Age: 20
Sex: male
Crime: murder
Date Of Execution: 12 Aug 1869
Execution Place: Dorchester
Method: hanging
Executioner: William Calcraft
Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20070624062456/http://www.fred.net/jefalvey/execute.h
Murder of warder in Portland prison;Dorchester
Twenty year old Jonah Detheridge was sentenced to death at Dorset Assizes on 22nd July for the murder of a prison warder. On 23rd March, Jonah Detheridge a native of Wednesbury, Staffordshire, was part of a work party at Portland Prison, Dorset. He was breaking stones in the quarry when he was berated by assistant warder James Trevett who complained about the standard of his work. Trevett, who was popular with both staff and inmates, told him to do the work as he had been shown and gave him some extra duties, which he refused to do. An hour later Detheridge crept up behind the warder and beat him to death with his pick-axe. He was hanged by William Calcraft on the 12th August 1869 in Dorchester.
