James Smith (1936 – 28 November 1962) was the sixth-to-last criminal to be executed in a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

prison. He was

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...

for the murder of Sarah Isabella Cross in her sweetshop at the corner of Hulme Hall Lane and Iron Street,

Miles Platting Miles Platting is an inner city part of Manchester, England, northeast of Manchester city centre along the Rochdale Canal and A62 road, bounded by Monsall to the north, Collyhurst to the west, Newton Heath to the east, and Bradford, Holt To ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. Smith, born in Edinburgh in 1936, had entered the shop on Friday 4 May 1962 and battered 58-year-old Cross to death in order to rob her of around £6 from the till. A total of 5 glass screw-top

orangeade The term orange drink refers to a sweet, sugary, sometimes carbonated, orange-flavored drink. Typically such beverages contain little or no orange juice and are mainly composed of water, sugar or sweeteners, flavor, coloring, and additives, ...

and

cherryade Cherryade () is a carbonated soft drink made from cherry juice. It has also been produced as a non-carbonated beverage. It was first produced in the 19th century, along with other beverages such as limeade and ginger beer, which had come about d ...

bottles (made by Wild Bros of Heywood) were used to club the victim, each of which shattered to pieces as a result. Smith left coins scattered on the shop floor as he made his escape through the rear exit. The victim's body was subsequently found lying behind the counter. Forensic experts discovered Smith's

fingerprint A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...

on a door frame which had been painted two days earlier by Cross's husband, a factory worker, and was still slightly tacky. Smith's fingerprints were already on file because of a previous conviction. As a result, Smith was quickly arrested at his home on Corfe Street, Beswick, by Detective Chief Superintendent Eric Cunningham and Detective Inspector Tommy Butcher. The broken glass bottles from the murder scene were sent to the North West Forensic Science Laboratory at Preston, where they were carefully reassembled using a tube of glue. Smith's house was searched and microscopic particles of glass (recovered using a modified

vacuum cleaner A vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum or a hoover, is a device that causes suction in order to remove dirt from floors, upholstery, draperies, and other surfaces. It is generally electrically driven. The dirt is collected by either a ...

) were found on Smith's clothing and also down the sides of a settee. The tiny fragments of glass recovered from Smith's home fitted perfectly into the reassembled bottles from the murder scene. The 26-year-old father of two, who worked as a £15-per-week rubber moulder at

Failsworth Failsworth is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England, north-east of Manchester city centre and south-west of Oldham. The orbital M60 motorway skirts it to the east. The population at the 2011 census was ...

, went on trial for Cross's murder on 15 October 1962. The hearing lasted three days and it took the jury just 20 minutes to find him guilty. This verdict automatically resulted in him being sentenced to death on 17 October 1962 because under the terms of the

Homicide Act 1957 The Homicide Act 1957 (5 & 6 Eliz.2 c.11) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was enacted as a partial reform of the common law offence of murder in English law by abolishing the doctrine of constructive malice (except in limi ...

killing in the course or furtherance of theft or robbery was a capital offence. Smith was subsequently

on the

gallows A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...

Strangeways prison HM Prison Manchester is a Category A and B men's prison in Manchester, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It is still commonly referred to as Strangeways, which was its former official name derived from the area in which it is l ...

(

), on the morning of Wednesday, 28 November 1962. The executioners were Harry Allen and his assistant. A few hours later, on the same day that he was executed, Smith's body was buried in an unmarked grave in Manchester prison cemetery. This practice was standard procedure because bodies of executed prisoners were regarded as property of the British government, and therefore remained in the custody of the prison where they had been executed. Because the prison cemetery was located inside the prison walls, there was no access for the general public. Smith's body remained in the prison cemetery until many years later, when (in 1991 and again in 1993) the remains of all the executed prisoners were exhumed and cremated and the ashes interred in plots C2710 and C2711 at Blackley Cemetery, Manchester.

References

External links

Greater Manchester Police newsletter which mentions the case
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, James 1936 births 1962 deaths 20th-century executions by England and Wales 20th-century executions of British people Executed British people People executed for murder 1962 murders in the United Kingdom