for his victims, a cannibal.  There is some dispute over how much of a cannibal he was though.  It has been claimed that he has only been proven to have eaten part of the bicep muscle of one victim -- as if that weren't enough!  Dahmer himself is quoted as saying:  "During dismemberment I saved the heart, also meat from the thigh, bicep, liver cut it into small pieces, washed them off, put these in plastic...clear plastic freezer bags and put them on the floor of the freezer.  Just as an escalation of trying something new to satisfy.  And, I would cook it and then, look at the picture and ...  It made me feel like they were part of me."

It was widely rumoured that he ate large sections of his victims, and this very well may be true..  You can just imagine him in his apartment stirring a giant pot full of soup made from his victims.  It was also rumoured that he was the president of a Cannibal "society" club.  This wasn't true.  In fact, he wasn't even a member of the gruesome club in question.

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The apartment building he committed his crimes in has been destroyed and replaced by a memorial.

FICTION

While it is true that the apartment building was completely knocked down and destroyed, there is no memorial in place.  It seems that plans of a memorial fizzled out due to lack of funding and perhaps a wish by the entire community to put these gruesome acts behind them.

Dahmer used a chainsaw to dismember his victims.

FICTION

Jeffrey Dahmer lived in an apartment during the period when many of his victims were murdered.  A chainsaw would have surely drawn the attention to other residents -- although the smell did not seem to.  His victims were dismembered in the tub with a knife.  The police lists of evidence taken from the apartment do not list a chainsaw.

One of his victims almost escaped.

FACT

Konerak Sinthasomphone was found running naked in an alley by paramedics after two female passersby called 911.  The police arrived shortly after and were told by Jeffrey Dahmer that the boy was his 19 year old lover who had drank too much.  The boy was dazed by drugs that Dahmer have given him to subdue him and unable to communicate clearly with the police.

The two female witnesses, who happened to be black, argued with police that the boy was resisting Dahmer and was terrified.  The police chose to listen instead to Dahmer, who lead them back to his apartment.  They found a neat although badly smelling residence and left the two alone, not wanting to get in the middle of a homosexual domestic situation.  They checked Dahmer's identification but did not realize that he had been charged with sexual assault of minors in the past.  They did not check the source of the odour in the apartment, which was a dead body.  They left Konerak in Dahmer's care.  Dahmer strangled the 14 year old to death and sodomized him.  He later boiled the flesh off the skull to keep it as a "trophy".  Coincidentally, Konerak was the brother of a boy once molested by Jeffrey Dahmer.

He was strapped to the table during the autopsy.

FACT

This one seems to be true, although hard to believe.  It has been reported by many that this is just how autopsies of inmates are done in Milwaukee.  It seems that hand cuffs attached to a belly chain are put on dead prisoners before transport to a hospital or coroner's office.  A guard stays with the body until completion of the autopsy and the shackles are not removed until it is sent to the mortuary.  Each death of an inmate is treated as if it were a crime and the "chain of evidence" needs to be preserved at all costs for future court proceedings.  The evidence being, of course, the dead body which is not likely to get up and run away.

Jeffrey Dahmer's brain was kept by scientists to research.

This one is both FACT and FICTION.

In Dahmer's last will and testament, he asked that his remains be cremated as soon as possible after his death and that there was no funeral or marker of his grave.  His body was cremated a few days after his death but his brain was preserved in Formaldehyde and sent Dr. Pincus of the Georgetown University Medical Center at the request of Dahmer's mother, Joyce Dahmer.  She wanted the University to examine Jeffrey's brain to see if anything could be learned from it.  Jeffrey's father, Lionel, strongly opposed this brain examination on the grounds of Jeffrey's will.  His brain was eventually cremated and added to the ashes split between his parents without being examined.  We will never know what could have been learned about Jeffrey Dahmer's extremely bizarre behaviour.

Dahmer claimed to find God in prison and was baptized.

FACT

Roy Ratcliff was the prison pastor and spiritual mentor of Jeffrey Dahmer.  He came to know Jeffrey Dahmer over a period of about seven months and even once said that Dahmer was a "friend and brother of faith".  Dahmer immersed himself in the bible and spent many hours at the church's chapel.  He claimed remorse and vowed to live a life of righteousness which is how he was able to be baptized.  The ceremony was performed on May 10, 1994 which was the same day that John Wayne Gacy, another notorious serial killer, was executed.

Ratcliff claimed to want no publicity in the matter although he allowed himself to be photographed for Time Magazine and later went on to write a book about his experiences with Dahmer entitled: "Dark Journey, Deep Grace". 

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Photograph of Portage Prison where Dahmer lived after his conviction and where he died.

Jeffrey Dahmer was beaten to death by a fellow inmate after all of the guards mysteriously left them alone together.

FACT

On the morning of November 28, 1994, Jeffrey Dahmer was paired up with two other men to do janitorial work.  One of the men was named Jesse Anderson.  He was in prison for murdering his wife.  The other man was Christopher Scarver.  He was in prison for first degree murder.  He was a delusional schizophrenic who believed that he was the son of God.

Usually a work detail such as this would be supervised by a guard.  However, in this situation, all four guards on duty were in the bathroom.  Twenty minutes after the work detail started, guards found Christopher Scarver back in his cell and the other two men outside bleeding.  Jesse Anderson was dead and Jeffrey Dahmer's skull had been crushed.  He was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital.  Ironically, he was once quoted as saying "If I were killed in prison, that would be a blessing right now."

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He committed the murder of Adam Walsh.

UNKNOWN

Adam Walsh is the son of John Walsh, host of "America's Most Wanted".  He was kidnapped from the toy department at a mall in Florida in 1981 and was later found dead.  The "Code Adam" in Walmart for missing kids is named after him.

It has been rumored that Jeffrey Dahmer committed this atrocity.  He was working less than 10 miles from the mall where Adam was kidnapped in the same time frame.  There are at least 2 witnesses that put someone of his description at the scene of the abduction.  After Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested for the 16 murders, both witnesses went to police to say that he was the man they saw at the mall.

It is unknown whether or not he committed this murder.  Some say that it does not fit his regular modus operandi -- that he preferred young men, not boys.  However, he was arrested for exposing himself to two young boys aged 12 and molesting another, aged 13, before the murders. 

Dahmer was questioned about the case by the police and claimed his innocence.  He maintained until his death that he did not commit any murders between the years of 1978 and 1987.  This in itself is very hard to believe.  Dahmer described his urge to kill in the following quote: "One thing I know for sure.  It was a definite compulsion because I couldn't quit".  If he was so driven to kill then how did he manage to avoid doing it for a period of 9 years?

Although he did protest his innocence, the investigator recalls him saying the following about the case: "'You know, Neil, anyone who killed Adam Walsh could not live in any prison, ever".  These words still haunt that investigator, Neil Purtell.  He is reported to be one of the most co-operative serial killers ever when it came to confessing his crimes and helping investigators solve them but that does not mean that he confessed all.

Serial killers strike fear and loathing into the hearts of the general public.  They also have a strange fascination.  It is bizarre to realize how far people can deteriorate and what they are compelled to do.  People are often driven to find differences between themselves and killers and to discover just exactly how the killers came to be.  For a look at some other serial killers and of Jeffrey Dahmer's childhood, please refer to the following articles:

10 Weird Facts About Jeffrey Dahmer's Childhood.

10 Weird Facts About Ted Bundy's Childhood

10 Weird Facts About Charles Manson's Childhood

Self-Portrait of a Madman: John Wayne Gacy, The Killer Clown

Self-Portrait of a Madman: Charles Manson

They talk of a sheer incomprehension, of an inability to grasp a reality that materialised around them as they were convicted of crimes they believe they should never have been charged with in the first instance.

"Shocked" walking into a prison, where Michelle describes her first experience as a "newbie" at New Hall where the only option is to be "frightened". Where "the prison is shouting", with "the girls in their cells calling to each other" taunting the new intakes. Being "banged in rooms that look horrible… left there till the next morning" with only the echoes of catcalls for company throughout the night. The next day the solitude continues. "Nobody comes to tell you how the routine goes" or to ask "are you alright?" For Michelle the fear this fiery baptism conjures is the reason "why so many people commit suicide in the first couple of days when they reach New Hall". A prison according to The Howard League for Penal Reform, which since 1998 has had the highest number of self-inflicted deaths.

In 1995, just as Michelle was beginning her life sentence for her supposed role in the murder of her father, and Susan already two years into her term was becoming accustomed to life on the "infamous H wing at Durham", the total number of women serving life sentences stood at 186, out of a total of 5,792 life prisoners. Today, according to Judge Anthony Thornton, serving high court judge with 13 years experience at the bench, that number is now "approaching 10,000". A figure greater than Germany, France, Italy and Turkey combined. During that time the number of women convicted of murder, a serious offence such as manslaughter, attempted murder, or imprisoned under the more recent "controversial" Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP), has risen by at least 44%. However, women still only represent a mere 3% of the total lifer population.

For Susan May, a mother of three when she went to prison but now a Grandmother of five, as she sits in the large double-fronted end-of-terrace family home in a suburb of Oldham, she remains to date the only Lifer who has consistently maintained their innocence that has been released on "tariff". The minimum number of years served in prison before a prisoner can be considered ready for release. Although Susan is able to recount her story with great depth and humour on occasions, the lilt in her voice, the comforting way in which she holds her hands, and more obviously the permanent frowns carved in her face tell a story of a woman who still remains utterly in shock about the events that unfolded around her.

People you meet

However her presence in front of me in her own comfortable surroundings is testament to her own strength of character, as well as the encounters she has had during her time as a Lifer which she describes as being "absolute madness". She talks of her first Governor at Risely, a Category C prison in Cheshire, who she met recently and recounted to Susan her view of how she spent her first night within that prison. Off how they were struck of Susan’s absolute certainty that "I won’t be stopping, because somebody will be coming along soon … to tell you it’s been a big mistake." Where every night for the first few months, Susan expected to spot among the new intakes her children or her solicitor to come through the gates ready to take her home from this conscious nightmare.

She talks of the seven years spent at Durham, four years longer than the average Lifer is expected to spend at one of only two first-stage female Lifer prisons in the country. A prison described by a 2004 report by HM Chief Inspectorate of Prisons as having a "constricted and forbidding physical environment" and a "place scarcely likely to enhance the mental state" of the women kept there. As Susan describes it on this "small narrow wing… there was no segregation at all, you mix with [everybody], you rub shoulders with the worst of the worst", the likes of female paedophiles, terrorists, Mafiosi, and those more infamous such as Rose West and Myra Hyndley. But it was here that Susan encountered Martina Anderson, one of the Brighton Bombers, who helped her "set the standards for how I was going to do my jail." This "brilliant" influence on Susan’s time there got her into a gym routine, studying, which has led to an Open University degree, fighting her case and creating a prison magazine. Set-up with Sandra Gregory a trafficker of drugs in Thailand, the publication "Time on Your Hands", provided an avenue, along with proving her innocence, which Susan could dedicate her hopes and energies on.

Common Place

More frighteningly, both Michelle and Susan talk of how scenes of the "horrific" all too quickly become those of routine. Before they went to prison neither woman knew very little about the condition of self-harming, but its frequency inside prison as they saw it, calls into question how people with mental health issues or those seeking attention are dealt with. Susan recalls the case of "one particular girl who used to self-harm by slitting across her throat." As the girl came stumbling out of her cell with blood dripping "everywhere", the years of witnessing such incidents, made Susan’s view turn from being one of horror to "Blinking heck, we’re going to get locked in again." As Michelle says, "you get desensitised to it", the effect of somebody taking their own life begins to be seen in terms of how it will affect the routines of your own day, the things upon which you become accustomed for your own survival.

Whether through the use of illicit glass women have come across, or sharpening a plastic meal knife, the situation is compounded by the Prison Officer’s lack of ability to act. Even in cases where a prisoner reports to a PO, "Miss, I’ve got some glass in my cell, and I’m gonna cut up later", they are allowed to search that cell, but if nothing is found they cannot place that girl in solitary conditions for protective measures as it infringes that individuals human rights. All too often the prisoner is allowed to return to their cell and wherever the object is "secreted on herself", allows for "cutting up" in their own time which can lead to a deadly conclusion.

The "negativity" which pervades prison, as Michelle often points out, is as liable to come from the officers themselves as well as the other prisoners. She tells me of an incident she witnesses first hand. A lifer, Kate, is dependent upon an asthma inhaler to aid her breathing. A member of staff refuses to give it to Kate until the next day and threatens her with a warning if she keeps up her protests. "That night she had an asthma attack and dies". Another of the one hundred and twenty-seven women that have died in prison since 1996.

System that cannot cope

Sitting in early 2007, evidence presented to a Home Affairs Select Committee stated, "The prison estate has always been poorly equipped to deal with women lifers." It has been found there are higher levels of drug use in the female system than the male. A 2001 survey found two-thirds of female prisoners were found to have a drug problem. Further evidence presented to the Committee found up to 80% of women in prison have some form of diagnosable mental health problem. Almost half reported to have experienced physical, emotional or sexual abuse at some point in their life. A quarter spent time in local authority care as a child, and 40% left school before the age of 16. Against this background, the Committee quoting evidence from an earlier Howard League report, found "women lifers usually served their sentences further away from home and due to poor resources, spent an average of two years longer than their male counterparts despite having a far lower reconviction rate." Allied to this, comments from Michelle and Susan, in addition to other female lifers points to a "penal system geared to men, not women."

Where "there are several courses on offer in the male prisons that are not available in the female". The lack of worthwhile jobs available in prison, where "mind-numbing" ones take precedent over teaching new skills they can use on release. And when they are released back into the community on a ‘life licence’, the Griffins Society that works with female offenders highlights the situation that many "lifers will be released into the community with very little support." The licence lasting in effect for the remainder of their life, places conditions on that individual such as who they socialise with and where they may live and work.

A female Lifer must manage in a system which is not fundamentally geared to dealing with them, in an environment where the majority of those around them suffer from the worst ills which society can throw up. Of course an individual that commits a crime must pay the price for that crime. But does the current penal system do so in a humane and effective way? Especially if you are one of the many where the issue of guilt is in doubt.

Contrary to popular belief, “taser” is not a weapon, it the brand name of an electroshock weapons producer- one which has gained such a large portion of its market that its name has become synonymous with its product. This is known as a genericized trademark; other examples include referring to cola as Coke, tissues as Kleenex, or adhesive bandages as Band-Aids. T.A.S.E.R. is in fact an acronym, which stands for Tom A. Swift Electric Rifle. It was invented in the 1970s by Jack Cover as a way of reducing firearm deaths (Taser). Clearly, by introducing a nonlethal alternative to opening fire, police would be able to apprehend many suspects in situations where there would be no option but to shoot and possibly kill. This would decrease not only crime but also the number of deaths resulting from shots fired. However, this weapon is still very powerful, and must be treated with the same respect as a lethal one. For this reason, law enforcement agencies require a minimum of 60 hours of firearms training, with at least 5 hours of Taser-specific training, and annual recertification (USGAO).

This training acknowledges that Taser use is only acceptable when appropriate, and like any tool, can be abused. This problem is addressed via voluntary exposure, because while it is easy to pull the trigger, it is even easier to underestimate the actual effect it is having on its target. The majority of law enforcement agencies employing electroshock weapons require some sort of physical demonstration in order to better illustrate the power of the device. Furthermore, all members of TASER International senior management have been voluntarily exposed to their product (Taser). It has been shown to be much less brutal than blunt force, when used properly. Whereas a knight stick can inflict bruises and break bones, a Taser incapacitates its target and causes momentary pain, but no lasting injury. (Again, this is if the weapon is not abused.)

However, this does not make its use acceptable if no weapon is necessary. Even if Tasers were every bit as harmless as they are claimed to be, they are still weapons and still create a raucous disturbance. In the cases of Andrew Meyer and Mostafa Tabatabainejad, there was widespread protest and upheaval over what many considered police brutality. With such issues, the reality of the incident is often of little importance; it is perception that defines public opinion. Both were cloudy examples, which is exactly why they were so controversial. That most human beings are distressed by the sight of their fellow man being electrocuted is generally accepted as true. This is precisely why law enforcement officers must be extremely selective in their use of these devices, because even if it isn't bad, it still looks bad. People are often too overcome by their emotions in these situations and rush to judgment before they can get all the facts.

Some say that tasers are too dangerous; the American Civil Liberties Union has documented 148 Taser related deaths in the US and Canada since 1999 (Bruin). It is quite possible that Tasers might carry side effects, but these effects are surely preferable to those of bullets. While a small percentage of people who are Tased develop complications, all people who are shot will suffer bullet holes.

Concerning the recent University of Florida tasing, use of a weapon was poor judgment on the officers' part, no matter how you slice it. Although Meyer was being disruptive, he was nonviolent and unarmed; force was unnecessary. Whether he deserved it is another story entirely. At any rate, it reflected badly upon the school and campus security, as they were quickly bombarded with allegations of police brutality (Wallace). However, no matter what the occasion, there is no reason that four trained officers of the law should not be capable of subduing a singe unarmed suspect without employing the use of electroshock.

The UCLA case, conversely, was not so clear-cut. Authorities asked Mostafa Tabatabainejad to present ID in order to continue using the campus library (Taylor). When he did not or could not comply, he was asked to leave. He refused, and was subsequently tased (Taylor). Through the eyes of a student, this is an example of security personnel using an inordinate amount of force to subjugate a paying customer of the university, who had every right to use the library. To a police officer, he is an unfamiliar man who refuses to identify himself, carrying a backpack with unknowable contents. In the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting, they were not unreasonable to air on the side of caution. Certainly hindsight is 20/20, and the fact that he meant no harm makes campus security seem fascistic, but what if he did have a gun, and six people died? The safety of the public is of far more consequence than the dignity of one man. Sure, weapons should be a last resort, but some situations demand instant decisions. To tase a handcuffed suspect, though, is overkill.

When used properly, Tasers are a relatively gentle alternative to the brute force methods that have been employed for thousand of years, and when used appropriately and respectfully, can reduce crime dramatically. They offer a third answer to the classic dilemma “Shoot "em or lose "em.” All factors considered, the Taser can be of great benefit to law enforcement around the world.

Adlington, England September 6

Peter Addison decided to vandlize a children's campsite building, the Toc H centre with his friend Mark Ridegeway. They set off fire extinguishers and drew grafitti on the wall. One part of the grafitti said, "Peter Addison was here

Leaving your own name at the crime scene was one of the stupidest things I've found.

Southampton, England 1997

In 1977, a thief in Southampton, England, came up with a ingenious method of stealing the cash register at a  supermarket. After collecting a basket of groceries, he approached the checkout area and placed a £10 note on the counter. The grocery clerk took the bill and opened the cash register, at which point the thief snatched the register and bolted. It turned out to be a waste for the thief, since the till contained only £4.37 and the thief ended up losing £5.63.

Ypsilanti, Michigan 8:50am

The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King, flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk refused him  because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. The man attempted to order onion rings, only to find that they weren't available for breakfast.. The man, frustrated, walked away.

PTL

One of Bakker's first actions after leaving CBN was to form a nonprofit corporation, Trinity Broadcasting Systems (TBS), in 1973. This organization was the forerunner to the PTL Ministry. The IRS granted tax-exempt status to TBS as a religious organization in May 1973. Bakker, tired of life on the road, desired to create a show in the same format he had used at CBN. The name of the show was called “Praise the Lord,” which was shortened to PTL inthe hopes that it would appeal to and draw in nonreligious viewers. Bakker was tapped to lead the program, which was eventually named the PTL Club. On the PTL Club, Bakker promoted the philosophy of “seed-faith giving” espoused by Oral Roberts: give to God and you shall receive back many times over, for God wants His people to prosper (in this life) and rewards their generosity. A subsequent disagreement between Bakker and Paul Crouch, reminiscent of the Pat Robertson days, caused the Bakkers and a large part of the staff to resign from TBS in November 1973.

PTL experienced a phenomenal growth after its initial start in a furniture showroom in Charlotte. By September 1975, PTL had outgrown the furniture showroom, causing Bakker to seek out the purchase of a 25-acre tract of land featuring a three-story Georgian mansion. Bakker claimed that God wanted him to build a village, a miniature version of Colonial Williamsburg, and Heritage Village was born. Construction soon began on a $4 million project to turn Heritage Village into an international religious counseling and broadcast center. The center would be used to broadcast Bakker's program, which was known over the years as “The PTL Club,” “The Jim Bakker Show,” and “The Jim and Tammy Show.” Bakker repeatedly referred to the funding of the project as a miracle from God. Bakker would later falsely claim that Heritage Village and the later Heritage USA projects were debt-free. By 1976, PTL consisted of a network of 70 TV stations and 20 cable TV broadcasts and was welcomed into homes in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The additional growth brought a donation increase to the ministry from $817,000 to $5.5 million. The net worth of PTL increased from $129,000 to more than $2 million. By 1978 PTL had installed a milliondollar satellite system, which allowed 24-hour religious broadcasting. The addition of the satellite system allowed PTL to sell remaining air time to other organizations at a profit. The expanding growth in the market also caused PTL to outgrow its facilities and its IRS charter. In November 1976, PTL amended the corporate charter to change its name from Trinity Broadcasting Systems, Inc., to Heritage Village Church and Missionary Fellowship, Inc (HVCMF). The purpose of the organization was also expanded: (1) to establish and maintain a church, and (2) to engage in all types of religious activity, including evangelism; religious instruction; publishing and distributing Bibles and other religious publications; missionary work, both domestic and foreign; and establishing and operating Bible schools and Bible training centers. The expansion would give the organization more freedom in its operations. Once the name and charter change were in place, the groundwork was laid for the move to larger facilities. In 1978, PTL broke ground for the move to the Heritage USA facility.

Heritage USA/Heritage Park

Heritage USA, also known as Heritage Park, was located on the border between North and South Carolina and was an abandoned industrial park before its purchase by PTL. The property eventually spanned 2200 acres. Heritage Park was to become, in Bakker's vision, a “Total Living Center for Christians” and serve as the center of the PTL ministry. Bakker also had plans for a Heritage University on the property, but that plan never materialized.

The compound at Heritage USA began with the PTL executive office building, which was named the World Outreach Center. Then Fort Heritage Center was added to the property; it consisted of 1600 campground sites and facilities for swimming and outdoor recreational facilities. It was at Heritage USA that Bakker showed the ostentatious consumerism that was later found to be a violation of PTL's nonprofit status. The purchase of a $17,000 car for the Bakkers' daughter, who couldn't legally drive yet; a $25,000 houseboat; and several homes only touched the surface of the misappropriation of ministry funds. It was at Heritage USA that the “Big Barn Auditorium” was built, which became Jim Bakker's television studio. This studio was Bakker's platform, from which he begged for donations to fulfill the many lifetime partnerships that he offered to his followers.

It was at Heritage USA that gross mismanagement of PTL by Bakker's hand, massive wire and mail fraud violations, and Bakker's “affair” with Jessica Hahn, who described the contact as rape, eventually led to the fall of Bakker's personal ministry and the collapse of PTL. A massive oversale of lodging partnerships led to revenue of $158 million for PTL, but the fraudulent sales eventually resulted in the imprisonment of Bakker and three of his top officials in 1987. From Heritage USA, Bakker made fraudulent appeals on air and by mail for his various “lifetime partnership programs.” There were four major frauds perpetrated by Bakker through the PTL ministry: the Grand Hotel partnership fraud, the Towers Hotel partnership fraud, the Family Heritage Club (Bunkhouse) partnership fraud, and the 1100 Club partnership fraud. In addition, Bakker and PTL misrepresented the value of gift promotionals to donors. An overview of the frauds that constituted white-collar crime follows.

The Grand Hotel Partnership Fraud

The massive oversale of lodging partnerships began with the Grand Hotel partnership fraud. In November 1983, Bakker unveiled his plan to build a 504-room hotel at Heritage USA. Revenue for the project was generated by selling lifetime partnerships for lodging to faithful followers. In exchange for a $1000 contribution, donors and their families were entitled to a three-night stay in first-class accommodations at Heritage USA in the “PTL Partner Center,” which would later be known as the Grand Hotel, each year for the rest of their lives. A limit of 25,000 lifetime partnerships was announced. The program would supposedly reserve 50 percent of the hotel capacity for lifetime partners. In order to manage the plan, PTL entered into a contract with the Brock Hotel Corporation to manage the Grand Hotel. Eventually, PTL would request to increase the 50 percent limit in order to accommodate more lifetime partnerships. However, no mention of the increase in availability was ever mentioned to the public. Constant pleas went out over the air and by mail about the need for additional partners. In each instance, Bakker and PTL officials knew that the true numbers of partnerships sold had exceeded the limit. It wasn't until August 23, 1984, that Bakker announced that the lifetime partnership program had reached its goal. In fact, it had far exceeded the limit. The total sales of partnerships had reached 29,949, which amounted to $4,949,000 over the expected income for the appeal. Bakker appealed again to his studio audience on April 11, 1985, and asked for more partners because some pledges had not been fulfilled. This plea resulted in a total of 34, 983 lifetime partnership sales. An additional plea in July increased the number of sold partnerships to 58,748. By May 31, 1987, 66,683 lifetime partnerships had been purchased by unsuspecting donors. This resulted in revenue of $66,938,820, of which only $35,365,201 was spent on facility construction. The remaining funds were supposed to be earmarked for facility maintenance but were instead used to meet the daily operational expenses of PTL, which included the by that time enormous salaries of the Bakkers and several key executives. The financial pressure on the ministry to meet not only its professional obligations but the exorbitant personal expenditures by the Bakkers and other key officials led to the unveiling of a new partnership appeal.

The Towers Hotel Partnership Frauds

On September 17, 1984, Bakker introduced the Towers lifetime partnership. The Heritage Towers were unveiled on the PTL show in order to offer an additional 500 rooms for partner lodging. The partnerships were priced at $1000, and 30,000 partnerships were available to donors. This development was expected to cost $15 million, with $10 million to go towards the completion of the Grand Hotel. Bakker assured viewers that the remaining sum of $5 million would be earmarked for TV stations. The program was promoted in much the same way as the Grand Hotel Partnership program. The studio audience that day was told that the cost of the partnerships would be raised to $1500 after 30 days. Contributors who purchased two partnerships were promised a seven-day, six-night stay per year at Heritage Park. In addition to the on air appeal, a mass mailing was sent out for the Towers appeal. As before, 50 percent of the room capacity was promised to be earmarked for lifetime partners. Several variations of this appeal were offered. The Penthouse Promotional offered a week's stay in one of the penthouses in the tower for $10,000. Later, the price was raised to $25,000. The cost for the Tower partnerships was subsequently raised to $2000, which was attributed falsely to limited availability. Yet, in contrast to the Grand Hotel lifetime partner appeal, the number of partnerships sold never reached their capacity. Bakker however, continued to create a false sense of urgency in pushing their purchase. It was during the Towers partner appeal that the Grand Hotel opened in January 1985.

Other variations of the Towers partnership were introduced after the Grand Hotel opened. The Silver 7000 club membership for $3000 supposedly entitled partners to six nights of lodging at the Towers and admission to events at Heritage USA plus two self-improvement workshops per year. A $1,000 Victory Warrior partner would receive three nights' stay and admission to nonfood events at Heritage USA as well as admission to two self-improvement workshops each year. The Victory Warrior partnership program was the most successful fundraiser in PTL history and raised $34,908,076. This program alone exceeded the 30,000 limit of Tower partnerships available. While he was promoting the various Tower partnerships, Bakker was repeatedly told by high-ranking staff members to stop selling partnerships. Eventually 68,755 partnerships were sold for the Tower, far exceeding the pre-established 30,000 limit. This appeal raised $74,292,751. More disturbingly, only $11,422,684 had been spent on the Towers Hotel construction, which was never fully completed.

The Bunkhouse (Family Heritage Club) Partnership Fraud

This partnership was first mentioned on the air by Bakker as early as May 1986, but not officially promoted until August 4, 1986. The promotion promised $500 donors lodging for six individuals for two nights plus free admission to nonfood events at Heritage USA. No limits were announced for this program, but Bakker announced plans to build between 10 and 50 Bunkhouses. Again, a cap of 50 percent occupancy was announced. This partnership was heavily promoted by stating that the Grand Hotel and Towers partnerships were sold out. As of Bakker's resignation in March 1987, only one Bunkhouse had been completed. This meant that only eight rooms of the Bunkhouse were available for the 9,682 partners. The total amount raised through this appeal was $6,681,961, of which only $1 million was spent on construction. The remaining $5 million was spent on the exploding PTL operating costs, which included the Bakkers' personal expenses. Even though Bunkhouse partnerships continued to be sold in spite of the sold-out warnings stated by Bakker, a shortage of funds instigated the 1100 Club partnership program in November 1986. The 1100 Club partners would be given their choice of four locations for lodging at Heritage USA for six nights a year for life. Partners could choose to stay at the bunkhouses, Country Farm Inn, or the Heritage Grand Mansion for up to three nights and the campground for up to six nights. In addition, partners would receive free admission to Heritage USA nonfood events and could attend one workshop each year. Unfortunately, donors were not told that the Country Inn Farmhouse, the Heritage Grand Mansion, and the 1100 Club campgrounds were not yet constructed. This appeal raised $10,700,267, with no fund diversion to building costs. Again, the funds were used to support the daily operations of PTL and the Bakkers' excesses. In addition to the fraudulent lifetime partnerships, Bakker promised promotional items to donors that either never materialized or were grossly misrepresented. In one example, a Heller “David and Goliath” statue was promised to partnership donors. The value was implied to be close to $1000. The quality of the statue was misrepresented, and it was later determined that the statues cost PTL a mere $10 apiece.

The various lifetime partner lodging appeals raised in excess of $158 million for PTL. The majority of the partners never received the benefits they paid for, because funds were fraudulently misappropriated by Bakker and key PTL employees. The majority of the buildings for which Bakker asked for donations were never built. Eventually, the fraudulent schemes and exorbitant personal spending caught up with Bakker and PTL. Bakker was forced to announce his resignation from PTL in March 1987, and the Rev. Jerry Falwell was elected chair of the board. During this meeting, the entire PTL board resigned. PTL was forced to declare bankruptcy in June 1987. Jim Bakker was indicted on eight counts of mail fraud, fifteen counts of wire fraud (three counts from telephone use and twelve counts from use of television), and an additional count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, for a total of twenty-four counts. Tammy Faye Bakker was never charged with criminal conduct. Bakker's criminal trial was one of four judicial proceedings concerning the PTL ministry. The Bakkers were ordered to reimburse PTL $5,603,639.47 for excessive compensation by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court. A second case concerned charges of criminal tax evasion by two PTL employees, James and David Taggert. Finally, a civil case was brought against PTL auditors, officers of the corporation, and a director.

Eventually, Bakker was convicted of all counts.

The lifetime partners filed a class-action lawsuit that sought $758 million in damages from Bakker and other key PTL personnel. The partners were awarded $129,618,000 in actual damages and $129,618 in punitive damages. Because Bakker received a 45-year prison sentence, later reduced to eight years, the partners are unlikely ever to recover their judgment. Eventually Heritage USA was sold for $45 million in December 1990 to Morris Cerullo. Cerullo later surrendered ownership of Heritage USA to the New Heritage USA shareholders in an undisclosed agreement. New Heritage USA properties opened in June 1992 as a for-profit corporation.

Many countries use the Death Penalty as a social device to inhibit hideous crimes (following the country's parameters of what is hideous). Although no Scientific Study demonstrates any reduction in criminal activities provoked by the presence of the Death Penalty, those countries still use that barbaric ritual. What countries are those, and which are the ways to be cruelly assassinated by the Government?

1. Fusilladed

   
   
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   A Fusillade Squad is positioned six meters in front of the person sentenced to the Death Penalty. Usually using rifles, the Squad fires all the weapons simultaneously at a standing or sit victim. It is a popular way to die in war crimes. Even countries that doesn't have the Death Penalty institutionalized in their culture, opens exceptions in Wars.
   
   In that case, the victim is shot from multiple directions being wounded in multiple places. The condemned dies from the hemorrhage of various organs or, if the victim is lucky, a bullet reaches the brain, what means in most cases, instantaneous death. Specialists classify this pain and suffering as average. In my opinion, it is very easy to classify pain as average when you were not the one shot multiple times to death.
   
   The places that still use that Capital Punishment are USA, Somalia, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Guatemala and Vietnam.

2. Stoned to Death
   

   The Death Penalty Sentence “stoned to death” is usually applied to criminals that attempted against the honor of women in Muslin countries, and tradition make the male family members of the victim and male members of the local community, the killers of the condemned to death.
   
   The death penalty condemned is wrapped in a sheet and thrown into a hole. The executioners stand around the hole and throw rocks on the condemned. As a ritual designed to be cruel, the death penalty “stoned to death” makes every effort to make the death long and painful. The condemned dies mostly by the rocks that smite his head.
   
   The places with that death penalty are: Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

3. Hanged

   
   
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   In the death penalty “hanged”, the rope is boiled, twisted and lubricated with soap before tied around the condemned's neck. The condemned, with the rope around his neck, wait for the trapdoor under his feet to open and hang his body to death by the neck. When the death is fast, the spine breaks in the moment that the condemned is hanged, along with the medulla, and in that case, the victim dies in less than 60 seconds.
   
   Specialists say that this death penalty is the most human and least painful way to die, if the sadistic ritual of hanging is correctly executed. In cases where the executioners make the rope too long, the condemned might take more than 20 minutes to die (in that case, by choking) and the pain and suffering are maximized.
   
   The places that still have the hanging as a Capital Punishment are: USA, China, Guatemala and Iraq.

4. Electric Chair
   

   
   
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   The condemned to the death penalty “electric chair” is tied to a chair with leather stripes. His body had already been shaved to avoid flaming hair. The executioner binds electrodes wet in a saline solution on the legs and head of the condemned to death, and a metal helmet is placed over the head.
   
   After blindfolding the death penalty condemned, the executioner activates the chair and releases at least two discharges from 500 to 2000 volts. If the condemned survives, the executioner repeats the process until the victim dies.
   
   The victim's suffering is related to the time he takes to die, varying from average to high pain. The only country that uses the Capital Punishment “electric chair” is the USA.

5. Decapitation

   
   
   In the Death Penalty “decapitation”, the victim is placed standing or sit, and the executioner uses a sword to cut his head off. A good executioner can provide a fast and “merciful” death with just one blow. But, if the executioner is not that professional and the victim's vertebrae and muscles are too tight, the executioner may need more blows, what may increase exponentially the suffering.
   
   The death happens when the medulla is cut. In that case, the breathing and heartbeat cease immediately.
   
   The places that still apply the “decapitation” as a death penalty are: Saudi Arabia, China, Guatemala and Iraq.

6. Lethal Injection
   

   
   
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   When the death penalty condemned is tied over a bed, the executioners place two probes in the veins on his arms. One of them has an isotonic solution that will latter be replaced by poison, and the second one is a fail safe, in case of failure of the system. First, a sedative is released in the condemned's veins. When the victim sleeps, curare (a powerful paralyzing toxin) is injected in the victim, and in the end, potassium chloride. After the potassium, the heart stops and the victim dies from 5 to 7 minutes. Specialists guarantee that the pain is minimal and that it is one of the most human means to death penalty.
   
   The places that apply “lethal injection” as a death penalty are: USA, China and Guatemala.

In an overall view, the countries that execute more prisoners through death penalty are: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, USA and Pakistan.

The difficulty of resolving technology based crime arises from its broad scope. For example, it is very hard to define a crime committed online. Lots of new violations are being made everyday, ranging from invasion of privacy to terrorism. It is not easy to set standard measures to prevent these crimes, much more solve cases and prosecute the perpetrators. Thus, technology based crime is one of the hardest challenges being faced by the crime commission in these modern times.

1. Internet Hacking

   
   
   This is one area of technology based crime that needs to be given much concern. In majority of cases, successful hacking (breaking through secure computer networks) cost an awful amount of money and property damage to the victims. Rast reports that “in one (specific) case, 26,000 credit card numbers were stolen and in another case damage was estimated at $3 million”. Clearly, hacking should not be taken lightly but dealt with through concentrated means and to the fullest extent of the law.  There are many ways and means by which hackers perform their crimes. Some do it on a small scale by opening other people’s emails or breaking through secure office networks, while some hack on a wide scale by stealing passwords of commercial sites and attacking government institutions such as the Pentagon and the FBI itself.
   
   Many hackers have been prosecuted and convicted to the maximum degree possible, and surprisingly, lots of these hackers were relatively younger than other criminals. For example, Fragomeni  documents the prosecution of a 15 year old computer whiz who tried to “fraudulently (use) a computer system with intent to gain unlawful access to password files, route access, and Internet access” from the U.S. military. The young boy, whose name was hidden because of juvenile age, pleaded guilty and later suffered the consequence of his crime.

2. Online Fraud and Scamming

   
   
   This is another area that modern law enforcers need to focus on. Under this category of technology based crime, the perpetrators usually assume fictitious names, send mass email to hundreds or thousands of innocent recipients, and by means of manipulative wording backed up by fraudulent documents, successfully convince the victims to pay money or reveal vital personal information. Here's an example of a Nigerian 419 scam letter:  Frequently, online frauds and scams are performed by people who work offshore, making it hard for law enforcers to trace them and deal with them according to American laws.
   
   One example of this type of crime is the popular Nigerian 419 scam. According to Financial & Tax Fraud Associates, Inc. (2002), the Nigerian scam operates as follows: “The scam starts with a bulk mailing or bulk faxing of a bunch of identical letters to businessmen, professionals, and other persons who tend to be of greater-than-average wealth”. The email or fax always contains a fake story that promises a huge sum of money to the email recipient, in exchange for a small ‘processing fee’. Due to the growing number of this kind of fraud happening over the internet, the U.S. government has passed a law called the SPAM Act of 2003. Under this law, email senders are not allowed to send repetitive, unsolicited commercial emails to total strangers.

3. Wiretapping

   
   
   Wiretapping is another alarming area of technology based crime. Unlike the two crime aspects mentioned above, wiretapping can be done either online and offline. It involves the tampering of secure lines of telecommunication to eavesdrop on private conversations.  This can be very damaging, especially in the higher echelons of government, as wiretapping is being used to frame and incriminate respected officials. Some people argue that wiretapping is necessary to expose anomalies in government. However, it is still considered a crime to this day because it violates the privacy of citizens and compromises secret conversations aimed at implementing national security.

4. Piracy

   
   
   Piracy meanwhile, seems like a petty or minor crime aspect compared to the ones we have already discussed. However, it should be taken into serious consideration as well. Piracy is the illegal reproduction and distribution of copyrighted material.  By means of piracy, copyrighted pieces of art, music, and literary materials are being virtually smuggled in great quantities everyday. Some countries have begun to act against piracy, but still it remains a growing problem for content producers all over the world and consequently, for law enforcers as well.

5. Technology-Based Terrorism

   
   
   This presents the most dangerous threat to our citizens and the biggest challenge to modern law enforcers. By using advanced technology, it is possible for terrorists to spy on highly classified government information, assemble weapons of mass destruction, detonate bombs from great distances, and break into vital, secure and encrypted government networks. Highly funded and intelligent terrorists can do all these with almost the impossibility of being traced. For this reason, law enforcers in the crime commission should also use modern technology and employ trained specialists in order to battle the growing threat of terrorism. 

Law enforcement agencies have developed some modern investigative methods in response to technological crime. As we have mentioned earlier, the only way to battle technological based crime is to turn the table on the crooks and face them with better and modern investigative techniques.

Information sharing is the act of using data warehouses, analytical software and portal technology to gather data and vital info about crooks and criminals. By the use of this method, law enforcers can trace the online activities of a suspected criminal, track his or her personal history and retrieve evidence that might be useful for prosecution. Koenig proposes a National Central Repository, where criminal trends and perpetrator information should be stored for future use of all crime investigators.

Modern crime investigators also use Caller Identification and location traces. The goal is to track a suspect’s IP address or telephone number. If the suspect uses a disguised IP or secure line, the law enforcers ‘hack’ it and attempt to determine the location of the criminals. This requires expertise and proper timing.

Live system data gathering can also be used as an investigative method. By the use of this method, law enforcers and investigators can collect different kinds of information such as follows: name of users who are logged in a certain router, computer version information, all the possible users linked to the device, which IP addresses are subnet masked, the date of when the device was last loaded and reloaded. Furthermore, live system data gathering can determine whether a certain host or IP address is being used by the registered user, or if it has been hijacked. These pieces of information are vital to investigating computer crime scenes.

Furthermore, it is now possible to use malicious code analysis. This can be very useful to analyze virus attacks. By means of proper decoding, the investigators can actually obtain information about the source of the code and develop leads and clues for the case.

Lastly, modern law enforcers have developed an enhanced version of the polygraph test, called SCAN or Scientific Content Analysis. This advanced lie detector test allows the suspect to write down the answers to specific questions. Then, his answers, behaviour during the test, and even his handwriting are studied and used for the investigation.

Continued technological advancements will surely provide more opportunities for law enforcement agencies to suppress technology based crimes. Moreover, proper training of personnel must also be a top priority. Recognizing talent and spending a fair budget for modern equipment and research should be one of the government’s main concerns.

The time is 8 AM.

Outside the prison, a large crowd has gathered to await the execution by hanging of convicted murderer John Lee, condemned for the brutal murder of his employer, Miss Emma Keyes, the previous year. When the execution has been successfully completed a bell will toll for fifteen minutes and the dreaded black flag will be hoisted over the prison.

At 7:55 AM the execution party, consisting of the prison warden, the chief guard, the prison doctor, the prison chaplain, several guards, the executioner and representatives of the Press, is assembled outside the condemned cell.

At precisely 8 AM, Britain's chief public executioner, James Berry, receives a signal from the prison warden and enters the condemned cell. He swiftly straps Lee's arms by his sides and places a white hood over his head. Accompanied by the rest of the execution party, Berry swiftly leads the pinioned and hooded convict on to the gallows, and then equally swiftly straps his legs together and tightens the noose around his neck.

Berry steps quickly off the trapdoors and approaches the lever. He swiftly pushes the lever over as he has done so many times before...
And nothing happens.

The doors drop approximately a quarter inch and then jam solid and will drop no further. Berry is slightly flustered by this but it has been known to happen before so he continues with his grim duty. He unstraps Lee's legs, removes the noose and takes off the hood. He leads Lee into an adjoining room and quickly returns to examine and test the trapdoors.

They are reset and the lever is thrown.

They work perfectly.

Berry goes into the adjoining room and brings Lee back on to the gallows. Again the hood and noose are applied and Berry throws the lever a second time.

The doors jam solid a second time.

This time Berry has strained the lever by throwing it too hard. Lee is again unstrapped and the noose and hood removed. He is again taken back to the adjoining room. It is suggested by a member of the execution party that the doors fit together too tightly. Two guards are dispatched to fetch a plane and an axe to whittle the doors slightly. When this has been done, Berry throws the lever and the doors jam solid again. Now a part of one door is sawed off and yet the iron catches on the trapdoors still need to be struck hard before the trapdoors will fall.

Lee is then returned to his position atop the gallows. He is strapped, hooded and noosed for a third time. Berry moves swiftly, as if to bring this sorry spectacle to as quick an end as possible. He leaps for the lever and throws it as hard as he can.
And the doors jam solid again.

The prison chaplain now lies unconscious on the scaffold, the grim spectacle having proved simply too much for him. The prison doctor sees this and immediately demands that the execution be halted on the spot and the Under-Sheriff of Devon agrees.

The prison warden, doctor and chaplain (by now partially recovered) go to the doctor's room to compose and sign a statement bearing witness to the morning's bizarre events. This statement is immediately taken to the Home Secretary in London for his consideration. The Home Secretary decides that Lee has suffered enough and proceeds to commute the death sentence, instead ordering that Lee face life imprisonment instead.

The scene of the crime was a seaside house in the pleasant Devon town of Babbacombe, near Torquay. On the night of November 14th, 1885, householder Emma Keyes confronted an intruder inside her home.

It was to be the last mistake she ever made.

She was beaten to the ground with a heavy instrument, believed to be a hatchet, her throat was cut with such force that, when examined, her vertebrae were found to have notches carved by the knife. Then her murderer soaked her body in a flammable fluid, believed to be paraffin, sprinkled more paraffin around the house and set fire to the body and the crime scene.

It was a particularly brutal and callous murder, especially as other servants were in the house at the time and could easily have been casualties as well.
John Lee, an employee of Emma Keyes, was a prime suspect from the start.

He was the first person to raise the alarm, making him the first person to be aware that anything was amiss. He also told at least one witness that Emma Keyes was dead even before the body had been found, although he later denied this in court. Changing his story probably did him no favours in court.

He did save one servant from the burning building and, in doing so, left a series of bloody prints from his right hand on the stair wall of the house and on the servant's nightgown. This seemed strange to investigators as,it was Lee's left hand that had been injured, or so he claimed.

Lee claimed to have cut his hand while breaking a window so he and the servant could safely exit the burning building. The problem with Lee's claim in this regard was two-fold. One, examination of the broken glass showed the window to have been broken from the outside while Lee claimed to be inside. Also, the servant he escorted from the building said she clearly heard the window being broken some time after Lee had saved her.

Another major discrepancy was Lee's attitude towards the body of his murdered employer. He took a great deal of persuasion before he would agree to help remove the body and, when he did help, he claimed to be entirely unaware of her very obvious injuries which, given that Emma Keyes had been beaten to death and her throat slashed in the most brutal manner, seems strange.

Especially when he told at least one witness of her death before her body had even been found. Furthermore, a search of the house revealed a virtually empty can of paraffin in the pantry, which was where Lee slept. Not only was this near-empty can regarded as the probable source of the accelerant used to start the fire, the can was found in Lee's quarters and even had blood spots all over it.

There is also the small matter of Lee's hatchet to consider. It was believed that Emma Keyes had first been severely beaten with a hatchet (or similar instrument) before having her throat slashed. When the firefighters arrived at the scene they immediately demanded a hatchet to chop out some burning timbers. Lee, who was the employee who used a hatchet most, was suspiciously quick to find them a hatchet. And that hatchet just happened to have blood spots all over it.

As a result of this, Lee was swiftly arrested, questioned, charged with murder and reckless arson and held to be tried at the next Assizes. This was significant for the Lee as, under English law, only at a court of Assizes could a capital trial be held. And this would be a capital trial where few local people doubted his guilt, and even fewer when several people claimed to have heard Lee issuing death threats against Emma Keyes.

The inquest and trial were concluded quickly. The crime occurred in mid-November and Lee was found guilty of murder and reckless arson during the first week of December. It only remained for the trial judge put on the traditional ‘Black Cap' to pass the following sentence:

‘John Henry George Lee, you have been found guilty of willful murder by a jury of your peers. The sentence of this Court is that you be taken from this place to a lawful prison, and thence to a place of execution, where you shall be hanged by the neck until you are dead. And that your body be afterwards cut down and buried within the precincts of the prison in which you were last confined before execution. And may the Lord have mercy upon your soul. Amen.'

Lee was swiftly taken away to Exeter Prison, which was known as the ‘hanging prison' for the county of Devon, and lodged in the condemned cell to await his fate. He was expecting either a hanging or a reprieve.

In the end, he got both.

So what kind of a man was John Lee?

He was born on August 15th 1864, in the quiet little village of Abbotskers well in Devon. The time and place of his eventual death is disputed. Some claim he died in a poorhouse in the town of Tavistock in Devon, about twenty miles from Plymouth. Others say he died in Australia, while still others claim he died in the USA, in Milwaukee, in 1945.

He had a moderately comfortable childhood and became a very close to his half-sister, a woman named Elizabeth Harris, a fellow-employee of Emma Keyes who would later give evidence against him at his murder trial. His elder sister, Amelia, was also employed by Emma Keyes and talked he into giving Lee a job in 1878. After briefly being in Emma Keyes employ, Lee left to join the Royal Navy, but was discharged in 1882 on medical ground and, some say, because he had disciplinary problems during his service.

After his discharge from the Royal navy, Lee held a series of low-paid and menial jobs at a number of hotels in the nearby town of Torquay until he was jailed for petty theft. When he came out of prison, Elizabeth Harris interceded with Emma Keyes to get Lee his old job back. Emma Keyes was persuaded to allow Lee back into her service, despite his record, as a groundsman and occasional butler.

Lee returned to Emma Keyes' employ in the summer of 1884, but it was only a few weeks later that he was caught attempting to sell a market trader a guitar stolen the Keyes home. Mrs Keyes, who seems to have tempered justice with no small amount of mercy under the circumstances, did not fire him. Instead, she docked a portion of his wages as a punishment, but kept him in her employ. The cutting of his wages was later alleged by the prosecutors at his murder trial to be his motive for murder.

The actual guilt or innocence of John Lee has been, unsurprisingly, somewhat overshadowed by the remarkable events that occurred at his failed execution. In favour of his innocence are the fats that all the evidence against him was entirely circumstantial. Despite there being a considerable amount of such evidence, there was nothing that gave an iron-clad indication of his guilt.

Lee also had far more to lose than to gain by murdering his employer. After all, he had previously described her as his best friend in the world and simply having his wages docked was hardly a vital and pressing reason to commit capital murder. That would be the action of somebody who was reckless, impulsive, foolish and a brute. According to Lee's letters while awaiting execution, and the testimony of some people who knew him, Lee simply wasn't that way inclined.

Finally, even after his nightmarish experience on the gallows and having served a 22 year sentence, Lee remained defiant to the end, always asserting his innocence of the murder.
There is, however, an equally strong body of evidence, albeit entirely circumstantial, to suggest that Lee was guilty.

There was a hatchet with blood spots on it, a hatchet being the weapon suspected of being used in the murder, which John Lee used regularly around the house and was suspiciously quick to give to firemen when they were hacking burning timbers out of the house. The paraffin can was equally suspicious. Paraffin was the accelerant suspected to be used to start the fire, the paraffin can was found in the pantry where John Lee slept and it also had blood spots on it.

Also, even when pressed heavily, Lee never offered any alternative versions of what happened that night. When pressed, instead of offering alternatives, he simply fell silent. He also fell silent when pressed regarding the inconsistencies in his story, such as his cut hand and having told a witness his employer was dead even before her body had been found. And it wasn't until long after the case had been closed and his death sentence commuted that he began to accuse others of being involved, and all of the people he accused had strong alibi's.

Lee marked himself out as a prime suspect by being the first to raise the alarm. He was also accused by at least one witness of telling them that Emma Keyes was dead even before her body had been found, although he later denied having done this. He had injured his left hand, yet had left a series of right-handed blood prints on the stair wall and the nightgown of the servant he apparently saved from the burning building.

He also claimed that the cut on his left hand came from when he broke a window to help the servant escape the fire. The condition of the window indicates, however, that it was smashed from the outside in, while Lee was supposedly inside the house. The female servant Lee so generously saved also reported hearing the sound of the window breaking some time after she was rescued, not before.

When Lee was finally persuaded to help move the victim's body, and he only did so after much protest on his aprt, he claimed to be unaware of the extensive, and very obvious, injuries that she had suffered. Couple that with the witness claiming that Lee told them she was dead, even before her body had been found, and you have a major discrepancy Lee did little to answer. Put simply, if Lee was unaware of the injuries on the victim's body, then how could he possibly know that she was dead before the body was discovered and removed?

So, what happened on the gallows that fateful day? What went wrong and put a potentially innocent man through such agony? Lee himself always claimed it was God's work and that it was a case of divine intervention. He also claimed to have had a dream while in the condemned cell, in which the gallows malfunctioned and failed to do its deadly work.

The other versions are somewhat more scientific than that. James Berry, who was the chief British hangman assigned to execute Lee, admitted to having had a dream early in his career of the gallows failing to work. However, he put the failed execution purely down to technical problems.

There had been heavy rain in the two day leading up to the execution and, a gallows being made of wood, he felt that the rain had caused the trapdoors to warp and then jam solid whenever weight was placed upon them. He also felt that the gallows were poorly constructed. He describes the trapdoors as being too thin and the ironwork as being too light for the job in hand, so that the iron catches on the trapdoors became locked. He also describe the doors themselves as fiting together too tightly.

Mr. A.B. Hardy, a Home Office representative, mentions having ordered the Clerks of Works to thoroughly inspect the gallows. It was their opinion, and his, that a long hinge rested on the drawing bolt that held the doors closed and thus held them closed even after Berry had pulled the lever to open them.

Officer Edwards was the Artisan Warder at Exeter Prison at the time. He blames the iron bearing bars of the gallows as being too light and thus tending to lengthen when significant weight was put upon them. This would explain why the doors jammed solid when weight was placed upon them, but worked perfectly when that weight was removed.

Mr Harris, the Chief Constable for the county of Devon and a witness to the failed execution, remembers the gallows as being cold, wet and damp. He advances the idea that the gallows had simply become too wet for too long and that, while drying out, the wood had warped and consequently the trapdoors simply jammed under the weight of the condemned prisoner.

The aftermath of the hanging affected different people in different ways. Lee's death sentence was immediately commuted to one of life imprisonment. He served 22 years, mainly at Portland Prison in the county of Dorset and was released in 1907. He then left for the USA, where he lived illegally, never becoming a US citizen, until he is said to have dies in Milwaukee in 1945, although the precise date and location of his death has never been fully confirmed.

The official reaction to the failed hanging, at least from those who were there, was to simultaneously deny their own responsibility while preferably passing the buck on to someone else. In the official correspondence between various officials and witnesses to the debacle, there is plenty of blame offered around, but very little accepted.

To be fair to the officials of the time, they did at least begin the long-overdue process of modernizing and standardizing the execution methods used in British prisons. A new standard type of gallows and execution suite were designed, meaning that future executions would never again end in such farcical circumstances. This new system was gradually introduced at ‘hanging prisons' all over the country.

It proved quicker and safe for all concerned (except the condemned, of course), especially when a new breed of executioners such as John Ellis and Albert Pierrepoint began working their own ideas into the execution procedure. The combination of decent and purpose-built equipment and professional and skill executioners did much to make the British method of execution the fastest and cleanest method available, and this method was exported to a large number of countries, some of which still use it today.

There is one final, and equally grim, postscript to the case of ‘The Man They Couldn't Hang.' You couldn't possibly make it up, and it is this:

John Lee's mother was desperate to secure her son's release and, to do so, engaged the services of a lawyer from Plymouth who felt as strongly as she did and was prepared to try and force his case to be taken up in Parliament.

That lawyer was a certain Herbert Rowse Armstrong.

Armstrong left Devon in 1905 and moved to Hay-On-Wye in the the county of Herefordshire, opening his own law practice as he did so. In 1921, he deliberately administered a fatal dose of arsenic to his wife Katherine, whose continued presence was clearly surplus to requirements, Armstrong was convicted of murder and hanged at Gloucester Prison on May 31st, 1922 by John Ellis, the chief executioner from Rochdale. His final words as the doors fell are said to have been ‘I am coming, Kate!'

This time, the gallows worked perfectly.