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- Last person executed for espionage in the us update#
- Last person executed for espionage in the us registration#
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The medical cards of Sir Bernard Spilsbury were held at the Wellcome Library in London, but did not include any mention of Josef Jakobs. Heddy, Coroner for London Easter District. Signature, Description and Residence of Informant.Ĭertificate received from W.R.H. Execution of judicial sentence in accordance with military law. Injuries to the heart due to the passage of bullets.
Last person executed for espionage in the us registration#
British Newspaper on display in Ramsey Rural Museum īoth of these reports were more in line with the GRO death registration of Josef Jakobs which stated: Heddy, was execution of judicial sentence of death. The verdict at the inquest, held yesterday by the East London coroner, Mr. Heddy, at the inquest on Jakobs held in camera at the Tower”
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“Execution of judicial sentence of death” was recorded by the East London coroner, Mr. A British and a Canadian newspaper, reporting on the death of Jakobs, noted: Interestingly, several contemporary references from 19 told a different story. This source provided the most concrete lead in confirming that Bernard Spilsbury performed Jakobs’ post-mortem. One of the firing squad appears to have fired high, his bullet entering the head, but there were seven wounds in the target area over the heart. Research into Spilsbury’s life yielded the following snippet from a 1952 book entitled The Scalpel of Scotland Yard – The Life of Sir Bernard Spilsbury:Īnd in August, after carrying out post-mortems in almost every imaginable locale, Spilsbury had a new experience when he performed one in the Tower of London, where a British subject named Jakobs was shots as a spy. When contacted, Evans told me that the information had come from Stratford’s website but, when contacted, Stratford could not provide a source for the information. Unlike all the other spies condemned to death in World War II, Jakobs was not hanged but shot… Later that day, a post-mortem performed by Spilsbury recorded that one shot had hit Jakobs in the head, the other seven had been around the target area.ĭead Man’s Hole, Tower Bridge – Site of Tower Mortuary was involved in a historical curiosity when he autopsied Josef Jakobs, the last person to be executed in the Tower of London. In 2006, Colin Evans published a book on Bernard Spilsbury, entitled Father of Forensics. Stratford gave no specific reference for this information. This site added a new twist to the information on Jakobs, stating that one of the shots had hit Jakobs in the head. An inquest held that afternoon decided that Jakobs had died of “Injuries to the heart caused by the passage of bullets”, and the inquest verdict was “Execution of judicial sentence of death in accordance with military law”. One shot had hit Jakobs in the head, the other seven had been around the target area. Later that day, a post-mortem was performed by Bernard Spilsbury. A few decades later, Stephen Stratford included some information on Jakobs on his website which is focused on British Criminal & Military History (see References below). His presence at Jakobs’ post-mortem would simply follow the pattern that had been set with earlier spies who had been executed.
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Sir Bernard Spilsbury was a famous forensic pathologist in London who was involved in the autopsies of many of the World War II spies. He certified the cause of death as ‘injuries to the heart due to the passage of bullets’. Jakobs’ body was then carried to the Tower mortuary in the moat where Sir Bernard Spilsbury carried out a post-mortem. Sir Bernard Spilsbury ca 1920 (from The Scalpel of Scotland by Browne & Tullett)įive years later, Nigel West published his ground-breaking book on MI5 which also noted: Jakobs’ body was taken to the old mortuary which lies directly beneath the northern approach to the Tower Bridge, where Sir Bernard Spilsbury carried out a post-mortem. The editor, while not having access to the classified MI5 documents, pieced together quite a bit of Jakobs’ story. In 1976, After the Battle Magazine published one of the first substantial articles on Jakobs. So the answer to the questions is: Spilsbury did the post-mortem, Heddy oversaw the legal inquest into the death The Case for Sir Bernard Spilsbury
Last person executed for espionage in the us update#
Update 2017 03 05 – I’ve since learned that the pathologist would have conducted the post-mortem while the coroner oversaw the legalities of an inquest (was it a legal execution, etc.). Several sources mentioned that the famous pathologist, Sir Bernard Spilsbury, conducted the post-mortem, while other sources indicated that East London Coroner W.R.H. There is some uncertainty as to who conducted the post-mortem on Jakobs. After the execution, a post-mortem was conducted and on Monday 18 August 1941, Jakobs was buried at St. Josef Jakobs was executed by firing squad at 7:12 am on Friday 15 August 1941, at the Tower of London.