The Magnificent O'Connors: 2. The Murder of Donk Ambridge

Summary

The History Podcast – The Magnificent O'Connors

Episode 2: The Murder of Donk Ambridge

BBC Radio 4 – October 3, 2025
Host/Narrator: Ragnar O’Connor
Episode focus: Retracing the 1941 murder of George “Donk” Ambridge, the police investigation, and the controversial conviction of small-time criminal Jimmy O’Connor — Ragnar’s father.

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OVERVIEW

This episode dives deep into the notorious 1941 Kilburn murder of George "Donk" Ambridge and the subsequent arrest, trial, and death sentence of Jimmy O’Connor. Host Ragnar O’Connor, son of Jimmy, pieces together police reports, witness testimonies, and family recollections to expose what he and his family believe was a miscarriage of justice. With the help of his brother Milo and 93-year-old mother Nemone, Ragnar explores Jimmy’s early life, turbulent war years, criminal exploits, and the deeply flawed investigation that changed their family's history.

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KEY DISCUSSION POINTS & INSIGHTS

1. Setting the Scene: Kilburn, 1941 [01:08–03:56]

• It’s the Blitz, but on April 13th, 1941, all is unusually quiet on Denmark Road.
• Donk Ambridge, a coal merchant, is found murdered in his flat following a party nearby attended by Jimmy O’Connor.
• First-person narrative immerses listeners in the crime’s atmosphere: “Sometime earlier that evening, he was hit several times with a blunt instrument… This is George Ambridge, but most people call him Donk.” (Ragnar O’Connor, 01:40)

2. Who Was Jimmy O’Connor? Early Life and Survival [03:57–09:37]

• Jimmy’s colorful character: sharp-witted, deeply charismatic, and “no angel.”
  • Legendary family tape:

    “Well, I think the pubs are open.” (Jimmy O'Connor, 04:03)

• Raised in poverty, heavily influenced by a tough father who instilled a code:

  “If you’re going to be a thief, be a good one. Never plead guilty and never sign no statement.” (Ragnar O’Connor recounts family wisdom, 05:00)

• “Straightening” – Jimmy’s manipulative charm, twisting situations to his advantage, often for criminal gain.

  “If there was something Dad wanted, he would work out who could get it for him… charming them [so] whatever it was he was after… was actually the thing they’d wanted to give him all along.” (Ragnar O’Connor, 05:51)

• Early marriage, then wartime: Jimmy profiteers off army ration black market before escaping death during the bombing of the Lancastria.
  • He loses his ill-gotten fortune to the sea but survives traumatic shipwreck:

    “A bomb came down the funnel of the ship and blew the bottom out. Well, my first thought was for my money.” (Jimmy O’Connor, 07:53)
    “The oil also caught fire. People were either shot or burned, but very few survived.” (Mum, 09:08)

3. Crime in Wartime London [09:38–10:35]

• London’s blackout: a haven for petty crime.

  “The blackout was the pickpocket’s friend… the actual crime rate during the war went up, I think by 57%.” (Duncan Campbell, crime reporter, 09:55)

4. Donk’s Murder & Flimsy Evidence [10:36–14:58]

• Body found after three days; death by blunt force, forcibly entered residence.
• Lacking evidence: no murder weapon, no fingerprints, only autopsy timing based on undigested fish and chips.
• Chief Inspector Nat Thorpe targets local criminals, including Jimmy, through circumstantial links and informants.

5. The Accusation & Chain of Events [13:05–15:38]

• A known receiver of stolen goods, George Sewell, emerges as star informant, alleging Jimmy confessed and handed him a “gold watch” from the crime scene.

  “It was a big breakthrough in the case.” (Ragnar, 13:08)

• Police theory: Jimmy, Redhead (known criminal), and Freddy Andrews (violent reputation) acted together.

  • All are pulled in; Redhead and Jimmy accuse each other, both maintain innocence.
  • Freddie Andrews refuses to talk and is never charged due to lack of evidence.

6. Trial at the Old Bailey – A Miscarriage of Justice? [15:39–21:16]

• Jimmy’s first and only meeting with his barrister is the morning of the trial.

  “He only met his counsel on the morning of the trial.” (Mum, 15:38)

• Advised not to testify:

  “He said, if the jury know that you’d been a burglar, you’d be dead.” (Mum, 15:57)

• Case for the prosecution rests on unreliable, criminal witnesses.
  • No murder weapon presented (presumed to be a missing tire lever).

  “These prosecution witnesses were not people of good character — one was a convicted fraudster… one was a deserter from the army.” (Ragnar, 17:57–18:17)

• Alibi undercut by timing: guests at the party disagree on when Jimmy arrived vs. estimated time of murder.
• George Sewell reaffirms damning testimony about the gold watch.

7. Verdict, Sentencing, and Aftermath [21:17–25:58]

• Only two concrete verdicts:

  “We find William [Redhead] not guilty of murder, my lord. … We find James O’ Connor guilty of murder.” (Milo O’Connor reports verdict, 22:37–22:44)

• Jimmy’s words under sentence:

  “I told the judge, I’m not afraid to die, but I don’t want to die for a murder I did not commit.” (Jimmy O’Connor, Milo reading, 22:54)

• Reflections on capital punishment, wartime moral numbness, and a family forever scarred:

  “There’s no witnesses, there’s no forensic, there’s no nothing… There’s no desire for justice. None.” (Mum and Ragnar, 24:03–24:07)

• Jimmy’s transfer to Pentonville; three clear Sundays to execution.

  “So he was going to be hung on his birthday and… would have been his 24th birthday.” (Milo & Ragnar, 26:22)

8. Waiting on Death Row [26:38–28:39]

• Jimmy reflects on mortality:

  “You think about afterlife, school days… life hereafter, and where are we going to?” (Jimmy O’Connor, 26:38)

• Describes last days, appeal effort (ultimately unsuccessful), and preparations for the gallows.
• Albert Fairpoint, legendary hangman, provides a chilling procedural account of executions:

  “While my assistant is fastening up his legs, I draw a white cap over his head and place a nose around his neck… I pull the lever and the prisoner falls through it. And it is all over in an instant.” (Albert Fairpoint, 27:51)

9. Cliffhanger and Next Steps [29:32–30:01]

• The family’s fight to clear Jimmy’s name begins; Nemone reflects on her relationship with him:

  “I somehow felt that if I married him… it would have shown that somebody convicted of murder could still be a good human being.” (Mum/Nemone, 29:40)

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NOTABLE QUOTES & MOMENTS

• Jimmy’s Wry Humour and Charisma:
  • “Well, I think the pubs are open.” (Jimmy O’Connor, 04:03)
• On Living by His Own Code:
  • “If you’re going to be a thief, be a good one. Never plead guilty and never sign no statement.” (Ragnar O'Connor, 05:00)
• On Facing Death:
  • “I’m not afraid to die, but I don’t want to die for a murder I did not commit.” (Jimmy O’Connor via Milo, 22:54)
• Reflections on Justice:
  • “There’s no witnesses, there’s no forensic, there’s no nothing… There’s no desire for justice. None.” (Mum & Ragnar, 24:03–24:07)
• Execution Procedure Laid Bare:
  • “As soon as I see that everything is ready, I pull the lever and the prisoner falls through it. And it is all over in an instant.” (Albert Fairpoint, 28:26)

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TIMESTAMPS FOR KEY SEGMENTS

• [01:08] Scene set: Kilburn, 1941, murder of Donk Ambridge
• [03:57–05:57] Jimmy’s background, criminal code, family recall
• [09:38–10:35] Wartime London as a breeding ground for crime
• [13:05–14:58] First police theories and accusations against Jimmy
• [15:38–17:11] Trial preparations, flawed legal support
• [17:57–19:28] Unreliable witnesses, questionable prosecution
• [22:37–22:48] Jury delivers verdicts
• [22:54–23:13] Jimmy’s courtroom statement
• [24:03–24:07] Family’s frustration and despair
• [26:38–27:08] Jimmy’s reflections awaiting execution
• [27:44–28:39] Hangman’s execution process
• [29:32–30:02] Tease for next episode, family’s fight for justice

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TONE & STYLE

The episode is intimate, often raw, blending investigative rigor with deeply personal narrative. Ragnar’s narration is direct and wry, echoing his father’s resilience and the family’s dogged pursuit of justice. Interjections from family (notably Jimmy’s widow, a tough-minded barrister), lend both gravitas and warmth. The use of archival audio and darkly humorous asides keeps the story engaging, even as it ventures into troubling territory.

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CONCLUSION

Listeners are left with a sharp sense of both injustice and intrigue—Jimmy’s larger-than-life character, the chaos of wartime London, inept policing, and the family’s decades-long quest for vindication. The episode sets up the next chapter: the family’s modern crusade to overturn a conviction that, to them, has always felt deeply wrong.

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For further listening: Future episodes will detail Nemone’s legal quest and the family’s contemporary fight to clear Jimmy O’Connor’s name.

Transcript

[Ragnar O'Connor]

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[Ragnar O'Connor]

You're about to listen to the history podcast the Magnificent oconnors. Episodes of this series will be released weekly wherever you get your podcasts but you if you're in the UK. The whole series is available right now, first on BBC Sounds. It's after midnight on Sunday 13th April 1941. We're in North West London at the height of the Blitz. But on this night the bombs haven't fallen. A welcome breather. Instead, the moon looms large in the sky. And far below it, on Denmark Road in Kilburn, a group of friends and neighbors have come together to get drunk and let off some steam. According to a number of statements later taken by the police, one of the guests at the party is a young man who is quite well known in the area. That man's name is Jimmy o'. Connor. A few streets away, another man lies motionless, a halo of blood pooling around his head. Sometime earlier that evening he was hit several times with a blunt instrument. This is George Ambridge, but most people call him Donk. He's sprawled out on his bed, the only bed in this flat. He lets out a groan and closes his eyes. He exhales his final breath and at that moment, this small flat in Kilburn becomes a murder scene. The police investigation into the death of Don Cambridge will eventually lead them to a 23 year old man. The man at that party, the most fascinating man in London, my Dad. I'm Ragnar O' Connor and from the History Podcast and BBC Radio 4, this is the Magnificent Oconnors. Episode two, the murder of Donk Ambridge. For me, the point where the police close in on my dad is where this all starts. What we believe is a miscarriage of justice. In this episode, I'm gonna take you through the whole thing. The police investigation, Dad's trial, the works. But for you to be able to understand how he ended up in the frame for murder, you first need to know what kind of man Jimmy o' Connor was. So let's start with that.

[Jimmy O'Connor]

And that's recording now?

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Now it's recording. You can say anything you like. Anything I like? Yeah.

[Jimmy O'Connor]

Well, I think the pubs are open.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

That's dad. It's from an old tape we found down in the cellar amongst our family archive. My dad was remarkable. Charismatic, brilliant, funny, but definitely no angel. I think it's important to be clear about that. He could be difficult and short tempered and in his younger days he was no stranger to criminality. Sadly, he died a long time ago, but we are lucky to have lots of recordings of him and not just tapes he made himself. It's a very odd life you've led, isn't it?

[Jimmy O'Connor]

Yes, very odd life.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

So that's Jimmy being grilled on ITV by chat show host Russell Harty about growing up in the slums of Paddington in the 1920s.

[Tristan Redman]

When did you start thieving?

[Ragnar O'Connor]

When was the first time you can.

[Jimmy O'Connor]

Remember becoming a thief? When I was about 10.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Jimmy had a tough start. It seems like his dad was quite a difficult character, but also quite a strong influence on young Jim. In fact, it was via his dad that Jimmy first heard a sage piece of advice that he took to heart. If you're going to be a thief, be a good one. Never plead guilty and never sign no statement. For Jimmy, this would become a rule to live by. He called it the 11th Commandment. And there was something else that Jimmy picked up quick too. The ability to get the measure of any situation and then make it work for him. Mum, who you met in the last episode, remembers this well.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

Wherever he went, he could see where the balance of power was. He could see exactly where to make his effort.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

And he'd call that straightening.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

Yes, got him straightened.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

That was Dad's name for it. I saw him in action a few times straightening people. If there was something dad wanted, he would work out who could get it for him and then focus all his efforts on making that person bend to his will. That usually meant charming them, bamboozling them into thinking that whatever it was he was after, that was actually the thing they'd wanted to give him all along a skill for straightening people set Jimmy up nicely as a criminal on the mean streets of Paddington. Here's my brother Milo.

[Milo O'Connor]

Having grown up in poverty, his way of surviving was to steal from commercial premises and so on, and he was good at that. So he'd go around jury shops and he would go around warehouses and he would nick, you know, goods and sell them.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Jimmy married his first wife, not my mum, by the way, when he was just 16. But the war got in the way of married BLISS and in 1940, wanting to do his bit for King and country, he headed off to France to join the war effort. There he became part of the Expeditionary Force Institute, providing shops and canteens to the troops. His duties included guarding a warehouse of army ration supplies. In fact, he ended up making a killing out of this by selling warehouse supplies via the black market. This is him on Russell Har's chat show once again.

[Jimmy O'Connor]

Well, I couldn't believe it, you know, it's like man of a Heaven. I saw three and a half hundred cases stacked up with cigarettes and whiskey and brandy.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

But at this point, the war intervened. German forces were sweeping across France. When Dunkirk started and we were all moving to get back to England, you got onto a ship called the SS Lancaster Lancaster.

[Jimmy O'Connor]

Yes.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

The Lancastria was an ocean liner requisitioned by the British government to get troops out before the Germans got to them. Jimmy got safely on board, but that didn't mean he had escaped the wrath of the enemy. The ship faced heavy fire, including a direct hit.

[Jimmy O'Connor]

A bomb came down the funnel of the ship and blew the bottom out. Well, my first thought was for my money.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

As dad tells it, he had £20,000 of cash and, and diamonds and jewels worth another 20 grand, all in a suitcase that he carried around with him. With the ship going down, Jimmy decided to jump overboard, all the while clutching that loot.

[Jimmy O'Connor]

When I hit the water, that must have released it. A big wave come and took it all away from me. All that hard work for nothing.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Floating in the ocean. Jimmy had to think quickly to save his life.

[Milo O'Connor]

The first thing he did was to get away from the boat so that he wasn't taken down like so many were.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

When a ship goes under, its pull will suck anyone nearby down into the depths with it. Jimmy was able to swim clear, but others weren't so lucky. Didn't dad say he heard a load of the people on the boat singing yes, as it went down? Yes, it couldn't get out.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

They were singing Roll out the barrel as they went out and the German planes above were machine gun gunning as survivors in the water. And the oil also caught fire.

[Jimmy O'Connor]

So it was unbelievable.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

People were either shot or burned, but very few survived.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

The sinking of the Lancastria was the largest single ship loss of life in British maritime history. Those sites that dad must have seen, you've got to wonder how that changes you. And that sense of your own life being in such a perilous state, I can't even imagine how I would deal with that.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

But Jimmy was a survivor.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Dad was one of the lucky ones. Picked up in the rescue operation and taken back to England. He returned to a changed and chaotic London, but found it a fertile territory for his criminal activities during the blackout.

[Duncan Campbell]

It was a perfect time for criminals. The blackout was the pickpocket's friend.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

This is Duncan Campbell. I spoke to him back in November 2024 for this podcast and since then he sadly passed away. He was a font of knowledge when it came to history and criminal activity. Having worked as a crime reporter for.

[Duncan Campbell]

Several decades, the actual crime rate during the war went up, I think by 57%. Lots of looting, which was, you know, a scandal at the time. There was lots of black market stuff and lots of opportunities to take advantage of that.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

It's against this backdrop that Don Cambridge is murdered in his flat above a disused stable in Kilburn. This crime, how it was investigated and how my dad ended up in the middle of it all is at the heart of everything in this podcast. I want to take you through it step by step. Donk's body lies undiscovered for three days. He's found when a concerned neighbor climbs up a ladder and takes a look into Donk's front room. There he sees a body spread eagled on a bed. The alarm is raised. The police are called even before they make it into the flat. They can see the lock on the premises has been forced open using some kind of crowbar. They're also very quickly able to determine that Donk, a 56 year old coal merchant, has been bludgeoned to death with a blunt instrument. But why?

[Milo O'Connor]

Clearly, he was murdered in the robbery that went went wrong went too far.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

The police have their motive, but they don't have much else. No murder weapon, no fingerprints. They do, however, get something from the autopsy.

[Milo O'Connor]

The autopsy talks about me had fish and chips in his stomach.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

From looking at the state of digestion of his dinner, it's determined that Donk was probably attacked sometime between 11pm and half past midnight on the evening of 12th April, 1941. For a while, that's all the police have got to go on. But then rising star of Scotland Yard, Chief Inspector Nat Thorpe is brought into the investigation. And in the absence of solid evidence, he resorts to pulling in people from the area that everyone knows are dodgy.

[Milo O'Connor]

It was a case of just let's nick the local scallywags and see who coughs.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

And sure enough, someone does cough.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

There was a receiver of stone of goods called George Sewell.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

George Sewell is just the kind of person Chief Inspector Nat Thorpe reckons might know something. According to the police statement taken at the time, Sewell tells Thorpe that a few days after Donk's murder, a man came to visit him and this man gave him chapter and verse on what had happened. It was a break in gone wrong with Donk ending up getting bashed over the head. But there's more. Sewell says this man gave him something. A gold watch, which Sewell seems to think came from the crime scene. All of this grabs Inspector Thorpe's attention, but he needs a name and Sewell gives him 1.

[Milo O'Connor]

James O' Connor of Kilburn.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

It was a big breakthrough in the case. Further investigations suggest Donk's murder wasn't a single person job. Two more names emerged from the local criminal fraternity. Freddie Andrews, a villain well known to the police.

[Milo O'Connor]

He had a fierce reputation at the time for violence.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

And William Redhead, a lorry driver with previous convictions for theft.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

He had known Jimmy, but they weren't associates.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Police now think the three of them did it together. So Thorpe pulls them all in. Redhead, Jimmy and Freddy. Under questioning, Redhead and Jimmy accuse each other while protesting their own innocence. Jimmy says he knows Redhead was involved because he later helped him dispose of the murder weapon, which was a tyre lever, a tool that is very much like a crowbar. Over the course of the investigation, Jimmy and Redhead give multiple statements, disclosing more information and changing and correcting some of the things they said previously. But one thing Jimmy sticks to solidly is that he wasn't there. He had no part in Donk's murder. Jimmy's story is that on that evening he and his wife were at a party on Denmark Road. So what of the third person pulled in for questioning? What does he have to say? When interviewed by Chief Inspector Thorpe, Freddie Andrews adopts a very different tactic from Jimmy and Redhead. Freddie stays stumm. After nine months of investigation, on 12 January 1942, Jimmy is charged with the murder of Donk Ambridge. Three days later, so is William Redhead. If found guilty, they could both face the death penalty. Freddie Andrews, however, is never charged. The police can't pin anything on him. It's Monday the 23rd of March, 1942, the morning of the first day of the trial of Jimmy o' Connor and William Redhead. What you're going to hear about how it all went down in court is based upon information we've been able to pull together from various sources over the years. Frustratingly, we've never been able to get hold of a complete transcript of the trial. It's something we've been looking for for decades now. That said, there is a lot we do know, like the fact that on day one, sitting in the cells underneath the Old Bailey, things get off to a bad start for Jimmy.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

He only met his counsel on the morning of the trial.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

For a murder trial, he's not pickpocket.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

Yes.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Jimmy's counsel advises him he shouldn't take the stand as part of his defence because if he does, he'll face questions about his past.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

He said, if the jury know that you'd been a burglar, you'd be dead.

[Asma Khalid]

America is changing and so is the world.

[Tristan Redman]

But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.

[Asma Khalid]

I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, dc.

[Tristan Redman]

I'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is the global story.

[Asma Khalid]

Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet.

[Tristan Redman]

Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

But by not taking the stand, Jimmy also passes up his opportunity to tell the jury his version of events. His counsel isn't worried, though. He says there is no way Jimmy will be convicted. The evidence against him is just too weak. And as the case gets started, Presided over by Mr. Justice Croom Johnson, that does seem to be the case. There is nothing concrete to actually tie Jimmy or Redhead to the scene of the crime. One of the very few things the prosecution does have is the suggestion of a possible murder weapon.

[Milo O'Connor]

The prosecution said in the course of the robbery, Ambridge was hit with something a tire lever, an iron bar, a heavy object, and was killed.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Jimmy had mentioned a tyre lever in his statement to the police and they've taken a particular interest in it, perhaps because from their investigations up to that point, a tire lever made sense. The padlock at Donk's place had been forced open using some kind of long, thin instrument that could have been a tire lever. And the pathology report suggested a tire lever was a good fit for the murder weapon, too. But no tire lever is presented in court, and that's because no tire lever was ever found by the police. With no physical evidence, it becomes apparent the prosecution's case will largely stand or fall on witnesses. People who lived or drank in the pubs in and around the area where the murder took place. Their testimonies range from those saying that they knew Jimmy and Red had been planning to break into Donk's flat, to claims that Jimmy actually confessed to being part of Donk's murder. But the thing is, these prosecution witnesses were not people of good character. One was a convicted fraudster who had a long record of fraud. I'm talking there about a man who the police had to bring out of Wandsworth Prison so that he could give evidence at the trial. One of them was a deserter from the army. And that bloke is Bill Waterton. He apparently gave a long, uncorroborated account of how he knew Jimmy had been planning the break in for quite some time. So this was the kind of. These were the guys that were used in court. People with dodgy pasts who might be up for saying anything on the stand if it helps them out as the trial progresses. One of the things that does prove to be a real problem for Jimmy is the timing of the attack on Donk. In his statement to the police, Jimmy insisted that on the night of Donk's death, he was at a party. That was his alibi.

[Milo O'Connor]

Dad was always very clear, it was nothing to do with me. Nothing wasn't there, you know. And he never changed his story in that regard, ever. He would always say he was at a party in Kilburn with his wife.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

But the timings of when Jimmy was at the party are jumped upon by the prosecution. Witnesses say he didn't arrive until about 11.30pm the prosecution points out that the evidence of Donk's partially digested fish and chips suggests that the break in probably took place before then. The point, they say, is that Jimmy could have done the murder and still got to the party before midnight. And then comes George Sewell, the receiver of stolen goods. You'll remember he said to Inspector Thorpe that not only did Jimmy visit him and tell him he was involved in the murder, Sewell claimed Jimmy had given him a gold watch, possibly taken from the crime scene. On the stand, Sewell runs through all this again.

[Milo O'Connor]

It was George Sewell who did the damage. He was a perfect prosecution witness in.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

A case lacking actual physical Evidence, I think the stuff about the gold watch becomes extra important. It's the closest thing that the prosecution has to a chain of evidence to actually place someone at the crime scene. But in fact, there's only George Hewell's word to say that the watch really did come from Donk's flat. Later investigations, long after the trial is done and dusted, will debunk that assertion. But in court, the the damage is done. The prosecution case wraps up. It's the defense's turn. But Jimmy's defense is short and sweet. Perhaps his counsel is still banking on the lack of physical evidence to get his client off. Either way, the trial, which started on Monday, is all done. By Thursday, the jury is sent out to consider their verdict.

[Duncan Campbell]

I think Winston Churchill once said, you judge a country by how it punishes crime. And I think that's still true to this day, both the good and the bad.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

That's Duncan Campbell again. That quote from him was still ringing in my ears when one day Milo and I took a visit to the place where dad first learned of his fate. Trying to imagine what it looks like without loads of monitors and PCs.

[Milo O'Connor]

Pretty sure the monitors weren't here.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

In 1940, me and Milo managed to nip into one of the courtrooms at the Old Bailey. It's a stunning place. Wooden panel to the hill, as you would expect. A place where nothing happens lightly.

[Milo O'Connor]

That's the dock. So dad would have been. And I don't think the Dock is any different. And public gallery is up here. The jury is over here. The barristers are here, you know, so prosecution defense, because they will talk to the jury and then the judges here, right in the middle, you can see. But yeah, people used to hang people from here.

[Jimmy O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Milo O'Connor]

From that dog there.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Jeez. In my dad's case, when the jury returned from their deliberations after 1 hour and 38 minutes, this is what they said. First up, the verdict for William Redhead.

[Milo O'Connor]

We find William not guilty of murder, my lord.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

And then the verdict for dad.

[Milo O'Connor]

We find James o' Connor guilty of murder.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

My dad will later write about this very moment. Here's Milo reading his words.

[Milo O'Connor]

Have you anything to say before sentences passed upon you? Yes, I said, I've got something to say. I noticed my solicitor was sweating. He thought I was going to have an out, burst a temper. I told the judge, I'm not afraid to die, but I don't want to die for a murder I did not commit.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Mr. Justice Croom Johnson then passed sentence. I can't imagine how you must have Felt when you see the judge put the black cap on your head and you know he's going to pronounce the sentence of death. I mean, makes me feel quite sick. There's no witnesses, there's no forensic, there's no nothing. Making a podcast like this does force you to look at things in a really direct way. And going through the details of Dad's trial, once again, me, mum and Myla could feel ourselves revisiting the same cycle we've gone through for years. You get angry, you try to make sense of it and then you hit despair.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

Does really make sense. Does it?

[Milo O'Connor]

It's ludicrous.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

Yeah.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

There is no. It's just.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

There's no desire for justice.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

None. None. Dad says he wasn't there. He's never been to Ambridge's house, he's never been to the flat. I was at a party.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

You've got to remember this all happened at a time when we're talking about a mad world.

[Milo O'Connor]

This is the middle of the Blitz. I guess people would become quite numb to most things and therefore things can happen that are not ordinary.

[Jimmy O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

I don't know if people regarded the death penalty as part of the scenery in those days.

[Jimmy O'Connor]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

To kill a man in cold blood is just revolting.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

In the dock, Jimmy pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it. What else could he do? This young man was now facing the end of his life.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

Then he was driven by car to Pensionville. At the traffic lights, there was a group of people, they were off to Cheltenham, I think, and he said, you know, put one on such and such a horse for me. And then they drove out of the story.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Of course, this was some years before Jimmy met Mum. It's crazy to think that while Mum was playing with her younger brother on the North Downs of Kent, dad was pulling up to a bomb ravaged Pentonville Prison to live out the last days of his life.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

The minimum time he was spent in the condemned cell has got to be three clear Sundays.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Yes, of course, three clear Sundays. It was a Home Office ruling that every condemned prisoner was given at least that amount of time between sentencing and execution to reflect on their crime and get their affairs in order. In Dad's case, that was around nine weeks. The day set for his execution was the 20th of May.

[Milo O'Connor]

So, yeah, so he was going to be hung on his birthday and he.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Would have been 24 being his 24th birthday. Would have been his 24th birthday. Yeah. Jimmy was in a hole and left to contend with his own thoughts. Here he is reflecting on what went through his mind.

[Jimmy O'Connor]

You think about afterlife school days, the school, teachers, life here after, and where are we going to?

[Ragnar O'Connor]

But he still had some hope to cling to. One of the first things dad did upon arriving in Pentonville was to ask for an appeal.

[Jimmy O'Connor]

Give me a chance to fight, prove established my innocence.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

After 40 days waiting in his cell, that appeal was granted, but it would prove unsuccessful. Of that decision, he would later say, I have only had one shock in my life. I don't consider being bombed on the Lancastria was a shock. I don't consider being sentenced to death at the Old Bailey for a murder I didn't commit was a shock. But what was a shock was losing my appeal. I knew then that death was inevitable.

[Albert Fairpoint]

My name is Albert Fairpoint and I was executioner for 25 years.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

It's two days before Jimmy O' Connell will meet his maker at the hands of the most famous hangman in history.

[Albert Fairpoint]

The execution chamber is usually next door to the condemned cell. It is a small room with a trap in the center of the floor. The bag is filled with sand and we rehearse the drop. Then we wait outside a condemned cell for the signal of the sheriff to go in. Then, when I am inside, we fasten his arms behind his back with a leather strap. Then the prisoner is escorted out of the condemned cell into the execution chamber and is placed on a white chalk mark so that his feet are across the division of the trap. While my assistant is fastening up his legs, I draw a white cap over his head and place a nose around his neck. The knot is a secret of it. As soon as I see that everything is ready, I pull the lever and the prisoner falls through it. And it is all over in an instant.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

In those last few days, dad is unable to sleep. So instead he paces and prays. The sound of his footsteps calms him somewhat. He drags himself to bed just to close his eyes for a bit. Hours later, or maybe it's just minutes, the cell door swings open. Opening his eyes, Jimmy sees a man standing in the doorway. He's holding something, but it's not a leather. On the next episode of the Magnificent o'. Connors. We start our fight to get Dad's conviction overturned. And you're gonna find out how meeting Jimmy o' Connor completely upended my mum's life for me.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

My little radar goes off thinking there is something seriously dodgy going on here. I don't trust this evidence. I somehow felt that if I married him at put would have shown that somebody convicted of murder could still be a good human being.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

Wow. Okay.

[Mum (Jimmy's wife)]

I think he thought when he married me because he'd married a barrister, he'd hit the jackpot.

[Ragnar O'Connor]

The Magnificent Oconnors is a BBC Audio Scotland production for BBC Radio 4 and the History Podcast. It was produced by Emily essen and Victoria MacArthur. Listen to the whole series right now, first on BBC Sounds.

[Asma Khalid]

America is changing, and so is the world.

[Tristan Redman]

But what's happening in America isn't just the cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.

[Asma Khalid]

I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. i'm.

[Tristan Redman]

Tristan Redman in London, and this is the Global story.

[Asma Khalid]

Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet.

[Tristan Redman]

Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.