The last man to be hanged in Hampshire who committed a gruesome murder over £4
Dennis Whitty, executed at Winchester Prison, was among the last people to be hanged in the country It’s been 57 years since the last executions took place in the UK. Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans were the last sufferers of the death penalty, at Walton Prison in Liverpool, before capital punishment was suspended for murder in 1965 and finally abolished in 1969.
It’s been 57 years since the last executions took place in the UK. Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans were the last sufferers of the death penalty, at Walton Prison in Liverpool, before capital punishment was suspended for murder in 1965 and finally abolished in 1969. However, did you know that the third-to-last prisoner to be hanged took place on our very shores in Hampshire? And the tale of his awful crime for such little reward is a damming one. Dennis John Whitty was born in 1941 and was 22 years of age when he committed his fatal crime, alongside fellow wrong-doer Russell Pascoe.
During 1963, Whitty and 23-year-old Pascoe were living with three young women in a caravan at Kenwyn Caravan Park, on the outskirts of Truro, Cornwall. Whitty was working as a labourer at Truro Gas Works while Pascoe was described in court as "a builder's labourer" who had also worked on farms It would later transpire that the pair had colluded on at least one burglary raid before that night. Pascoe had previously worked as a labourer at Nanjarrow Farm, at Constantine, near Falmouth, and knew the farmer, William Rowe Rowe was a somewhat eccentric, reclusive 64-year old, living in the untidy sitting room of his farmhouse, the four bedrooms unoccupied after his mother and brother had died.
In fact Rowe was so reclusive that for nearly 40 years many believed he had died during the First World War. Local rumour held that Rowe had a large sum of money concealed on the premises, and he had been the victim of a burglary in 1960, during which £200 and some other items had been stolen. Then, on the night of Wednesday, 14 August 1963, Whitty and Pascoe travelled south and west on Pascoe's motorcycle. The initial plan, stated by Pascoe in court, had been Whitty's – to ride out under cover of darkness.
They travelled complete with pistol, knife and an iron bar. Whitty was wearing dark jeans and a dark, double-breasted blazer with silver buttons and had a cunning plan. It’s been 57 years since the last executions took place in the UK. Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans were the last sufferers of the death penalty, at Walton Prison in Liverpool, before capital punishment was suspended for murder in 1965 and finally abolished in 1969. Dennis John Whitty was born in 1941 and was 22 years of age when he committed his fatal crime, alongside fellow wrong-doer Russell Pascoe.
During 1963, Whitty and 23-year-old Pascoe were living with three young women in a caravan at Kenwyn Caravan Park, on the outskirts of Truro, Cornwall. It would later transpire that the pair had colluded on at least one burglary raid before that night. Pascoe had previously worked as a labourer at Nanjarrow Farm, at Constantine, near Falmouth, and knew the farmer, William Rowe. Rowe was a somewhat eccentric, reclusive 64-year old, living in the untidy sitting room of his farmhouse, the four bedrooms unoccupied after his mother and brother had died. In fact Rowe was so reclusive that for nearly 40 years many believed he had died during the First World War.
Then, on the night of Wednesday, 14 August 1963, Whitty and Pascoe travelled south and west on Pascoe's motorcycle. The initial plan, stated by Pascoe in court, had been Whitty's – to ride out under cover of darkness. They travelled complete with pistol, knife and an iron bar. Whitty was wearing dark jeans and a dark, double-breasted blazer with silver buttons and had a cunning plan. When they knocked on Rowe's door at around 11.00 pm and the elderly man opened it, Whitty used this uniform-like clothing to support a story that they had crashed a helicopter nearby, and asked to use Rowe's telephone.
Then they attacked Rowe. Whitty with the knife and Pascoe with the iron bar, they left the farmer dead with six or seven wounds to the head, a fractured skull, a broken jaw, a severed finger and five chest wounds, including one knife wound to the heart. Their reward for this hideous act proved to be just £4, which they found in the piano after they ransacked the house. They also came away with some matches and keys.
They split the money and took £2 each, returning to the caravan at Truro. It didn't take long for news of the murder to travel. On August 15, the West Briton, unusually, sent a second edition to press at 4pm. "Farmer found battered to death – Scotland Yard detectives called in" ran the headline. A reporter was dispatched to the scene, and wrote: "Constantine village was abuzz with rumour." That same evening's paper was seen by one of the girls back at the caravan, who confronted Whitty. "Did you do this?" she asked. "Yes, I did," Whitty is said to have replied. Eventually both men were caught and brought in for questioning, each blamed the other and both were charged. Realising he could hang, Whitty wrote a statement detailing the events and putting Pascoe firmly in the role of protagonist, meanwhile Pascoe was putting all the blame on Whitty. These Are the 10 Worst Airports in Europe Dennis John Whitty was born in 1941 and was 22 years of age when he committed his fatal crime, alongside fellow wrong-doer Russell Pascoe. During 1963, Whitty and 23-year-old Pascoe were living with three young women in a caravan at Kenwyn Caravan Park, on the outskirts of Truro, Cornwall.
It would later transpire that the pair had colluded on at least one burglary raid before that night. Pascoe had previously worked as a labourer at Nanjarrow Farm, at Constantine, near Falmouth, and knew the farmer, William Rowe. Rowe was a somewhat eccentric, reclusive 64-year old, living in the untidy sitting room of his farmhouse, the four bedrooms unoccupied after his mother and brother had died. In fact Rowe was so reclusive that for nearly 40 years many believed he had died during the First World War.
Then, on the night of Wednesday, 14 August 1963, Whitty and Pascoe travelled south and west on Pascoe's motorcycle. The initial plan, stated by Pascoe in court, had been Whitty's – to ride out under cover of darkness. They travelled complete with pistol, knife and an iron bar. Whitty was wearing dark jeans and a dark, double-breasted blazer with silver buttons and had a cunning plan. When they knocked on Rowe's door at around 11.00 pm and the elderly man opened it, Whitty used this uniform-like clothing to support a story that they had crashed a helicopter nearby, and asked to use Rowe's telephone.
Then they attacked Rowe. Whitty with the knife and Pascoe with the iron bar, they left the farmer dead with six or seven wounds to the head, a fractured skull, a broken jaw, a severed finger and five chest wounds, including one knife wound to the heart. Their reward for this hideous act proved to be just £4, which they found in the piano after they ransacked the house. They also came away with some matches and keys. They split the money and took £2 each, returning to the caravan at Truro. It didn't take long for news of the murder to travel. On August 15, the West Briton, unusually, sent a second edition to press at 4pm. The West Briton headline following the murder of William Rowe The West Briton headline following the murder of William Rowe "Farmer found battered to death – Scotland Yard detectives called in" ran the headline. A reporter was dispatched to the scene, and wrote: "Constantine village was abuzz with rumour." That same evening's paper was seen by one of the girls back at the caravan, who confronted Whitty. "Did you do this?" she asked. "Yes, I did," Whitty is said to have replied. Eventually both men were caught and brought in for questioning, each blamed the other and both were charged.
Realising he could hang, Whitty wrote a statement detailing the events and putting Pascoe firmly in the role of protagonist, meanwhile Pascoe was putting all the blame on Whitty. In fact, when it came to trial, Whitty's defence was psychiatric in nature. It was claimed he had experienced blackouts and could only be culpable of manslaughter. Witnesses were called to testify to such blackouts at the trial, including a 19-year-old David Penhaligon, later MP for Truro, whose father ran the caravan park. He once found Whitty unconscious in the road with scratches to the face, which a doctor testified appeared to have been self-inflicted while "semi-conscious". However, a further appointment to investigate this possible condition was not kept. Defending, Norman Skelhorn, QC, put it that the injuries inflicted were out of all proportion to the intended crime; the acts of someone with diminished responsibility. But this defence was not to save Whitty.
As night drew in, the gavel came down, and Whitty was dispatched to Winchester Prison with Pascoe off to Bristol's Horfield Prison, both to await an appeal for clemency – or the hangman. The pair were ultimately convicted of murder on November 2, 1963 and had just over a month remaining before they met their end. A pathologist said that the wounds and blows were delivered in 10 to 15 seconds. It was abundantly clear that both men were attacking Rowe at the same time. The sum of £2 each and some matches were to cost them their lives.
But there had been riches at Nanjarrow, which neither Whitty now Pascoe located. Searching the house after the murder, police came across a notebook, the contents of which were not immediately decipherable. In Esperanto were written instructions to caches of money hidden around the property, including a safe hidden under straw in the cowshed, as well as a jar containing a huge amount of banknotes.
Although never published, the final amount was said to run into the thousands. Whitty, and simultaneously, Pascoe, some 80 miles away in Bristol, went to the gallows. At Winchester, the crowd keeping vigil included a group of Quakers, objecting to capital punishment on religious grounds. Others, it was reported, bore banners with slogans such as "It is wrong to take life". While they were too late to save Whitty, they would get their wish not long after this event. Touchingly, Whitty's fiancée walked up to the prison gates shortly before the appointed hour. At five past, she was whisked away in a car bearing the CND legend. The double execution was the second-last to be carried out in Britain
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