Sub-Inspector Thomas Hartley Montgomery (1842 – 26 August 1873,

Omagh Omagh (; from ga, An Ómaigh , meaning 'the virgin plain') is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers River Drumragh, Drumragh and Camowen River, Camowen meet to form the River Strule, Strule. North ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

) was a senior official of the

Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ga, Constáblacht Ríoga na hÉireann; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the country was part of the United Kingdom. A separate ...

. He is the only police officer in Irish history to receive the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

for murder.

Newtownstewart Murder

On 29 June 1871, Sub-Inspector Montgomery, who was chronically short of funds, assaulted William Glass, a clerk employed by the

Northern Bank Northern Bank Limited T/A Danske Bank is a retail bank in Northern Ireland. Northern Bank is one of the oldest banks in Ireland having been formed in 1809, and forms part of one of the Big Four banks in Ireland. Northern Bank took on the name ...

, with a hedge knife and stabbed him through the head with a filing spike. Sub-Inspector Montgomery then stole £1,600 from the till. In the aftermath, Inspector Montgomery took charge of the investigation and briefly succeeded in deflecting suspicion from himself. However, Montgomery's subordinates ultimately learned of his financial difficulties and eyewitnesses identified him as having left the bank one hour before the body of William Glass was discovered. As a result, a

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

coroner's inquest A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within the coroner's juri ...

brought a verdict of

willful murder ''Willful Murder'' () is a 1981 Japanese drama film directed by Kei Kumai. It was entered into the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival. Cast * Tatsuya Nakadai * Kei Yamamoto * Yōko Asaji * Kaneko Iwasaki * Ichirō Nakatani * Junkichi Ori ...

against Sub-Inspector Montgomery. After two

mistrial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...

s, the disgraced policeman was convicted of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

and hanged in the

Gaol. His last words were "Is hanging a painful death?"

External links

Lines on Thomas Hartley Montgomery -- His Last Night in Omagh Jail
A

murder ballad Murder ballads are a subgenre of the traditional ballad form dealing with a crime or a gruesome death. Their lyrics form a narrative describing the events of a murder, often including the lead-up and/or aftermath. The term refers to the content ...

about the case. 1842 births 1873 deaths 19th-century Anglo-Irish people Executed Irish people Irish Anglicans Irish police officers convicted of murder Irish police officers Police officers executed for murder Royal Irish Constabulary officers People executed by the United Kingdom by hanging People executed by Ireland by hanging {{Ireland-bio-stub