Welcome to the John 'Babbacombe' Lee resource site.

 

On Saturday 15th November 1884, elderly spinster, Emma Keyse, was brutally murdered at her burnt out villa at

Babbacombe Bay, South Devon, England.

The person accused of this atrocity was her employee, 20 year old John Lee, a young man from nearby Abbotskerswell. Lee was sentenced to hang, but after three attempts he survived and served a life sentence. In an instant, John 'Babbacombe' Lee was to become notorious as 'The Man They Couldn’t Hang'.

'The Man They Couldn’t Hang' fled Britain in 1911 with a barmaid who claimed to be his wife. John Lee lived illegally in America for 34 years until his death - this is his true story.

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Order your copy of The Man They Could Not Hang here

See also:

The Life and Adventures of William Henry Gibbs
The UK Historic Serious Crime and Victim Index
Ian Waugh's Website
The Tale of the Missing Trowel

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