John Holloway and Owen Haggerty were hanged on 23rd February 1807 at Newgate prison for the murder of lavender nursery owner John Cole Steele. The pair were convicted on circumstantial evidence as well as a testimony from Benjamin Hatfield (who’s transportation sentence was then dismissed) and many thought them innocent or at least unjustly condemned to death.

The morning of the execution attracted a crowd of over 40,000 people outside the prison and they covered the nearby area trying to get a good vantage point to view the scaffold. They climbed up lamp posts, onto nearby window ledges and rooftops and up onto carts.

As part of his last words John Holloway stated to the crowd

Gentlemen, I am quite innocent of this affair. I never was with Hanfield, nor do I know the spot. I will kneel and swear it.

At around 8.07am the executioner released the hatch below the prisoners and they dropped to their deaths. There was a surge forward of the crowd and near Green Arbor Lane a cart collapsed, crushing those falling from it as others tried to escape. The pushing hordes of people also knocked over a pieman who dropped his basket of pies, causing others to also fall.

It took around an hour to clear away the crowds so authorities could check on the dead and wounded. The injured were taken to St Bartholomew’s hospital. According to the Star newspaper at the time

…the number of the unfortunate persons trodden to death amounts to no less than thirty-two! Twenty-four men, three women and five children were the unhappy sufferers.

The dead were taken to nearby churches and public houses to be laid out awaiting identification by loved ones.