Alfred Sowery

Twenty four year old Sowery was convicted of the murder of his sweetheart, Annie Kelly. whom he shot dead at Preston. He failed in his attempt to shoot himself after the crime. Hanged by Berry who claimed later that it was one of the worst cases he ever had to deal with as Sowery was half-dead with fear on the morning of the execution. During the time between sentence being passed and it being carried out. Sowery had made himself seriously ill through terror. He had to be half pushed and carried down the corridor to the scaffold, and his groans and cries could be heard all over the gaol. His teeth chattered and his face kept turning from deathly white to a livid red. Berry claimed that every inch of ground to the drop was violently contested. and as he placed the rope around Sowery's neck he received a kick in the shin, and carried the scar until the day he died. The bullet from Sowery's suicide attempt was still lodged in his head and after he was hanged, Berry removed the bullet and kept it as a souvenir. The execution took place on the 1st August 1887 in Lancaster.