Leslie Hylton
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Leslie George Hylton (29 March 1905 – 17 May 1955) was a Jamaican cricketer, a right-arm bowler and useful lower-order batsman who played in six
Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...
for the
West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
between 1935 and 1939. In May 1955 he was hanged for the murder of his wife, whom he had shot in a jealous rage a year earlier. Born into poverty, Hylton became a regular member of the Jamaican cricket side from 1927. Although overlooked on several occasions for the full West Indies team, he was finally selected in 1935, to face the visiting English touring team. He performed well, as part of a trio of fast bowlers that also included
Learie Constantine Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine, (21 September 19011 July 1971) was a West Indian cricketer, lawyer and politician who served as Trinidad and Tobago's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and became the UK's first black pe ...
and
Manny Martindale Emmanuel Alfred Martindale (25 November 1909 – 17 March 1972) was a West Indian cricketer who played in ten Test matches from 1933 to 1939. He was a right-arm fast bowler with a long run up; although not tall for a bowler of his type he bowl ...
, and helped to secure a West Indies victory in the four-match Test series. He was chosen again in 1939, for a three-Test tour of England, but was out of form and lost his place in the Test side. On his return home he retired from first-class cricket. In 1942 Hylton married Lurline Rose, the daughter of a police inspector. A son was born in 1947. In the early 1950s, Lurline Hylton's ambitions to be a dress designer led to long absences at fashion schools in New York. There, she met up with Roy Francis, a reputed philanderer, and the two began an affair. When Hylton learned of this he confronted his wife, and after initial denials she confessed. Hylton then shot her seven times. His defence of provocation was rejected by the court, which found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Legal appeals, and a petition for clemency, proved to be of no avail as the law took its course. Hylton has been generally overlooked in cricket histories. The 1956 ''
Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
'' included an obituary that contained the date but not the manner or circumstances of his death. Many years later an addendum briefly gave the details. Later writers have considered the case more sympathetically, and have linked Hylton's treatment to his background of deprivation and to judicial intransigence.


Family background and early life

Hylton was born on 29 March 1905, in
Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...
. He was brought up in difficult family circumstances, in the lower strata of Jamaican society, not knowing who his father was. His mother died when he was three years old, and he was raised by his sister, who died when he was barely a teenager. His education was intermittent and incomplete; on the death of his aunt, he left school and became an apprentice in a tailor's shop. He appears to have made little progress in this trade, and took up a variety of unskilled jobs before becoming a dock labourer. Despite the handicap of his impoverished background, Hylton grew up to be strong and athletic, and acquired considerable skill and a local reputation as a cricketer. When and how he began to play is not recorded; in his book ''A History of West Indies Cricket'',
Michael Manley Michael Norman Manley (10 December 1924 – 6 March 1997) was a Jamaican politician who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1992. Manley championed a democratic socialist program, and has been d ...
surmises that most impoverished Kingston youngsters learned the game using a coconut branch and a tennis ball. The cricket historian
Mike Marqusee __NOTOC__ Mike Marqusee (; 27 January 1953 – 13 January 2015) was an American writer, journalist and political activist in London. Marqusee's first published work was the essay "Turn Left at Scarsdale", written when he was a sixteen-year-old high ...
writes that, by the early 20th century, all social classes in the West Indies had taken up cricket, although clubs were typically stratified in a hierarchy of skin tones. By the 1920s even the more exclusive cricket clubs of the colonies had begun to accept into their numbers talented cricketers such as Hylton, from the lower orders of society. According to Manley, "it was becoming increasingly clear that the descendants of the former slaves showed remarkable aptitude for the game". It was the normal course of events that black, uncoached players such as Hylton should emerge as bowlers rather than batsmen.


Cricketing career


Early matches

Hylton developed as an
all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...
, a bowler who could vary speed with
spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
and who could also perform usefully as a batsman. In the 1920s, opportunities for first-class cricket in Jamaica were limited, since its distance from the other West Indies cricketing colonies prevented its participation in inter-colonial tournaments. First-class opposition was provided from time to time by visiting teams from England. One such touring side arrived at the beginning of 1927, led by the former England Test captain
Lionel Tennyson Lionel Hallam Tennyson, 3rd Baron Tennyson (7 November 1889 – 6 June 1951) was known principally as a first-class cricketer who captained Hampshire and England. The grandson of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson and the son of the Governor-Gener ...
and containing several other English Test cricketers including
Percy Fender Percy George Herbert Fender (22 August 1892 – 15 June 1985) was an English cricketer who played 13 Tests for his country and was captain of Surrey between 1921 and 1931. An all-rounder, he was a middle-order batsman who bowled mainly l ...
and
Ernest Tyldesley George Ernest Tyldesley (5 February 1889 – 5 May 1962) was an English cricketer. The younger brother of Johnny Tyldesley and the leading batsman for Lancashire County Cricket Club, Lancashire. He remains Lancashire's most prolific run-getter ...
. The party's fixtures included three representative first-class matches against the Jamaica XI; Hylton, aged 21, had been noticed in local cricket, and was given a place in the Jamaican side for the first match, which began at the
Sabina Park Sabina Park is a cricket ground and the home of the Kingston Cricket Club, and is the only Test cricket ground in Kingston, Jamaica. History Sabina Park was originally a Pen (urban residence and adjoining land of a wealthy merchant, shopkeep ...
ground in Kingston on 19 February 1927. In the match, Hylton scored 32 and 7 in his two
innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bot ...
, being
not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...
in each case. He failed to take a wicket as a bowler, but held two
catches Catch may refer to: In sports * Catch (game), children's game * Catch (baseball), a maneuver in baseball * Catch (cricket), a mode of dismissal in cricket * Catch or reception (gridiron football) * Catch, part of a rowing stroke In music * Cat ...
in the field. He kept his place for the second representative game, played at
Melbourne Park Melbourne Park is a sports venue in the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Since 1988 Australian Bicentenary, Australia's bicentenary, Melbourne Park has been home of the Austra ...
, and made his mark as a bowler by taking 5 Tennyson XI wickets for 34 runs in the tourists' first innings, and 3 for 53 in their second. These performances were enough to establish a regular place in the Jamaican side. In December 1927 he travelled to
Bridgetown, Barbados Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the Parishes of Barbados, parish of Saint Michael, Barbados, Saint Mic ...
, to take part in a trial match which would help select the touring party for the West Indies' debut Test series, to be played against England in 1928. Hylton's performance in the match was modest, and he was not chosen for the England tour. The cricket writer Mark Whitaker believes that race may have been a factor in Hylton's non-selection, on this and later occasions: " e snooty Bridgetown press dismissed him as a 'slinger' and a 'garden bowler'. Inter-island rivalry in the Caribbean of the 1920s had a nasty edge of colour-consciousness, and Leslie Hylton was very black indeed". When Tennyson brought another team to Jamaica early in 1928, Hylton played in all three representative matches, the first two of which were won by Jamaica, the third being drawn. In this last game Hylton showed his potential as a
batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...
, scoring half-centuries in each of his two innings. During the following years, the Jamaica side played little top-grade cricket, and Hylton's opportunities to shine were very limited. He was not selected for the West Indies side that in early 1930 played a four-Test home series against a weak MCC side led by the Hon. F.S.G. Calthorpe, although he played for Jamaica when they faced the tourists at Melbourne Park in March 1930. His opponents in this match included the England Test veterans
Wilfred Rhodes Wilfred Rhodes (29 October 1877 – 8 July 1973) was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman t ...
and George Gunn, as well as emergent players such as
Les Ames Leslie Ethelbert George Ames (3 December 1905 – 27 February 1990) was a wicket-keeper and batsman for the England cricket team and Kent County Cricket Club. In his obituary, ''Wisden'' described him as the greatest wicket-keeper-batsman of a ...
and
Bill Voce Bill Voce (8 August 1909 – 6 June 1984) was an English cricketer who played for Nottinghamshire and England. As a fast bowler, he was an instrumental part of England's infamous Bodyline strategy in their tour of Australia in 1932–1933 under ...
. Hylton was also overlooked when the West Indies party to tour Australia in 1930–31 was chosen, likewise when the team to visit England in 1933 was selected. Between March 1928 and January 1935 he played in just five first-class matches. In one of these, against Sir Julien Cahn's XI at Melbourne Park in February 1929, he recorded his career-best bowling figures of 5 for 24. Cahn's XI included several current and past Test players.


Test series 1934–35 v. England

Although the MCC team that visited the West Indies in 1934–35 was lacking one or two of England's best players such as
Herbert Sutcliffe Herbert Sutcliffe (24 November 1894 – 22 January 1978) was an English professional cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England as an opening batsman. Apart from one match in 1945, his first-class career spanned the period between the tw ...
and
Hedley Verity Hedley Verity (18 May 1905 – 31 July 1943) was a professional cricketer who played for Yorkshire and England between 1930 and 1939. A slow left-arm orthodox bowler, he took 1,956 wickets in first-class cricket at an average of 14.90 ...
, it was nevertheless a strong combination; one local paper described it as "the strongest batting strength that ever visited these shores". Led by R.E.S Wyatt, the side included most of England's current batting stars, among them
Wally Hammond Walter Reginald Hammond (19 June 1903 – 1 July 1965) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Gloucestershire in a career that lasted from 1920 to 1951. Beginning as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed cap ...
and
Maurice Leyland Maurice Leyland (20 July 1900 – 1 January 1967) was an English international cricketer who played 41 Test matches between 1928 and 1938. In first-class cricket, he represented Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1920 and 1946, scoring over ...
. Close to his 30th birthday, Hylton was at last favoured by the selectors and chosen for the first Test match of the series, to be played at the
Kensington Oval The Kensington Oval is a stadium located to the west of the capital city Bridgetown on the island of Barbados. It is the pre-eminent sporting facility on the island and is primarily used for cricket. it has hosted many important and exciting c ...
in Bridgetown, Barbados beginning on 8 January 1935. The match was played, with many interruptions for rain, over three days on a pitch that made batting nearly impossible. The low-scoring contest was punctuated by several tactical declarations, and changes in each side's normal batting order. Hylton performed well with both ball and bat; he took 3 wickets for 8 in England's first innings (his victims were Hammond, Jim Smith and
Errol Holmes Errol Reginald Thorold Holmes (21 August 1905 – 16 August 1960) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Oxford University, Surrey and England between 1924 and 1955. A dashing right-handed batsman, Holmes believed that cri ...
) and was the West Indies' top scorer (with 19 runs) in the side's second innings. England eventually won the match by four wickets; at one point, set a target of only 73, they looked likely losers with six wickets down for 48, but they were rescued by some robust batting from Hammond. Hylton kept his place in the side for the whole four-match series. In the second Test, played at
Port of Spain, Trinidad Port of Spain (Spanish: ''Puerto España''), officially the City of Port of Spain (also stylized Port-of-Spain), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municip ...
from 24 January, West Indies gained a comfortable victory; Hylton's bowling figures were 2 for 55 and 3 for 25. The third match, at
Georgetown, British Guiana Georgetown is the capital and largest city of Guyana. It is situated in Demerara-Mahaica, region 4, on the Atlantic Ocean coast, at the mouth of the Demerara River. It is nicknamed the "Garden City of the Caribbean." It is the retail, administra ...
, was a rain-affected draw, although in the England first innings Hylton achieved his best Test bowling analysis: 13.2 overs, 4 maidens, 27 runs, 4 wickets. The final Test was played at Hylton's home ground, Sabina Park – his only Test appearance there. He made little personal impact on the match, taking no wickets, but West Indies won easily, by an innings and 161 runs, and thus took the series by two matches to one – their first Test series victory. The contribution of the pace trio of
Learie Constantine Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine, (21 September 19011 July 1971) was a West Indian cricketer, lawyer and politician who served as Trinidad and Tobago's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and became the UK's first black pe ...
,
Manny Martindale Emmanuel Alfred Martindale (25 November 1909 – 17 March 1972) was a West Indian cricketer who played in ten Test matches from 1933 to 1939. He was a right-arm fast bowler with a long run up; although not tall for a bowler of his type he bowl ...
and Hylton to the series triumph was considerable; Manley writes that the three "brought the first unalloyed joy to the cricket community of the Caribbean". Hylton's personal bowling tally for the series was 13 wickets for an average of 19.30. The West Indies played no further Tests for four years. In first-class cricket, Hylton played in three matches against a visiting
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
side in 1936, in the third game excelling as a batsman by scoring 80, his highest first-class score. Early in 1939 Hylton played well in two trial matches, designed to assist selection for that summer's tour of England. When the 15-man party was announced, Hylton's name was not included.


England tour, 1939

Hylton's omission from the 1939 touring party caused a storm of protest in the Jamaican press. Particular anger was directed at what was perceived as the excessive influence of the Queen's Park Club in Trinidad, and the selection of the 18-year-old Trinidadian novice batsman
Jeff Stollmeyer Jeffrey Baxter Stollmeyer (11 March 1921 – 10 September 1989) was a Trinidad and Tobago cricketer who played as an opening batsman. He played 32 Test matches for the West Indies, captaining 13 of these. He was also a senator. Cricket career ...
, apparently in preference to Hylton. The chief cricket correspondent of the '' Daily Gleaner'' suggested that the four Jamaicans in the party should all withdraw in protest, a view supported by many letters to the paper. It emerged that one factor behind Hylton's omission was financial; the impoverished
West Indies Cricket Board Cricket West Indies (CWI) is the governing body for cricket in the West Indies (a sporting confederation of over a dozen mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries and dependencies that once formed the British West Indies). It was originally ...
could not afford the cost of another player in the party. Led by the ''Daily Gleaner'', a campaign began in Jamaica to raise the funds that would support Hylton on the tour. The Board relented, and Hylton was belatedly added to the touring party. Hylton began the tour well; after seeing him in action against
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
in May, the ''
Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''s cricket correspondent
Neville Cardus Sir John Frederick Neville Cardus, CBE (2 April 188828 February 1975) was an English writer and critic. From an impoverished home background, and mainly self-educated, he became ''The Manchester Guardian''s cricket correspondent in 1919 and it ...
observed: "Hylton is unmistakably a good bowler, possibly more than good". However, he was now 34, and his powers were waning. During the tour he played a total of 15 first-class matches, in which he took 39 wickets for an average of 27.71, and scored 215 runs, av. 14.33. He rarely found the form of 1934–35, and did nothing of note in either of the two Test matches in which he played, other than getting Hutton's wicket in both innings at
Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...
. In these Tests he took three wickets for an average of 55.66, and scored a total of 17 runs in three innings with the bat. He was not selected for the last game of the three-match series. ''Wisden'' wrote of his performance in the Tests: "Hylton, a deadly bowler in conjunction with Martindale and Constantine when Wyatt's team were beaten, could not find his form". His best match of the tour was the game against
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
, when he took five cheap wickets and then scored an aggressive 55 runs. West Indies lost the first Test, and the following two were drawn. The tour ended prematurely when, in view of the worsening international situation, the West Indies team sailed for home immediately on the conclusion of the final Test, abandoning several end-of-season fixtures. On his arrival home, Hylton announced his retirement from representative cricket. In his six Tests he scored 70 runs with the bat, average 11.66, and as a bowler he took 16 wickets, averaging 26.12. In his whole first-class career of 40 matches he scored 843 runs, average 18.73, and took 120 wickets at 25.62. He also held 31 catches.


Post-cricket


Marriage and domestic life

Hylton's status as an international cricketer helped him, on his return home, to get a better-paid job, with the Rehabilitation Department of the Jamaican Civil Service. In 1940 he met and began courting Lurline Rose, the daughter of a police inspector. In the racially-conscious and class-ridden Jamaican society, Hylton ranked well below the Roses in terms of education and social standing. Despite his cricketing fame, Lurline's parents vehemently opposed the match, but their objections were overridden and the couple married in 1942. The marriage seemed a happy one, and a son was born in 1947. Lurline Hylton was ambitious, and wanted to be a fashion designer; this involved spending lengthy periods of time away from home, training in New York fashion schools. To accommodate this, in 1951 the Hyltons moved into the Roses’ home, so that Lurline's mother could take over childcare duties during her absences (her father had by this time died). Hylton's relations with his mother-in-law were uneasy, but otherwise the arrangement appeared to work. Although his playing days were over, Hylton remained a respected figure in Jamaica cricketing circles. Jeff Stollmeyer, who had toured England with Hylton in 1939 and became the West Indies captain in the early 1950s, refers to Hylton as "a studious cricketer and one with whom I spent many hours in the late forties and early fifties watching and learning". Stollmeyer describes Hylton as a commanding personality, but with a fiery temper that had led him into trouble with the cricket authorities on more than one occasion during his career. In mid-April 1954 Hylton received from New York an unsigned letter, informing him that his wife was engaged in an adulterous relationship with one Roy Francis, by repute a notorious womaniser. Greatly disturbed, Hylton consulted his family before sending Lurline a curt telegram demanding that she return home immediately. She replied in emollient fashion: "Don't worry, all will be well. Love from your wife", and booked her flight home. On arrival in Jamaica on 2 May, she denied any affair with Francis, who she said was a mere casual acquaintance. After an initially tense reunion, it appears that Hylton accepted her word and the pair were, at least temporarily, reconciled. On the day before Lurline's return from New York, Hylton purchased a quantity of revolver cartridges. His explanation was that he kept the gun for security purposes; there had been recent burglaries and other criminal activity in the area of the family home, and he was concerned that his ammunition supplies were running low.


Shooting

Despite the outward cordiality, Hylton remained suspicious. On 5 May he learned that the Roses' garden helper had taken a letter from Lurline to the local post office. Believing that this was to be posted to Francis in New York, Hylton went to the postmistress and demanded to see the letter, but was told that this was impossible. In the early hours of the following morning he challenged Lurline, implying that he knew she had written to Francis and claiming, falsely, that he would be allowed to read the letter later that day. Any account of what followed immediately after this confrontation is based on Hylton's own testimony. According to him, she admitted the affair with Francis, and then taunted her husband, saying she should have followed her parents' advice that he was not of her class. She continued: "I have found the man I love, you cannot stand in my way. Yes, I have slept with him ... My body belongs to him." At this point, Hylton claimed, Lurline grabbed the revolver that was in the bedroom, and attempted to shoot him, but the gun misfired. A struggle followed during which, he said, he could see only the image of his wife with her lover. "Suddenly I saw blood. Blood all over, and I realised that I had shot my wife." In the shocked aftermath, nobody thought to call for medical assistance. It is unclear whether immediate medical attention could have saved Lurline's life; she was suffering from multiple bullet wounds and died not long after the attack. Hylton himself called the police, who failed to caution him as he gave an incoherent, self-incriminatory account of the night's events before being taken into custody.


Trial, verdict, sentence

The trial was scheduled for October 1954. Hylton was represented by
Vivian Blake Vivian Blake (11 May 1956 – 21 March 2010) was a Jamaican drug kingpin who founded and operated the American operations of the Jamaican Shower Posse. Background Blake was born to a poor family in West Kingston, but was granted a scholars ...
, one of the island's most prominent counsel. Blake was briefed by Hylton's solicitor, Noel Nethersole, who had been Jamaica's cricket captain in the 1930s and was a prominent West Indies Cricket Board member. It is likely that both Blake and Nethersole worked ''
pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...
'', as Hylton could not have afforded their fees. The chief prosecution counsel was Harvey DaCosta, a future
West Indies Federation The West Indies Federation, also known as the West Indies, the Federation of the West Indies or the West Indian Federation, was a short-lived political union that existed from 3 January 1958 to 31 May 1962. Various islands in the Caribbean that ...
attorney-general, and the trial judge was Justice Colin MacGregor, later the island's Chief Justice. MacGregor had a reputation for severity, particularly towards working-class defendants. The case attracted considerable public attention, and noisy crowds gathered at the courthouse on each day of the trial, showing partiality to Hylton by cheering at each appearance of his defence team. Since it was beyond contention that Hylton had fired the fatal shots, the only conceivable defence was that of provocation, that had driven him to an act of passion. If Blake could show that Hylton was unreasonably provoked by his wife's behaviour, and had acted without premeditation, he might be convicted of manslaughter rather than capital murder. Under Blake's direction, Hylton provided the court with a vivid reconstruction of the bedroom scene in the early hours of 6 May which, the prosecution suggested, was a fabrication. However, as corroborative evidence for Hylton's version, Blake produced the letter which Hylton had tried to intercept, in which the deceased explicitly expressed her love for Francis and a hatred and contempt for her husband. The most damaging evidence against Hylton was the prosecution's revelation that Lurline's body had seven bullet wounds, meaning that at some point Hylton must have reloaded the
six-shooter A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...
– this indicated calculation, rather than an act of blind rage. Hylton claimed that he reloaded intending to commit suicide, but this did not explain the number of wounds in his wife's body. In a hostile summing-up, MacGregor told the jury that Lurline's verbal abuse did not amount to sufficient provocation in law. He also dismissed the significance of the failure to caution Hylton before the arrest, and allowed his confused and self-incriminating initial statements to stand as evidence. The trial ended on 20 October 1954. The jury was initially unable to reach a verdict, but after being reminded by MacGregor of the "great public inconvenience and expense" of a delayed decision, they retired again, and returned just over an hour later with a "guilty" verdict, adding a strong recommendation for mercy. MacGregor was unmoved, and sentenced Hylton to death by hanging.


Appeals, petitions, execution

An appeal against the verdict was dismissed in January 1955, by Jamaica's Supreme Court. The court considered that Hylton's response to the provocation he suffered was "entirely disproportionate", and confirmed his conviction and sentence. His lawyers then sought leave to appeal to the
Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
in London, but on 21 April Hylton learned that leave had been refused. His one remaining hope was that Jamaica's colonial governor, Sir Hugh Foot, would grant a reprieve, and a petition requesting clemency was arranged, supported by many of the colony's leading citizens. On 9 May the governor rejected the petition, and announced that the execution would take place on 17 May. Hylton appeared to accept his fate with a stoical dignity and calm. In his last weeks he was received into the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. Shortly before the execution he was visited in the death cell by his former playing colleague Stollmeyer, who described Hylton as dressed in a white gown and looking like a high priest. "It seemed a great shame that one so powerful and vital should have to pay the full penalty, but his temper had let him down for the last time". On the morning of 17 May, large crowds held a silent vigil outside St Catherine District prison. Hylton was hanged, after refusing the traditional last breakfast, and his body buried within the prison compound. The previous day, in Barbados, the West Indies were playing in a Test match against Australia. One of the Jamaicans in the side, J.K. Holt, was having a difficult time in the field, dropping several catches. With what the cricket writer and commentator
Tony Cozier Winston Anthony Lloyd Cozier (10 July 1940 – 11 May 2016) was a Barbadian cricket journalist, writer, and radio commentator on West Indian cricket for over fifty years. Scyld Berry wrote that he was both the voice and the conscience of West I ...
describes as "a ghoulish sense of humour", spectators displayed a banner reading "Hang Holt, Save Hylton".


Aftermath

Hylton's international cricket career was brief, its main impact confined to a single Test series, but was sufficient for later commentators to describe his combination with Constantine and Martindale as a forerunner of the great West Indies pace partnerships of the 1970s and 1980s. In general, however, the cricket world chose to erase Hylton from its collective memory. Little if anything of his career was published in cricket histories. A brief obituary appeared in the 1956 ''Wisden'', but gave no details as to the manner of his death; only many years later, an addendum recorded that he was executed for murder.
C.L.R. James Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, ''The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are in ...
, the Trinidadian historian who wrote much about cricket and socio-political issues, said nothing about Hylton, while
Michael Manley Michael Norman Manley (10 December 1924 – 6 March 1997) was a Jamaican politician who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1992. Manley championed a democratic socialist program, and has been d ...
, in his comprehensive 1988 ''History of West Indies Cricket'', refers to "Leslie Hylton, that fine but ill-fated Jamaican fast bowler", without providing further explanation. Learie Constantine made no reference to Hylton in his various cricket writings; of Hylton's playing contemporaries, only Stollmeyer provides a brief pen picture. Two years after Hylton's death, the law in Jamaica relating to provocation was changed, so that determining what was sufficient to establish a defence became a matter for the jury rather than a judge's direction. Had that law existed in Hylton's time, it might have saved him. Whitaker sums up Hylton's fate thus: "Leslie Hylton, in his treatment by cricket's hierarchy, and the unforgiving punishment for a crime of passion, was seen by many as a symbol of how hard, and perhaps how unfair, life could be for those born into the poverty of Jamaica's working class". Capital punishment remains legal in Jamaica. However, it has not been carried out since 1988, when a moratorium suspended its operation for 20 years. When the moratorium expired the Jamaican parliament voted to retain the death penalty, but it has remained unused as at early 2019.


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* * * * (Reproduced from
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
1956) * * (Reproduced from
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
1956) * * (Reproduced from
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
1940) * * (Republished from original article in ''The Cricketer'', March 2015)


Scorecards

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hylton, Leslie 1905 births 1955 deaths Sportspeople from Kingston, Jamaica Jamaican cricketers West Indies Test cricketers People executed for murder Executed Jamaican people People executed by the Colony of Jamaica by hanging Jamaican people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by Jamaica Jamaica cricketers Sportspeople convicted of murder