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McGladdery was a brazen and arrogant young man. The police took him in for questioning and later released him, confident that he would soon lead them to the hiding place of items missing from the murder scene. No appeal was granted and finally, just days before Christmas 1961, he was hanged in Crumlin Road gaol. The gallows have never been used since. It was 1931 when Japan took its first major step towards empire-building, invading the Chinese province of Manchuria. Now Manchuria had many of the resources that Japan needed and gave them a firmer foothold on the Asian continent for future advances. Over the next few years, Japan poked and prodded its way further into northern china before all-out war broke out between the two in July 1937. He found it took 8 minutes 10 seconds to cycle to McGladdery’s home: just over 20 minutes to Damolly crossroads by the longer Belfast Road route; and 15 minutes 40 seconds via Church Avenue and Rathfriland Road; using Windsor Avenue it could be done in 15 minutes. Walking times for the comparable routes were 14 minutes odd to McGladdery’s home; 44 minutes via Belfast Road to Damolly crossroads; and 30 minutes and 27 minutes 35 seconds for the latter-named routes.
She was somewhat older than me and way above my class, I knew. Also she was a Protestant. This was not a handicap from my personal point of view, but perhaps, my religion might be from hers. There would be family problems too. Already Robert McGladdery had been taken for questioning to Newry RUC Station about the crime. He had known Pearl since childhood and was known to have attended the same dance the previous evening. Indeed he had danced with Pearl twice. McGladdery put on an enraged act: Then Mr McVitty of the Forensic Science Laboratory gave evidence from his examination of items recovered from the scene (and from the septic tank in a field on the Clougherammer Road close to Damolly village, yet to be referred to here). It was about 9.30 am when McCullough left what he was doing and went off for a sledgehammer to complete his task. It was then he came across the other scattered items of women’s clothing, blood-stained and spread all across a field. His heart was filled with dread. McGladdery was hanged in Crumlin Raid Gaol on 22nd December 1961. He vehemently maintained his innocence to the end. His QC, James Brown, also thought McGladdery innocent of the crime. His body was interred within the precincts of the prison.McGladdery denied he had ever owned a light suit and claimed he wore a blue suit at the dance. He later tried to implicate his pal, Will Copeland, by claiming that he had loaned him some clothes similar to those which were discovered in the septic tank. Constable Thom testified that on Sunday January 29 th he had a conversation with the defendant before an electric fire sitting in the Head Constable’s office of Newry Police Station. In further explanation he stated that the previous day he had been at Upper Damolly with Head Constable O’Hara where Robert McCullough (the man who first raised the alarm the previous morning when he discovered torn and discarded clothing in the vicinity) pointed out to them a bicycle lying in a field on the Belfast Road side of the Damolly Crossroads – where Damolly and Upper Damolly Roads meet and just yards from the Gamble home. The bicycle was taken possession of by Sergeant John Berry for expert examination of it. When found the lighting switch of the dynamo was in the off position. APA style: Strolling home from the local dance, Pearl was stabbed, beaten and strangled in a savage frenzy; Casual chat with friend was to expose a horrific murder.. (n.d.) >The Free Library. (2014). Retrieved Nov 29 2023 from https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Strolling+home+from+the+local+dance%2c+Pearl+was+stabbed%2c+beaten+and...-a060160265 After a long search the police found the light-coloured waistcoat and overcoat inside a pillowcase hidden in a septic tank not far from the murder scene. To make matters worse we were occasionally graced on Sunday afternoons with a social visit from a group of two to three Mercy Nuns, who believed it part of their Christian duty to express their support for growing Catholic families in their immediate neighbourhood. They were educating most of the girls of our families and I was delighted and amused by their visits. You see, I was beyond their power and influence, for they didn’t teach me. They were my sisters’ teachers. I had hordes of sisters, I don’t think then I knew just how many! And of course, I was constantly at war with my sisters. These nuns became my unwitting allies in our never-ending struggle for our parents’ attention. They would hurriedly and fussily scatter in search of schoolbags and unfinished homework at the nuns’ approach.
His trial caused a level of controversy rarely seen in Northern Ireland at the time. After the conviction there was a prolonged “will he, won’t he hang?” debate as many, previous convicted murderers had been granted appeals. I mentioned this case in a blog about the death penalty last November and here is the chance to review it on the small screen.At first, things went very well for the Japanese, they won victory after victory. All the while carrying out major atrocities like the rape of Nanking and the terror bombing of Chinese civilians which drew widespread international condemnation. By 1939 though the war had descended into a stalemate and as the Chinese grew in strength, the war became a serious drain on Japanese manpower and supplies. To win they would have to look elsewhere for the resources they needed.
Pearl Gamble. She worked in Foster Newells department store in Margaret Square. My aunt taught her at Newry Technical College and said she was a `nice, quiet wee girl.` There are two existing photograph of her. One, taken at a party shows a vivacious, gap-toothed girl, ordinary and of her time. In the second photograph she looks oriental, full of mystery. Something of death in the oriental ideal, the sexual stakes raised as high as they can go. Dozens of reporters from all over the world turned up for the firing squad execution. "Most executions don't attract this kind of attention. We've become inured to them," said Mr Joe Baker of Amnesty International USA.The point of what clothes Mc Gladdery had been wearing on the night of the murder was investigated in great detail during the trial; in particular, the articles of clothing which corresponded in description to those which witnesses claimed Mc Gladdery had been wearing at the dance and were subsequently found hidden in a septic tank (close to the scene of the murder). They separated temporarily but met again in Hollywood‘s in the early evening. Then they moved to Magee’s in Merchants’ Quay. They moved again to the Royal British Legion Hall at the corner of Monaghan and Catherine Streets. They were much the worse for wear when they finally arrived at the Orange Hall, about an hour after Pearl Gamble’s entrance.
I think now it probably turned the girls off me too. There had to be some reason. I wasn’t such a bad-looking guy. These servicemen were usually sensitive to our needs and tolerant of us, despite the fact that kaddy was mostly restricted to the road, where the hard surface made raising the wooden object easier than from the soft adjoining ‘greens’. The sum total of all this evidence points in one direction only: that McGladdery on that early morning of January 28 th foully and deliberately murdered this young girl. The taking of her clothes suggests a sexual motive and although it is not necessary for the Crown to prove motive, you may come to the conclusion that passion started this affair.All were for murder. There were twelve executions at Crumlin Road prison, Belfast, three at Derry and one at Armagh. (A total of seventeen men were hanged at Crumlin Road prison between 1854 & 1961). So japan's defeat at Khalkhin Gol basically pours cold water on their plans for northward expansion in Siberia, as does the signing of a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany in August 1939. When Germany invades the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 these plans for an invasion of Siberia are briefly reconsidered. But Japan is bogged down in China, they're running out of natural resources and it just doesn't happen. At 8 am on Wednesday 20th December – just five days before Christmas – Robert McGladdery became the last man to hang for murder in Northern Ireland. The speech came after a jury had returned a guilty verdict on the seventh day of his trial on October 16 1961.
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