William James Robinson - a case of mistaken identity.
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William James Robinson - a case of mistaken identity.
On Saturday the 25th of November 1916, 26 year old William Robinson had got into an altercation with some Canadian soldiers in a London pub.
The following night he was drinking in the Sussex Stores pub in Upper St. Martins Lane off Leicester Square in London when he noticed a pretty girl with a Canadian soldier whom he wrongly thought was the one who had offended him the previous evening.
As 35 year old Alfred Williams (the soldier) and Maggie Harding left the pub, Robinson and his friend John Gray followed the couple out and Robinson confronted Williams and stabbed him with a pocket knife.
Hearing the commotion outside several other drinkers came out to see what was happening. Williams was lying in the road with Maggie cradling his head in her arms. Robinson and Gray had fled the scene but they were identified by one of the pub’s regulars, Walter Rhodes, as having been the men that followed Williams and Maggie out.
Robinson and Gray were tried at the Old Bailey on 5th to the 7th of March 1917 before Mr. Justice Coleridge. Maggie Harding gave evidence that it was Robinson alone who stabbed Williams. He was duly sentenced to death and Gray was given a three year prison sentence for manslaughter, which was quashed on appeal.
Robinson appealed before the Lord Chief Justice and Justices Atkin and Ridley on the grounds that he had not intended to kill Williams but the appeal was dismissed on the 2nd of April, as he had clearly intended to kill a Canadian soldier, whether it was Williams or another one.
In the condemned cell at Pentonville, after his appeal failed, Robinson wrote a letter to Maggie, acknowledging the justice of his conviction and sentence but claiming that he had no intention of killing Williams and that it was a case of mistaken identity. As was normal all letters into and out of the condemned cell were read by prison staff.
This one was copied before it was sent out and the copy forwarded to the Home Office. Here is the text of the letter : “Although I tell you now I am guilty of the crime, I am quite satisfied with the sentence.
I want to impress upon you and everyone else it was not done for robbery, but it was simply unfortunate. I took him for someone else I had a row with on the previous day and I had no intention of killing. Don’t worry if this is my doom, I shall go with a good heart.”
He was hanged by John Ellis, assisted by Robert Baxter at 8.00 a.m. on Tuesday the 17th of April 1917. He weighed 126 lbs. and Ellis set a drop of 8’ 0”.
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