Deterrence (Part Three)

Less than a decade after James Power embarrassed his former colleagues and employers by becoming a client of executioner Tom Pierrepoint, another former police officer made the short walk to the gallows, but the two former law enforcement officers could not have been more different.

Ernest John Moss made no effort to avoid responsibility, even after the judge tried to persuade him not to plead guilty, and it was his only offence. Moss had a failed marriage behind him when he made the fateful decision to set up home with girlfriend Kitty Bennett. He had also quit his job as a police officer in Brixham to work as a taxi driver around that time.

Tragically Moss soon came to the conclusion that it had been mistake living with Bennett. Moss claimed that they made a suicide pact, but he changed his mind. Instead he used a gun to batter Bennett to death. There was no motive or planning, but Moss utilised the situation to get what he wanted.

Suicide by Proxy:

He made no attempt to conceal his crime, which was committed on August 7th 1937 in Woolacombe. Moss went straight to the police and confessed. He was tried on November 15th that year and gave the prosecuting barristers no trouble securing a conviction.

Despite the best efforts of the judge, Mr Justice Hawke, to persuade Moss to change his plea, the defendant would have none of it. He insisted on pleading guilty. Hawke had no choice but to don the black cap and sentence him to death. There could be no appeal.

On December 7th 1937, just over three weeks after his trial, Tom Pierrepoint, assisted by his nephew Albert, hanged Moss at Exeter Prison. He was the second former police officer to be executed for murder in Britain in the twentieth century, although he was a vastly different type of person than his predecessor, James Power.

Deterrence?

Nevertheless, the death penalty, far from being the ultimate deterrent in this case, may have had the opposite effect. Moss had a death wish. His crime does not appear to have been premeditated, but his subsequent actions show signs of being his method to achieve his wish.

Rather than actually commit suicide himself, he got the state to do the job for him. After murdering Bennett, he went straight to the police, pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, despite the consequences being explained to him by the judge. By doing so he made sure there could be no appeal. He had chosen to commit suicide by proxy as quickly as possible.

Far from deter the former police officer, capital punishment may actually have cost Kitty Bennett her life. Would Moss have killed her if he knew that he would be denied what he wanted most – his own death? Ironically, the alternative a lengthy prison sentence, where he would be a pariah for killing a woman brutally, might just have deterred him and saved Kitty Bennett's life, while the 'ultimate deterrent' gave him what he wanted instead.