One of Guernsey’s most dramatic and gruesome courtroom episodes – the trial and execution of John Charles Tapner – is investigated and brought to life by Kelvin Whelan in his latest book, Last Man Hanging.
‘I worked at one of the big four accountancy firms in Guernsey and before I left I was head of private clients,’ he explained. ‘It has always been a dream to work in books and write books. It will be two years in July since I opened Writer’s Block in Commercial Arcade. I found the offering on-island a little low, especially after Buttons and The Bookshop on the Bridge closed, so I wanted to make it more of a community.’
In Kelvin’s first book, Guernsey: A History, he covered the establishment of the St Peter Port police force in 1853. Here he came across John Charles Tapner, the last man to be hanged in Guernsey.
‘I Googled him and he had a Wikipedia page about the circumstances and his trial in Guernsey. It was a very interesting and unusual story. I was looking for some background with a view of writing some historical fiction. I went to the Priaulx Library and there were reams of stuff on his trial. There was a reporter sat in court and writing about it verbatim. The story became national, in regional newspapers in Liverpool and Newcastle, and with varying degrees of accuracy. Then The London Sun took up on it and it garnered a lot of attention.’
Kelvin kept digging.
‘The story got more bizarre. Sometimes real life is stranger than fiction. I couldn’t fictionalise it, it was too bizarre. There was so much reported speech. So I settled on writing a narrative non-fiction story.’
Tapner’s connection to the murder victim, 74-year-old Elizabeth Saujon, was through his mistress (who was his wife’s younger sister), who lived with Saujon.
‘His sister-in-law had been packed off to the UK because she was pregnant.
‘Tapner came from Kent. He was married with three children and had been in Guernsey for 11 years. He worked as a clerk at Fort George, so he was middle class. But he was leading a double life. He was racking up debts, he was a ladies’ man and had a reckless streak. Everyone loves a scandal and this was a murder coupled with robbery and arson. The St Peter Port police had only been in action for six months and were desperate to get the public onside and they were a little too willing to give information away. It coloured how the investigation and the trial were conducted.’
Add to the mix France’s most famous polymath.
‘Victor Hugo was in Jersey at this time and he was staunch anti-capital punishment and when the verdict was announced in the Jersey newspapers he decided to write an address to stir up a petition. It was an inspired idea because 600 people signed and it was sent to the British Home Secretary, Lord Palmerston, to change the sentence to being sent to the penal colonies. He failed. And he kept coming back to this feeling of failure in his work. In his paintings he kept going back to Le Pendu – The Hanged Man.
‘When Hugo came to live in Guernsey he went on a tour at the prison and saw the gibbet on which Tapner was hanged and he was offered the opportunity to buy Tapner’s death mask. It’s still at Hauteville House.’
At 13 days, the trial was the longest in Guernsey’s history. There were 77 witnesses and all the evidence was circumstantial.
‘He would have probably got off these days,’ said Kelvin. But the weight of public opinion on the justice system made its presence.
‘The rumour mill didn’t stop until he was long executed.’
Kelvin’s next book will be a crime thriller set in Guernsey in Elizabethan times.
‘It was a time of religious turmoil. I start with the Guernsey Martyrs who were burned at the stake in 1556. There were riots in St Peter Port, backstabbing, embezzlement – it was an incredible time and a period not very well known.’
Kelvin Whelan, together with Theresa Le Flem, will be in conversation with Nick Le Messurier in Local Voices at the Guille-Alles Library on Monday 28 April from 6-7pm. Theresa will be talking about her latest novel, Freedom On The Morning Tide. Tickets are £10 and are available at guernseyliteraryfestival.com. Last Man Hanging by Kelvin Whelan is available at blueormer.gg.
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