Let's Swing Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1965

The Labour government of Harold Wilson in 1964 made the abolition of capital punishment a major priority. On the 9th of November 1965, the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act suspended the death penalty for murder in the United Kingdom for a period of 5 years. On the 16th of December 1969, the House of Commons reaffirmed its decision that capital punishment for murder should be permanently abolished. Theoretically the death penalty continued in Northern Ireland until the passing of the Northern Ireland (Emergency Powers) Act 1973.

Answer: Ruth Ellis

On Wednesday, 13th July 1955 at Holloway Prison, London, Ruth Ellis secured her place in history becoming the 15th and last woman to be executed in England and Wales in the 20th century. Her case is memorable because she was hanged. Had she had been given a life sentence she would have been forgotten in a few weeks.

Styllou Christofi was hanged on 13th December 1954.
Louisa Merrifield was hanged on 18th September 1953.
Margaret Allen was hanged on 12th January 1949.

Answer: Nuremberg

The Nuremberg Trials took place from 1945-1949 at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice. The first of these trials was the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT), which tried the most important captured Nazi leaders.

Hermann Göring, Hitler's Number 2, was sentenced to death by hanging, but committed suicide by swallowing poison on 19th October 1946, just two hours before his scheduled hanging.

Rudolf Hess was Hitler's (nominal) number three until his flight to Scotland on 10th May 1941. He hoped to negotiate peace with Britain just before the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The British promptly imprisoned him for the duration of the war and in 1946 he was sentenced at Nuremberg to life imprisonment. Hess was the sole surviving Nazi in Spandau prison until 1987, when he committed suicide at age 92.

Answer: Newgate

On 2nd April 1868 the last public hanging of a woman took place. It was that of Francis Kidder at Maidstone for murder.

A public hanging took place outside the prison so that all could see.

Answer: Lord Haw-Haw

William Joyce was born 24th April 1906 at Brooklyn, New York to an English mother and an Irish father who had taken United States citizenship. As a child the family returned to Galway, Ireland. In 1921 when Joyce was 15, the British Prime Minister Lloyd George announced the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the creation of the Irish Free State. The Joyce family left for England.
Joyce joined the British Union of Fascists (BUF) led by Oswald Mosley in 1933. Joyce left England for Nazi Germany in 1939. He found work with the German Radio Corporation in Berlin as an English language broadcaster. The "Daily Express" described the broadcaster as speaking the "English of the haw-haw, damit-get-out-of-my-way variety." Soon after Joyce became known as Lord Haw-Haw. Haw-Haw started off his broadcasts with "Germany calling, Germany calling".
Joyce was charged with treason from 3 September 1939 to 2 July 1940, the date his British passport ran out, and sentenced to death. Joyce was confined in a death cell at London's Wandsworth Prison end executed on 3rd January 1946.

Answer: Ned Kelly

Edward "Ned" Kelly, Australia's most famous bushranger. Kelly was hanged in Melbourne jail on 11th November 1880. Ned Kelly was portrayed by Mick Jagger in the film of the same name in 1970.

Answer: Dick Turpin

Dick Turpin is probably the most famous highwayman of all. Turpin's grave is at St Georges Church graveyard in York.

Answer: 13th August 1964

The last hangings took place in Great Britain at 8 a.m. on 13th August 1964 when Gwynne Evans (at Walton Prison, Liverpool) and Peter Allen (at Strangeways Prison, Manchester) were executed simultaneously. They had both been found guilty of the murder of John West on 7th April 1964.

Answer: John Christie

Over a period of 13 years John Christie murdered 8 women, including his wife, without arousing suspicion. The murders only came to light after the landlord of 10 Rillington Place sold the property to a Jamaican family who came across the concealed bodies in the kitchen walls.

The name of Rillington Place was change in 1954 to Rushton Close at the request of local residents. It was demolished in the 1970s for redevelopment.

Answer: Judge George Jeffreys

Judge Jeffreys, in 1685 presided at the trial of the failed Monmouth Rebellion. The rebellion ended on 6th July with the Battle of Sedgemore with the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth's forces of which many were sentenced to death at the "Bloody Assizes" presided over by Judge Jefferys.

Solomon was the famous Biblical king.

William Cowper was the first Lord Chancellor of England.

John Bradshaw was the Judge at the trial of Charles I for treason.