The last execution in the Tower of London took place fairly recently
Built between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, the Tower of London has had a fair few famous residents over the centuries. Rather than serving as a battlement, however, its most famous function has been that of a holding place for such illustrious prisoners as the Scottish king John Balliol, Henry VIII’s wives Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, and Elizabeth I’s favourite, Sir Walter Raleigh.
The Tower’s association with death is in fact so strong that it has given the British their idiom “to be sent to the tower”, meaning to be imprisoned or punished (or indeed both). It saw its heyday of executions during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Most of the condemned wouldn’t meet their end within the tower walls, however, but would be taken to Tower Hill, just north of the castle. But although over the last few centuries the Tower has gradually lost its function as a place of execution, it may surprise you to learn that the last one didn’t take place that long ago.
In early February 1941, Joseph Jakobs, a 43-year-old German dentist, was apprehended shortly after parachuting into England. He had raised the suspicious of local farmers when he was seen limping around the countryside (he had broken his ankle upon landing) and firing his pistol. Their suspicions that he was a German spy were confirmed when he was found in possession of forged identity papers, a radio transmitter, and—quite bizarrely—a German sausage.
Jakobs was tried before a military tribunal between 4 – 5 August the same year, and after being found guilty of spying was sentenced to death. His execution took place on the morning of 15 August 1941 in the Tower’s miniature rifle range. After being blindfolded, Jakobs was sent before an eight-man firing squad where he was made to sit in a brown Windsor chair. He was shot five times (three men were given blanks) and died instantly. A post-mortem was to reveal, however, that only one of the shots had pierced the heart and therefore been fatal.