James Smith - a gang related stabbing.


James Smith - a gang related stabbing.

On the night of Friday the 16th of November 1951, 500 people attended a dance that was being held at the Ancient Order of Hibernian’s Hall in Royston Road, Glasgow.  Among the dancers were Mary Malone and her 35 year old husband, Martin Joseph Malone.  

Their friend William Louden was also present.  Martin noticed that William had got into an altercation with a group of youths and went over to help him.  One of the lads stabbed him, having already stabbed William, who had been talking to Elizabeth Clark when the youth came up from behind and tapped him on the shoulder with one hand before stabbing him with the knife in his other hand.  William survived the attack but unfortunately Martin didn’t.

William and Elizabeth and others were able to give the police eye witness accounts which led to the arrest of 21 year old James Smith the following day.
Apparently there had been a fight between two gangs earlier in the evening in the foyer of the hall which had led to four youths being ejected.  Smith claimed that William Louden had been in the opposing gang and had hurt one of his friends.  He also claimed that he had stabbed both William and Martin in self defence as both had knives.

Smith was tried at Glasgow before Lord Justice Cooper on the 26th and 27th of February 1952.  He still maintained the self defence story, but the jury of seven men and eight women were not impressed by it and took just an hour and 40 minutes to convict him.  A second knife had been found on the dance floor but it could not be proved to have been used to stab anybody.

Smith appealed before the Scottish Court of Criminal Appeal and much was made of the second knife but after a four day hearing his appeal was rejected on the 25th of March.

He was hanged at Glasgow’s Barlinnie prison by Albert Pierrepoint and Steve Wade at 8.00 a.m. on Saturday the 12th of April 1952.  The notices of execution were posted 15 minutes later for the 40 or so members of the public who were waiting outside the prison.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This is the Legend of Anna Maria Stockhausen.👻

Image
This is the Legend of Anna Maria Stockhausen.👻 "This is Anna Maria Von Stockhausen’s corpse, strapped to keep her coming back from the dead. She was accused of being a witch during the Middle ages and Black Plague. This folklore about Anna was that she was killed about 6 times. She was first hanged and later clawed herself out of the grave. The town people captured her in a nearby town and quickly drowned her in a lake, by tying her to a plank. The townspeople said they checked her several times after dragging her lifeless body out of the water.  They buried her again, only to see an empty grave 2 days later! It was said they found her rotting corpse dwelling in her old place, with worms, dirt and water spitting out of her. So the townspeople dragged her out, drove a stake in her heart and once again buried.  They placed a guard at her grave and felt she was finally buried for good. The guard failed to check in for 4 days, so a local priest went to find him, it was said that ...
Read more

A young German soldier (pictured center left, without helmet) refuses to participate in the execution of 16 Yugoslav civilians.

Image
A young German soldier (pictured center left, without helmet) refuses to participate in the execution of 16 Yugoslav civilians.  He positioned himself within the group and was executed for disobeying his NCO. He choose death instead of killing hopeless civilians. His name was Josef Schulz. Josef Schulz, also spelled Joseph Schultz (Serbian: Jozef Šulc), was a German soldier of the 714th Infantry Division stationed in the Balkans, Serbia during World War II. He died in 1941, allegedly executed after refusing to take part in a partisan execution. The German High Command recorded him as killed in action. The plot of the Yugoslav short movie Joseph Schultz (1973) is based on the incident. Based on a Bundesarchiv study, the incident was dismissed as a legend by scholars in the 1990s. Josef Schulz was born in 1909[citation needed] and lived in Barmen, Wuppertal, Germany. During World War II, he served as a corporal in the 714th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht. He is officially recorde...
Read more

Pictures taken during the Battle for Hill 192 in Normandy - June/July 1944

Image
Pictures taken during the Battle for Hill 192 in Normandy - June/July 1944 Note that some of these pictures were taken in or near Saint-Georges-d'Elle Hill 192 was located between the cities of Saint-Lô and Bayeux in Normandy. The Battle was fought between elements of the 2nd US Infantry Division and the 16,000 strong 3rd German Fallschirmjäger (Parachute) Division, commanded by Generalleutnant Richard Schimf. Hill 192 gave the defending German forces good observation for miles in every direction. It needed to be taken in order for US General Omar Bradley to drive behind the German left flank and break out of Normandy; the attack that would become Operation Cobra. The terrain around Hill 192 also provided the German defenders excellent cover & concealment. US Lt. General Joseph Lawton Collins, found it worse country to fight in than Guadalcanal. The long battle among the Hedgerows finally culminated on July 10 when US forces captured Hill 192 and the surrounding area LIFE Magaz...
Read more

Remember The Heroes The Battle of Bologna was fought in Bologna

Image
The Battle of Bologna 09-21.04.1945 Remember The Heroes The Battle of Bologna was fought in Bologna, Italy from 9–21 April 1945 during the Second World War, as part of the Spring 1945 offensive in Italy. The Allied forces were victorious, with the Polish II Corps and supporting Allied units capturing the city on 21 April. In March 1945 the Allies were preparing a new offensive, Operation Buckland, in Northern Italy. The capture of Bologna, an important regional communication hub, was set as a part of that offensive. The Allied forces tasked with this were composed of the US 5th Army (II Corps, South African 6th Armoured Division) and the British 8th Army (which for that part of the theatre, was composed of the V Corps and the Polish II Corps). The German units defending the area were composed of the German 26th Panzer Division of the XIV Panzer Corps, the 1st Parachute Division and the 4th Parachute Division of the I Parachute Corps. German defenses in that region were part of the Army...
Read more

March 9, 1945: On the northern side of the western front, Field Marshal Montgomery issues instructions for crossing the Rhine north of the Ruhr.

Image
March 9, 1945: On the northern side of the western front, Field Marshal Montgomery issues instructions for crossing the Rhine north of the Ruhr.  Germans abandon their Wesel bridgehead across the Rhine overnight, and blow the last remaining bridge. Canadian 1st Army mops up around Xanten and captures Veen. US 9th Army continues attacking toward Wesel on its left flank - capturing Ossenberg, Borth, and Wallach - and regrouping for the assault across the Rhine.  Farther south, US 1st Army mops up around Bonn and works to expand the bridgehead across the Rhine at Remagen, where Erpel is captured. Bonn and Godesberg are captured by units of US 1st Army. Even farther south, toward Koblenz, US 3rd Army units reach the Rhine at Andernach, clearing the town. The German raiding force from the Channel Islands arrives aboard minesweepers, attacks Granville, destroys installations, and releases 67 POWs. They also attack and sink the British vessels Kyle Castle, Nephrite, and Parkwood. ...
Read more

Lieutenant Bill Heptinstall's M4 Sherman from New Zealand's 20th Armoured Regiment

Image
Lieutenant Bill Heptinstall's M4 Sherman from New Zealand's 20th Armoured Regiment, lays knocked out down the side of a road next the Tiger I tank that destroyed it.  The Tiger has been self-destroyed and abandoned by its crew, possibly leaving it there as a road block. Florence, Italy. August 4th, 1944. From the 13th of June to the 13th of July 1944, the New Zealand 20th Armoured Regiment was given a rest period in the Liri Valley, after its part in the push to Rome. It was a time of training and refitting for the Sherman equipped unit. On the morning of the 13th the Regiment began its march back to the war, this time it was to be part of the attack on Florence. By the 17th the Regiment was in position near the front for a brief rest at Lake Trasimene. Then on the evening of the 22nd the Regiment moved again some 70 miles to Siena, and finally to Tavarnelle on the 26th. The 27th was the day the war returned, a reconnaissance patrol dodged enemy mines but was halted by a blown ...
Read more

THE BAZOOKA

Image
THE BAZOOKA Immediately recognizable and with a name that everyone remembers after the first mention, the bazooka is one of the most iconic weapons of all time. Developed in the early 20th century, this recoilless anti-tank rocket launcher, nicknamed also "stovepipe", was first introduced widely during World War II.  Although it had its flaws, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force mentioned the bazooka among the four "tools of victory" in WWII along with the atomic bomb, the C-47 Skytrain transport plane, and the Jeep. Today, bazooka has become a generic term for shoulder-fired rocket launchers in the public.  The development of the bazooka entailed two separate technologies: rocketry and shaped-charge warheads. Like many weapons of World War II, it was a high-powered weapon that was scaled down for increased mobility and ease of fire.  The concept behind the bazooka was to create a handheld weapon that could inflic...
Read more

17-year-old British soldier Private Herbert Burden blindfolded and tied to a stake

Image
‘Shot at Dawn’  This memorial in Staffordshire is dedicated to the 306 British and commonwealth servicemen who were executed during the Great War. It portrays 17-year-old British soldier Private Herbert Burden blindfolded and tied to a stake, a disc pinned over his heart, waiting to be shot by a firing squad.  Burden, who falsified his age to enlist, had been Absent-without-Leave multiple times. When he left his post again, he was arrested and accused of desertion. Found guilty, a firing squad executed him two days later.  Eighty years on, grieved relatives petitioned the British government to correct these perceived injustices. In Burden’s case, research revealed that he had suffered under severe shelling, witnessed his friends killed battle, and had been sent to a military hospital. In response to the groundswell movement, British artist Andy DeComyn created the memorial in 2000 and gifted to the relatives of the executed soldiers.  The execution of confused and sh...
Read more

Canine Soldiers (K9 Squad), the Silent Warriors of Indian Army Dogs-Role in National Security and Warfare:

Image
Canine Soldiers (K9 Squad), the Silent Warriors of Indian Army Dogs-Role in National Security and Warfare: Army Dogs have been an integral part of the Armed Forces since time immemorial but their silent service to the nation always go unnoticed. There is more to a military dog than to just detect explosives and alert about enemy insurgency. The relation between a soldier and the dog is as old as the battlefield itself. Romans were the first to use trained dogs in close combats and the inherent desire of the dog to please its master makes the task of training the animal easier. Dogs of war are a special breed of warriors and soldiers who are fearless and ferocious in their attack and are renowned for their courage, loyalty, and devotion throughout the world. These are four-legged warriors who have been going into battlefields since the ancient times and are rightly referred to as the man's best friend. The use of dogs in war is not new. Since the earliest days of recorded warfare, m...
Read more