Murders during the war

[ADM199]

Originally Posted by angie999

Getting back to the UK home front, I have made a comparison of executions for murder in both world wars, plus the decades before and after each. In both cases I have treated the first year of the war (1914 and 1939) as pre-war, as most of the executions in those years were for pre-war murders. These are the average yearly figures:

1905 - 1914 - 12.0
1915 - 1918 - 8.0
1919 - 1928 - 15.5

Therefore, the WWI years appear less violent on the domestic murder front than the decades before or after.

1930 - 1939 - 7.4
1940 - 1945 - 13.3
1946 - 1955 - 15.0

Therefore, the WWII years appear to be on a rising trent from the 1930s "low", but in no way exceptional compared to the four peacetime decades shown. Therefore, the conclusion is, I think, that the war had little or no effect on the murder rate, although it would be interesting to know whether the wartime conditions made it more or less likely that the Home Secretary would grant a reprive.

The one oddity in the 1945 data is that on 6 October, five men with "German sounding" names were executed at Pentonville and it is logical to conclude that they were all involved in the same crime. I will try and trace details later.

Interestingly, 1955 was the year when Ruth Ellis was hanged, the last woman to do so in Britain. The following year there were no executions and from then until abolition the total was never more than 7 in a year. The execution of Ellis was, many believe, a significant landmark on the road to the abolition of capital punishment in Britain.

Note: the above figures exclude people executed for spying and treason and here is the WWII list of those:

Jose Waldeburg and
Carl Meier 10th December, 1940
Charles Kieboom 17th December, 1940
George Armstrong 9th July, 1941
Robert Petter and
Karl Drucke 6th August, 1941
Josef Jakobs 14th August, 1941 (Shot)
Karel Richter 10th December, 1941
Alphonse Timmerman and
Joe Key 7th July, 1941
Duncan Scott-Ford 3rd November, 1942
Johannes Dronkers 31st December, 1942
Franciscus Winter 26th January, 1943
Oswald John Job 16th March, 1944
Pierre Neukermans 23rd June, 1944
Joseph Van Hove 12th July, 1944
John Amery 19th December, 1945 (Treason)
William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) 3rd January, 1946 (Treason)
Theodore Schurch 4th January, 1946 (Treason)

(all hanged except Jakobs)

Schurch was a member of a Faschist group prior to WW11. As such he was being monitored by the Police and when he enlisted in the Army it was noted,but allowed. He served in the Middle East with 14 Coy R.A.S.C. until captured in 1942. He made himself known to the Italians who firstly used him in Benghazi P.O.W. Camp to interrogate anyone they were interested in.He wore an Italian Captains uniform during this period.
Schurch was used as a "Stool Pigeon"by both the Germans and the Italians with some success. His last operation for the Axis was in a P.O.W. Camp in the Rome Region where his guise was Captain Richards R.A.S.C.
At Rome he was incarcerated with British Submarine Officers,but was rumbled by Lt.J.H. Bromage (Sahib)who gave evidence at his trial. The charge I believe was for the War time offence of Treachery.

Even odder Schurch was of Swiss Jewish descent.

Sources; Cpl Tom Swallow 14 Coy R.A.S.C. and various Files from T.N.A.

[DaveBrigg]

Originally Posted by angie999

On Saturday 6 October 1945, Erich Koenig, Joachim Palme-Goltz, Kurt Zuchlsdorff, Heintz Brueling and Josep Mertins (three age 20, one age 21, one age 22) were hanged at Pentonville for the murder of Wolfgang Rosterg, age 35, at Comrie Prison Camp, Perthshire on 23rd December, 1944.

There is a story, reported in Henry Chancellor's 'Colditz' about a British traitor Walter Purdy, who was placed in the camp to act as a German spy. He was caught out almost immediately, and placed under a guard of nine prisoners while a decision was made about what to do next. Gris Davies-Scourfield recalls an invite to Purdy's execution; a rope was tied to a beam, and Purdy was held between two men. However, although those present all agreed that he deserved to die, none was willing to actually be the one who placed the rope around his neck. Purdy was handed back to the Germans, something that Davies-Scourfield says was the wrong decision, since he was able to commit further acts of treason.
After the war Purdy was sentenced to death but his execution was delayed owing to ill health. He spent eight years behind bars before being released.