the man they could not hang
Where is John Lee ?
This page should really be called 'The Dreadful Secret'.
There has been terrific speculation about John Lee's last years. And, I have to admit that I was totally convinced that I had found John Lee ending his days in Tavistock at the Workhouse, in the South West of England.
Despite an incredibly revealing death certificate, enormous speculation at Tavistock and an actual burial spot in that Devon town (at Plymouth Road cemetery), I am afraid that even my research is probably wrong.
 A
brave new life and yet more deception from Emma Keyse' killer!
Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm* at New York. Convicted killer, John Lee
travelled on board this ship from Southampton to New York in
late 1910 - early 1911 with Adeline Gibbs who falsely claimed on
the ships 'Manifest for Alien Passengers' to be Jessie Lee. In
fact, very little of what they stated on arriving in America was
true. Adeline (or Adelina) was only recently married herself to
a man called William Jones. Both Lee and Ms Gibbs (aka Lee or
Jones) stated they had been born at Newton Abbot and were
allegedly living at 117 Copenhagen Street, Kings Cross, London.
John Lee's occupation was apparently a 'Dealer'. They had,
according to the ships archive, more than $50 in cash and were
travelling second class. *Built by J.C. Tecklenborg,
Geestemunde, Germany, 1908. 17,082 gross tons; 613 (bp) feet
long; 68 feet wide. Steam quadruple expansion engines, twin
screw. Service speed 17 knots. 2,519 passengers (425 first
class, 338 second class, 1,756 third class). Built for North
German Lloyd, German flag, in 1908 and named Prinz Friedrich
Wilhelm. Bremerhaven-New York service. Laid up during World War
I. Given as reparations to Canadian Pacific Steamships, British
flag, in 1921 and renamed Empress of China. Renamed Empress of
India in 1921. Liverpool-Quebec City service. Renamed
Montlaurier in 1922. Renamed Monteith in 1925. Renamed
Montnairn in 1925. Scrapped in Italy in 1930 (Source: Ellis
Island Foundation). |
| Above: At the age of 75 and after living in America since 1911 this is John Lee's Declaration of Intention to become a citizen of the USA. This revealing archive clearly states his identity, and his place and date of birth. He refers to Adelina as his 'wife' - his real wife Jessie was left destitute with their two children in Lambeth Workhouse in 1911. This convicted killer lived another life after slipping quietly (and illegally) into America where he lived for 28 years before this application. The man who, in 1909, relished the notoriety as The Man They Could Not Hang was miles away from the glare of publicity, his family and the truth. |
|
||||||||||||
My colleague Mike Holgate is the co-author of a book on this story published worldwide by Sutton. Mike was following yet another lead in 2003 - it was this pointer that led us to find John Lee's other extraordinary life.
John 'Babbacombe' Lee had travelled to New York in 1911. If Lee had remained in the USA, he would have qualified for citizenship after a residential qualifying period of five years.
This is where Mike stumbled across a press cutting at the West Country Studies Library, Exeter, England, claiming that this option had been chosen in an unidentified newspaper dated 14 October 1916, "It is reported that John Lee, who served a long sentence of penal servitude after being convicted of the murder of Miss Keyse at Babbacombe, and is now living at Milwaukee, U.S.A., is about to become a naturalised American. He has been in the States five years".
The Winconsin Historical Society conducted a search on our behalf with spectacular results! A record was found - not from 1916 as we had barely dared to hope - but 1939 when John Lee was alive and well at the age of 75!
For some reason, he had left it very late in life before making a Declaration of Intention - the first stage of the legal process in becoming an American citizen. His application confirmed his name as John Henry Lee, born at Abbotskerwell, 15 August 1864, who had entered into marriage at Newton Abbot in 1909 - the date of his wedding to Jessie Bulled. However, he named his 'wife' as Adelina, born on Christmas Eve 1874, at Canterbury, Kent. This lady was Adelina Gibbs - the Miss A Gibb (sic) to whom Lee had sent a Torquay postcard as their illicit relationship was developing while they were working together at the London public house 'Ye Olde Kings Head'.
The declaration recorded that there were no children from the 'marriage' although at the time of the USA 1930 census, John and Adelina had a 15 year-old daughter named Evelyn - a similiar name to that given by Jessie Lee to the child born after she had been deserted by her husband. Coincidentally, Londoner Eveline Lee was married early in September 1939, and her name was miss-spelt on the licence as 'Evelyn'. Later that month the father she had never known made his Declaration of Intention to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court. The American-born Evelyn, was seemingly named after Adelina's mother, for Lee's partner was the third eldest of nine children born to brewer's cashier William Gibbs and his wife Evelyn. At the time of the UK Census conducted in 1901, the Gibbs family were living in the London Borough of Croydon.
The economic Depression of the Thirties seemingly had little impact on John Lee who at an advanced age was employed throughout the decade as a shipping clerk for a motor vehicle company. In 1930, he owned his own home valued at $2,300 at 376 5th Avenue, Milwaukee. However, a terrible tragedy was to strike the family when Evelyn Lee died on 12 October 1933. The incident was reported the following day in the Stevens Point Daily Journal:
"A coroner's autopsy was to be held today to determine the cause of death of Evelyn Lee, 19, a maid who was found dead, apparently from naphtha fumes, in a bathroom of an apartment where she was employed.
The girl was found by Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Kovak when they returned home late yesterday. The bathroom was filled with naphtha which Miss Lee had been using to clean drapes".
According to the Washeka Freeman, 18 October 1933: 'Two post examinations were performed before the cause of death was definitely determined'. The Coroner, Frank J Schulz recorded a verdict of 'accidental asphyxiation due to inhaling naphtha fumes'. The death certificate also states that Evelyn Lee's birth occurred in Milwaukee on 1 August 1914, although no official record could be found to confirm this.
Reports of John Lee's demise in Milwaukee in 1933, had been somewhat premature. Perhaps the untimely end of his daughter that year had been somehow misconstrued by sections of the press? At the time of their bereavement, John and Adelina were living in the city at 922 South 10th Street, where they still residing in 1939. Lee did not follow up his Declaration of Intention by formally applying for citizenship, as he was entitled to do so, a minimum of two years later. This led us to assume that he had not survived this period, but the Street Directories of Milwaukee show that the couple had moved to 454 East Holt Avenue by 1941.
We finally traced Lee's death and have discovered that The Man They Could Not Hang died on the 19 March 1945 at Milwaukee.
Adelina Lee was recorded residing at the same address as the 'widow of John H' in 1947.
His 'widow' Adelina survived until the grand old age of 94 and passed away on 9 January 1969.
This positively brings to a close a chapter in this amazing story that has eluded researchers for decades.