THE HORRIBLE EXECUTION OF WILLIAM WATKINS FOR THE BRUTAL MURDER OF HIS OWN BABY SON.

William Watkins - for the murder of his baby son.

49 year old William Arthur Watkins had lived with Florence White at 69 Clifton Road in Balsall Heath, Birmingham for some five years. They had two children, a three year old and a newborn baby. It seems that Watkins was concerned about the financial burden of another child.

In the early hours of Sunday the 21st of January 1951, Watkins told Florence that he was going to bathe the baby. A few minutes later he informed her that he had slipped with the baby and the boy had drowned. Neither of them reported the death.

However it did come to the attention of the police via neighbours who had been excited to see the baby but were not permitted to do so. Detective Sgt. Black took the neighbours’ concerns seriously and visited Watkins’ home where he discovered the baby’s body in a pillow case. Watkins could offer no satisfactory answers to the questions put to him, especially as to why he had not made any attempt to resuscitate the child or called for medical help.

He was thus charged with murder and appeared before Mr. Justice Finnemore at Birmingham on the 15th and 16th of March 1951. Florence White testified that Watkins had told her that “I have done it. The baby is dead.” Det. Sgt. Black told the court that Watkins had persisted in his account of the death as an unfortunate accident and had never admitted to murder.

As Watkins was deaf a prison officer had to repeat much of the proceedings to him. In his summing up the judge invited the jury to find one of three verdicts, not guilty if they believed the death was an accident, guilty of manslaughter or guilty of murder. It took the jury two and a half hours to reach their verdict of guilty to murder.

There was no appeal but Watkins’ counsel, Mr. Fearnley Whittingstall made representations to the Home Secretary, Mr. Chuter-Ede for a reprieve on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but to no avail. The execution was scheduled for 9.00 a.m. on Tuesday the 3rd of April 1951.

At 8.00 a.m. the Chaplain arrived and gave Bill communion. Together they said the Lord’s Prayer and in the name of the Christ he served, the Chaplain forgave Watkins for what he had done. The two prison officers found themselves affected by the scene and wished that time would not linger. The last hour always seemed the longest.

At 8.40 a.m. Mr Blenkinsop (the Under-sheriff) arrived, and was quickly taken to the Governor’s office. Dr John Humphrey (the Prison Doctor) was already there. At 8.55 a.m., Pierrepoint and his assistant stood outside the door of the condemned cell and were joined within a minute by the Governor, the doctor and the Chief Prison Officer.

Within the cell Watkins was now seated with his back to the door, and seconds before the door opened, looked up, sobbing, and said to the Chaplain, “I have never met so many kind people in my life as I have met since I have been here. Why did I have to come to prison before people are so kind?” The Chaplain had to turn away for fear of showing his own emotion. Already the Under-Sheriff had given the signal: it was 30 seconds past 8.59 a.m.

The door opened; Pierrepoint was behind Watkins: “Come on, old fellow,” he said in his soft northern voice. He pinioned his arms, and with an officer either side, Bill was escorted through the now opened doors to the scaffold and Pierrepoint remembers that he walked steadily into the chamber.

Harry Allen was down on his knees pinioning his legs, Pierrepoint put a hand under his drooping chin, placed a white hood over his head and then the noose, stepped back and pushed the lever. Since Pierrepoint had entered the room, twelve seconds had passed: William Arthur Watkins was dead. He weighed 143 lbs and was given a drop of 7 feet 8 inches.

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