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Henry Julius JACOBY
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Robbery
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
March 14,
1922
Date of birth: 1904
Victim profile: Lady
Alice White, 65 (widow
of a former London County Council Chairman)
Method of murder: Hitting with a hammer
Location: London, England, United Kingdom
Status: Executed by hanging
at Pentonville Prison on 5th June 1922
On 14th March 1922 Lady White, the 65-year-old widow
of a former London County Council Chairman, was found lying on her bed
in the Spencer hotel dying of head wounds. As there were no signs of a
forced entry, police surmised that the killer had some connection with
the hotel. When he was interview, 18-year-old pantry boy Henry Jacoby
put forward theories as to the murder. Police were not satisfied with
his answers, he had lied about his background, and when they searched
him two bloodstained handkerchiefs were found.
He told police that he had intended to steal from the
hotel rooms where he worked and had taken a hammer with him to 'use if
necessary'. He had found the door to Lady White's room unlocked and had
entered. She had woken up and he had beaten her to stop her raising the
alarm.
At the Old Bailey in April 1922 he was found guilty, with a
recommendation to mercy, and sentenced to death. Despite the jury's
recomendation for mercy he was executed at Pentonville Prison by John
Ellis on 5th June 1922.
Real-Crime.co.uk
Pentonville prison, London
One
of the youngest men to suffer at Pentonville was Henry Julius Jacoby who
was just 18. He was hanged by Ellis on Wednesday, the 7th of June 1922
for the murder of 66 year old Lady Alice White for whom he had battered
to death in her hotel room in the course of trying to rob her.
Jacoby worked as pantry boy in the hotel and quickly confessed to the
murder. He was tried at the Old Bailey on the 28th of April 1922, the
jury making a recommendation to mercy, as they were not convinced that
the lad had intended to kill but rather that he did so in panic when
Lady White woke to find him in her bedroom and screamed.
Ellis
recalls that Jacoby seemed completely unconcerned about his impending
fate and was playing a makeshift game of cricket with one of the warders
in the exercise yard on the afternoon before, when Ellis went too have a
look at him. After Ellis had pinioned his wrists in the condemned cell,
Jacoby made a point of thanking the governor and waiting prison officers
for their kindness to him in Pentonville. He went on to the execution
shed and was described by Ellis as the calmest person there.
Jacoby was one of 4 teenage boys to be hanged here. The others were 18
year old Arthur Henry Bishop on Friday, the 14th of August 1925, 19 year
old John Frederick Stockwell on Wednesday, the 14th of November 1934 and
19 year old William Henry Turner on Wednesday, the 24th of March 1943.
Forty (33.3%) of the men who were executed were under 25 at the time of
their crime.
