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They were sentenced to death for a litany of crimes which included murder , beatings and somewhat more harshly, stealing cider.

Some would scream and cry as they were taken to the noose, while others would greet their final moments with resigned silence.

For one man, being sentenced to the hangman's noose was something he would face three times in a series of bungled executions, to live to tell the tale and survive.

Thousands of people would gather to watch the hangings of criminals in a leafy corner of Johnstown in Wales, that would became a hotspot for executions.

Such was the draw of a public hanging, with justice being seen to be done, the last public execution saw a staggering 10,000 people pack along the street to witness the spectacle. Those with the financial means could also pay for a premium spot for the best vantage points from the windows facing the gaol.

The earliest official records show that among the first recorded hangings in the town was in 1739, according to Carmarthen Gaol records, although there are reports of earlier executions, Wales Online reports.

(Image: Carmarthen Journal)

The records note that “one Edwards of Llandefeilog” was hanged at Pensarn for pilfering.

While predating the Carmarthen Journal newspaper, little details are known but Elinor Williams, of Johnstown, was hanged not far from her home at Royal Oak for murdering her child.

Perhaps rather harsh a punishment of death came to two lads who were strung up and hanged for stealing cider from the then Greyhound Inn in the town.

In 1633, Father Arthur, an Irishman, was reportedly hanged, drawn and quartered for “conspiring the King’s death, and for cursing him”.

Between 1752 and 1836 the death sentence was carried out on the second day following sentencing unless it was a Sunday, in which case this took place on Monday.

Executions took place on a raised platform above the county gaol - with an area known as Royal Oak Common, Babell Hill in Pensarn and the county gaol were all becoming hanging hotspots for th town. Those taken from the gaol to Pensarn faced a walk of more than a mile to the spot on the hill, often with the route chaotically jammed with onlookers jeering and shouting at the damned souls before they were executed.

The last man to suffer the death walk from Carmarthen Gaol to Pensarn was Rees Thomas Rees in 1817.

However, the first attempt to hang the prisoner failed when the trapdoor didn’t open. In vain the prisoner pleaded for his life on the grounds that he could not be punished twice for the same offence - but unlucky for him the second time the trapdoor opened.

On that day, March 13, 1888 it was was David Rees that was hanged - but history tells us that there may have been an accomplice he was shielding.

At around 10.30am on November 12 the previous year, Thomas Davies, a messenger at the Dafen Tinworks in Llanelli was found dying in a field after having been horribly battered about the head on Bryngwyn Hill.

Nearby, covered in blood, police discovered a hanger, a tool used in the tinworks. Thomas Davies had been carrying a bag containing the tinworks wages, £590 in gold and silver, of which £300 was missing.

Later in the evening the police went to question David Rees at his home, and as a result he was arrested on suspicion of having committed the murder.

(Image: Carmarthen Journal)

Having heard all the evidence the jury retired and returned after 32 minutes with the verdict - Guilty. Rees made no reply when asked if he had anything to say before being sentenced. With great solemnity the judge placed the black cap upon his head and passed the sentence of death.

The condemned was then removed from the dock and taken to the cells below.

Then something unprecedented in the annals of court proceedings occurred. Rees started yelling and complaining that he had not understood the sentence or even the fact that he had been condemned to die.

On hearing this, the Governor of the gaol Mr Thomas, who was present in the court, went to speak to the Judge. The Judge returned to the bench and without donning the black cap ordered that the prisoner be brought back into court. He repeated the sentence of the court and requested that the interpreter, Mr Long Price, translate the sentence into Welsh.

As the prisoner was led away for the second time Mr Price broke down crying, as did many others at the repetition of the solemn scene. It closed what was at the time described as a most remarkable trial.

It had lasted two and a half days, a total of 23 hours sitting time.

Members of the church visited Rees at Carmarthen Gaol and described him as having lost his old sparkle.

“When they asked how he was, he replied in Welsh - ‘Picwl Trist’ (sad pickle). In further conversation, Rees went on to say, ‘I am innocent, and have been wrongly convicted.”

Rees maintained he did not kill Davies, laying great emphasise on the word ‘Kill’. Being asked who did kill ‘Tom Bach’, Rees replied, “that is a mystery to me, sir”. The members of the church pressed for him to reveal his accomplice but his only reply was ‘Hum’.

This was the only indication by Rees that he was shielding another and that he was prepared to go to the gallows with that knowledge. As they left the cell for the final time his parting words were, ‘They know me in Llanelli. Remember me to them.’

Rees was hanged by the infamous hangman James Berry.

A Yorkshireman, he is said to have carried out 131 hangings during seven years in office, including five women.

Berry was the executioner who failed to hang John "Babbacombe" Lee who became known as "The Man They Couldn't Hang".

In 1885, three attempts were made to carry out his execution at Exeter Prison for the brutal murder of his employer.

All failed as the trapdoor failed to open despite being carefully tested by Berry. The medical officer, T Wilson Gaird, refused to take any further part in the proceedings and as a result his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

Carmarthen historian Simon Ratty has a business card of Berry's and said hangings were of interest to people in the town, a macabre intrigue.

Although Carmarthen may formerly have had something of a record as a “fighting town” (or what is normally described today as anti-social behaviour), it has one of the lowest crime statistics of any town in the UK.

Remarkably a young girl avoided the gallows after murdering her siblings.

In 1742 the eight-year-old was tried at Carmarthen Assizes. She had been charged with the murder of her brother and sister, aged six and four.

It transpired that the children were scared by stories of cruelty inflicted by the Spaniards and the expected Spanish invasion. It was then during the night that the children thought a thunderstorm was the invading Spaniards. The younger siblings begged their sister to kill them and she killed them with a blade used to trim hedging before attempting to use the blade on herself.

Records show this child was acquitted at her trial.

But it was not only the criminals that drew attention, one of Carmarthen’s most eccentric men was known as “Evans the Hangman’’

Robert Ricketts Evans, lived in Fernhill, Llangain, made famous by poet Dylan Thomas, and immortalised in one of his most famous poems.

The son of a Carmarthen solicitor, Robert Ricketts Evans, was better educated than most other hangmen, but abandoned his studies in favour of a life of leisure and sensation-seeking. Twice married, he boasted of many sexual conquests. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of prize-fighting.

As a youngster, he had a deep-seated longing to participate in capital punishment.

Evans, who later changed his name to Anderson, was heard to say: “Hanging is launching poor devils over the Jordan, far away from the temptations of this wicked world.”

His longing turned to reality and he assisted top London hangman, William Calcraft, who carried out more than 300 executions during his career. Anderson is known to have carried out two triple executions on his own, the first in Gloucester in January 1874, four months before Calcraft’s retirement.

The second was in Liverpool a year later.

Anderson last assisted Calcraft in May 1874, when James Godwin, a hearth-rug maker, was hanged at Newgate for the murder of his wife.

Anderson’s interest in hanging grew deeper, and he personally devised a new technique which enabled Calcraft to perform his duties more humanely. In a letter to the Home Secretary in December 1875, he wrote: “For upwards of 20 years I have, from humane motives, devoted my attention to executions.

“I have attended nearly all the principal ones that have taken place in this kingdom, giving my advice and assistance to the executioner. In no single instance where I have been present has the slightest failure occurred or any unnecessary suffering been caused to the unfortunate culprit.

“In cases where I have acted alone - in triple executions as at Liverpool and Gloucester - my plans have been completely successful.”

Anderson also deplored the employment of ‘ignorant brutish persons’ as hangmen. He proposed executions should be carried out by prison officers with him giving assistance an advice.

But like Calcraft, some of Andersons triple hangings were not as successful as he claimed.

According to a report in the Times in 1874, one of his woman victims lived longer than the others, owing to her spare figure. Anderson carried out no more hangings after the triple execution in Liverpool.

The popularity of attending a hanging can be found in William Spurrell’s book printed in 1860 entitled Carmarthen and its Neighbourhood, in which an extract from a letter written in 1752 from Grifeith Philips of Cwmgwili to his son in London reads: “There are this day to be hang’d at Carmarthen two men for house breaking, which I suppose will draw al ye country peoples together, it being a very uncommon thing here to get em hang’d in pairs."

Draw “ye country people together” did hangings yes, but there would be no further hangings for murder in Carmarthen after 1862 until 1888, by which time it was no longer a public spectacle.

A better, safer spot had to be found, and so a new public gallows was built inside the front wall of the County Gaol facing Spillman Street.