Maidstone Prison was one of the largest, most ambitious and expensive building projects of the early nineteenth century and executions were conducted here from 1831, when 14-year-old John Any Bird Bell was publicly hanged outside the prison - one of the youngest people to be executed in England. Others who ended up on its gallows included Robert Burton, whose ambition was to be hanged; Francis Kidder, the last woman to be publicly hanged in Britain; Thomas Wells, the first person in Britain to be hanged inside a prison following the passage of the Capital Punishment (Amendment) Act in May 1868; and George Joseph Smith, infamously known as the Brides in the Bath murderer, who protested his innocence to the last.
- ISBN10 0752482327
- ISBN13 9780752482323
- Publish Date 31 January 2012
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint The History Press Ltd
- Format eBook
- Pages 192
- Language English