Somerset has long been known as a county that played a big part in the war effort of the 1940s.
However, despite all the tales of heroism and dedicated service, there is also a darker side to the county’s war memories – and some of them revolve around one of the county’s most iconic buildings in Shepton Mallet Prison.
Those responsible for some of them, however, were not British soldiers stationed in the southwest, but rather American GIs who had been sent to give the Allies a vital boost in the war.
They were, as it was often claimed, “overpaid, over-exploited and here.”
The first GIs landed on British shores in 1942 and brought with them candy, Coca-Cola, cigarettes and nylon and by the end of World War II around three million American soldiers had passed through Britain. .
But Home Office files show that American GIs committed 26 murders, 31 homicides, 22 attempted murders and more than 400 sex offenses, including 126 rapes, in the three years between their arrival and the end of the war.
Shepton Mallet Prison
Closer to home, between mid-1942 and September 1945, Shepton Mallet Prison was used by the US military and was fully staffed during this period.
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At the end of 1944, 768 soldiers were imprisoned there, guarded by 12 officers and 82 enlisted soldiers.
And during that time, 18 servicemen were executed in the prison – sixteen were hanged and two were shot dead by a firing squad. The Americans built their own two-story high execution wing that contained the gallows.
Hangman Thomas William Pierrepoint carried out most of these executions, assisted by his nephew, Albert Pierrepoint.
Of those executed, nine were convicted of murder, six of rape and three of these crimes. Ten of these men were black and three were Hispanic.
These men were:
Private David Cobb, a 21-year-old soldier from Dothan, Alabama, who was hanged on March 12, 1943 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Albert Pierrepoint. He was sentenced by a General Court Martial in Cambridge for killing Second Lieutenant Robert J. Cobnor on December 27, 1942. Private Harold A. Smith, from Troup County, Georgia, was hanged on June 25, 1943 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Albert Pierrepoint. He was sentenced by a court martial in Bristol for killing Private Henry Jenkins of the 116th Infantry on January 9, 1943. Private Lee A. Davis, an 18-year-old soldier, was hanged on December 14, 1943 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Alex Riley. He was sentenced by a court martial for killing 19-year-old Cynthia June Lay and raping a woman on September 28, 1943.
Private John H. Waters, a 38-year-old soldier from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, was hanged on February 10, 1944 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Alex Riley. He was convicted of shooting his 35-year-old girlfriend Doris Staples on July 14, 1943.
Private John C. Leatherberry, a 21-year-old soldier serving in the 356th General Engineer Regiment, was hanged on March 16, 1944 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Albert Pierrepoint. December 8, 1943. Leatherberry’s accomplice Private George Fowler, Leatherberry’s accomplice Private George Fowler was sentenced to life imprisonment. Private Wiley Harris, Jr, a 26-year-old soldier serving with the 626th Ordnance Ammunition Corp, was hanged on May 26, 1944 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Alex Riley. He was sentenced by a court martial for stabbing Harry Coogan to death on March 6, 1944. Private Alex F. Miranda, a 20-year-old soldier, was executed on May 30, 1944 by a 10-man firing squad. He was sentenced by a court martial for fatally shooting First Sergeant Thomas Evison of the 42nd Field Artillery Battalion, 4th Division. Private Eliga Brinson and Private Willie Smith, both of the 4090th Quartermaster Service Company, were hanged on August 11, 1944 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Albert Pierrepoint. They were sentenced by a court martial in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, for raping a woman on March 4, 1944. Private Madison Thomas, a 23-year-old soldier, was hanged on October 12, 1944 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Albert Pierrepoint. He was convicted of raping a woman on July 26, 1944.
Private Benjamin Pyegate of Dillon, South Carolina, was executed on November 28, 1944 by a firing squad. He was sentenced by a court martial for stabbing Private First Class James E. Alexander to death on June 17, 1944.
Corporal Ernest Lee Clarke (23) and Private Augustine M. Guerra (20), both airmen of the 306th Fighter Control Squadron, were hanged on January 8, 1945 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Albert Pierrepoint. They were sentenced by a court martial for having raped and strangled to death a 15 year old youth on August 22, 1944. Corporal Robert L. Pearson and Private Parson Jones, both soldiers of the 1698th Engineers, were hanged on March 17th. 1945 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Herbert Morris. They were sentenced by a court martial for having raped a heavily pregnant woman on December 3, 1944. Private William Harrison, a soldier in the US Army Air Corps, was hanged on April 7, 1945 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Herbert Morris. He was sentenced by a court martial for sexually assaulting and strangling to death a 7 year old child on September 25, 1944. Private George Edward Smith, a 28 year old airman, was hanged on May 8, 1945 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Herbert Morris. He was sentenced by a court martial for shooting Sir Eric Teichman fatally on December 3, 1944. Private Aniceto Martinez, a 24-year-old soldier, was hanged on June 15, 1945 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Albert Pierrepoint. He was sentenced by a court martial for raping a 75 year old woman at her home on August 6, 1944. He was the last person to be hanged in the UK for the crime of rape. Read more related articles Read more related articles
Initially, the remains of American prisoners executed at Shepton Mallet were buried in graves unmarked at “Plot X” at Brookwood Cemetery – also known as the London Necropolis.
But in 1949, all eighteen bodies were exhumed. David Cobb’s remains were repatriated to his home, while the remaining 17 were buried again in Plot E of the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial in France – a private section intended for the “dishonored dead”. The cemetery houses the remains of 96 American military prisoners, all executed by hanging or firing squad.
Those buried there are responsible for the deaths of 26 American comrades (all murdered) and 71 British, French, German, Italian, Polish and Algerian civilians who were raped or murdered.
No American flags are allowed to fly over the section of the cemetery they are in, and those below the ground are found with their backs facing the main cemetery on the other side of the road. Their final resting place has been described as a “house of shame” and a “perfect anti-memorial”.
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Source: www.somersetlive.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-05-23 04:01:00
