Trivia Answer: Tower of London Execution

     The last execution at the Tower was that of German spy Josef Jakobs on August 14, 1941 by firing squad formed from the Scots Guards.  Jakobs parachuted into Ramsey in Huntingdonshire on January 31, 1941 but was seen descending by the local Home Guard.  They rushed to the landing point to find that Jakobs had broken his ankle on landing. He was apprehended still wearing his flying suit and carrying British currency, forged papers, a radio and a German sausage.  Jakobs was executed while seated blindfolded in a brown Windsor chair, due to having a broken ankle.

The others who were listed along with Jakobs were prisoners at the Tower of London, but not the last to be executed.  Here are their obituaries:

Roger Casement (Sir Roger Casement) (1864 -1916):  Roger Casement was an Irish patriot, poet, revolutionary and nationalist. He was a British consul by profession, famous for his reports and activities against human rights abuses in the Congo and Peru, but better known for his dealings with Germany before Ireland's Easter Rising in 1916. An Irish nationalist in his youth, he worked in Africa for commercial interests and latterly in the service of Britain. However, the Boer War and his investigation into atrocities in the Congo led Casement to anti-Imperialist and Irish Republican and separatist political opinions.  After an unsuccessful appeal against the conviction and death sentence, he was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London in August 1916, at the age of 51. He underwent the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults into the Catholic Church while awaiting execution and went to his death, he said, with the body of his God as his last meal.

The Kray Twins:  Reginald "Reggie" Kray (1933 – 2000) and his brother Ronald "Ronnie" Kray (1933 - 1995):  The Kray Twins were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London's East End during the 1950s and 1960s. Ronald, commonly referred to as Ron or Ronnie, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. The Krays were involved in armed robberies, arson, protection rackets, violent assaults including torture and the murders of Jack "The Hat" McVitie and George Cornell. As West End nightclub owners they mixed with prominent entertainers including Diana Dors, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and politicians. The Krays were highly respected within their social environment, and in the 1960s they became celebrities in their own right being photographed by David Bailey and interviewed on television.  They were arrested on May 9, 1968 and convicted in 1969 by the efforts of a squad of detectives and were both sentenced to life imprisonment.  Ronnie remained in prison until his death on March 17, 1995, but Reggie was released from prison on compassionate grounds in August 2000, a few weeks before his death from cancer.

Rudolph Hess (1894 – 1987):  Rudolph Hess was a prominent figure in Nazi Germany, acting as Adolf Hitler's Deputy in the Nazi Party. On the eve of war with the Soviet Union, he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom, but instead was arrested. Winston Churchill sent Hess initially to the Tower of London, making Hess the last of prominent political prisoners to be held in the fortress. The Prime Minister gave orders that he was to be strictly isolated but treated with dignity.  He remained in the Tower until May 20, 1941, when he was taken to Nuremberg, tried, and sentenced to life in prison at Spandau Prison, Berlin, where he died in 1987.  Hess' attempt to negotiate peace and subsequent lifelong imprisonment have given rise to many theories about his motivation for flying to Scotland, and conspiracy theories about why he remained imprisoned alone at Spandau, long after all other convicts had been released.

Henry Laurens: (1724 - 1792):  Henry Laurens was an American merchant and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress Laurens succeeded John Hancock as President of the Second Continental Congress from 1777 to 1778.
     In 1779, Congress named Laurens their minister to Holland, where he took up that post in Amsterdam and successfully negotiated Dutch support for the war. But on his return voyage to Amsterdam that fall, the British Navy intercepted his ship off the banks of Newfoundland. Although her dispatches were tossed in the water, they were retrieved by the British, who discovered the draft of a possible U.S.-Dutch treaty. This prompted Britain to declare war on the Netherlands, the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War.  Laurens was charged with treason, transported to England, and imprisoned in the Tower of London (the only American ever held prisoner in the Tower). This became another issue between the British and Americans. In the field, most captives were regarded as prisoners of war, and while conditions were frequently appalling, prisoner exchanges and mail privileges were accepted practice. During his imprisonment Laurens was assisted by Richard Oswald, his former business partner and the principal owner of Bunce Island. Oswald argued on Laurens' behalf to the British government. Finally, on December 31, 1781 he was released in exchange for General Lord Cornwallis and completed his voyage.

Hope you enjoyed this history lesson!!!!