Shadow of the Noose - A Higher Power

He had married Agnes Campbell Bone when she was just 17 years of age. The marriage had been stormy from the beginning, with any wedded bliss lasting only eight days before they separated. The young woman was sent immediately back to her husband"s house. It didn"t matter what caused her unhappiness, she was married and therefore had to stand by her man. That was the way of the world.

That same night she returned to her parents, saying that Bone was "carrying on the same way." Shortly after, Agnes went into domestic service, although she continued with attempts to make the marriage work. However, the longest she could bear living with Bone was six weeks.

In their times apart Bone"s temperament brought them both trouble, she with her employers and he with the law. His behaviour saw him in court and in jail. Eventually, Agnes tried to keep her places of employment secret for fear that he would turn up and cause a disturbance.

Finally, on April 2 1908, he learned she was visiting her parents in Glenbuck, where he was staying with an aunt, and during a walk to the railway station, he beat her to death.

Justice moved swiftly in those days and Bone appeared in the High Court of Justiciary in Glasgow in early May. The packed court listened to the indictment being read out by a solemn-voiced Clerk, saying that the murder had been committed 'on an old road or footpath leading from Glenbuck village to the Muirkirk and Lanark Road.' The judge, Lord Ardwall, turned to Bone in the dock and said, 'You have heard the indictment and you know the nature of the charge. Do you plead guilty or not guilty?' Bone replied, 'Guilty.' Having said his piece, he sat back down again.

The judge was astonished. There had been no indication at an earlier hearing of such a plea. The men before him were often guilty, but seldom lodged such a plea. 'Guilty?' He asked. 'Do you really plead guilty?' Bone got to his feet once more and said emphatically, 'Yes.' A ripple of conversation flowed round the courtroom. As the judge discussed the situation with the Crown counsel, one of Bone"s lawyers moved closer to the dock and tried to convince him to reverse his plea but the man was adamant. "Bone, however, put down his brows and shook his head," reported the Chronicle.

'I think you had better be guided by your Counsel, and plead not guilty,' advised Lord Ardwall.

Bone, though, would not be budged. In a loud and firm voice he said, 'No, I cannot plead not guilty. I have a higher power to face than you, and for that reason I have to plead guilty. It was me that committed the crime.' Lord Ardwall again consulted with the Advocate-Depute and the Clerk of Court, and then said to prisoner, 'The case must go to trial in any case. I never heard of a plea of guilty in a murder trial. We will hear the evidence and will not record your plea.' AND so the case began.

Agnes"s mother, Helen, told of her daughter"s unhappy marriage. She told of the trouble Bone caused at her daughter"s places of employment. She told of the day Agnes died, of the visit she had tried to prevent because Bone was also in Glenbuck. She told of the messenger coming with a request from Bone to meet with his wife. She told how her daughter left her house between 12.30pm and 12.45pm. And then she told the court, 'I never saw her again.' She had objected to the marriage, even though the couple had been good friends up until they were wed. She thought Bone was 'inclined to be lazy' and when a man took a wife he should work for her.

Bone"s defence counsel asked, 'Was he not looked upon as being defective in intelligence?' ' I don"t know,' she replied.

'Now, was he not a bit silly?' 'If I had said that to him, I would not have been able to get out of his way. There was no silliness about him.' Clearly, Bone had a temper. When the couple split up the second time, Bone warned her that if her daughter did not return to him he would separate her head from her body. Another witness said that Bone had once threatened to "kick the head off" his wife if she did not return to him. That witness, a 20-year-old local woman, said that Bone often 'blethered a lot of silly nonsense' but was very much in love with his wife.

Glenbuck man John Davidson (19) said he was standing with John Weir at Mrs Milliken"s shop about mid-day on April 2 when Bone asked if they had seen his wife that day. She was in the village, he said, and if he got her he would 'kick the bloody head off her.' Davidson told him he would be better not to interfere with her, as it would just be 'Ayr' for him again, meaning the jail in Ayr where Bone had already spent many weeks. Bone said he believed that Agnes coming home was a trap laid by her people to lure him into causing a disturbance. He had been drunk a few days before in Coalburn and had fallen down and hurt his head. That and his temper, he suggested, would be the end for him.

Tellingly, he said that he knew a rope was waiting for him.

HIS aunt, Mary Bone, said he had stayed with her from the Sunday before the murder.

She heard the rumours that her nephew had killed his wife but it was not until the man himself came back that she learned it was true. He was in a very excited state, she told the court, was crying and was very restless. When asked what was wrong, he said, 'I"ve killed the wife.' She asked him what he had done that for, and he said that he had been 'that much bothered and tormented' that he killed her. Her brother advised him to go and give himself up. Bone did not reply and left the house. She admitted that her nephew had a temper and had not been feeling well for some days.

The court heard that the couple had met up that day at Bone"s request and had gone for a walk 'over the hill'. They sheltered from torrential rain in a farm shed where they were heard to be arguing by a shepherd. A man working on a ditch at the side of the road saw the couple twice. After the second sighting he looked up and etched against the sky line he could see Bone standing and stamping something with his feet. He thought he might have been killing a rabbit.

Jane Bain (48) said that from the window of her house she could see the old road from the village to where it dips over the hill. She had seen the couple going up the hill and then, at about 3pm, she saw the accused just about the place where the body was found. Emotion strained at her voice throughout her evidence and at this point she broke down and wept bitterly. Bone looked up to her from the dock and said, 'Cheer up, woman; speak oot an" never mind.' Mrs Bain then went on, saying Bone came into her house and tearfully told her, 'I ha"e killed the wife.' 'Surely no,' she said.

'Aye, and I"m sorry for"t. She telt me her mither said she was never to tak" up wi" me again, and I couldna help it.' Then he added, 'Never is a lang time.' Bone then said to her husband, 'This is an awfu" job I"ve brung myself to, for I likit the wife.' .

John Bain asked what 'had gar"t him dae it,' and the reply was 'she telt me her mither said she wasna to tak" up wi me again, an" my temper got the better o" me, and I hut her on the heid wi" a stane.' Mr Bain confirmed that Bone"s temper was very easily roused. That day he seemed like a man 'gey sair put aboot,' for he was shaking and greeting.

Police witnesses stated that Bone did not show any sorrow over what he had done. The local bobby, Constable McLean, said that Agnes had once told him that her husband had slept with a razor below his pillow, and threatened to take her life if she spoke to any young men. He had heard Bone use threatening language towards his wife, and on one occasion he warned him that the next time he was arrested it would be for killing her.

Police and medical witnesses believed that Bone was sane and fit to plead. Defence counsel, with nothing else to work with in order to save their client"s life, tried to cast at least a faint shadow of doubt over his mental competency In summing up, Lord Ardwall said that little of the previous history of the prisoner had come out in the evidence, but it was very obvious that he was a man of ungovernable temper. But that did not supply an excuse for the foul deed he had done. No blame could be attached to the young wife, and it had been clearly established that Bone on many occasions had used threats against her. The whole evidence went to show that a brutal and a deliberate murder had been committed; it went to show that it was not the result of a fit of temper; it went to show that the prisoner was a sane man when the deed was done, and after it as well. His Lordship then indicated to the jury what their verdict must be - one of guilty.

The jury then retired, and were absent for but a very short time. On their return the foreman, in answer to the Clerk of Court, said, 'The jury unanimously find the prisoner guilty of the charge as libelled.' It was far from unexpected and there was only one penalty. Lord Ardwall placed the black cap on his head and stated dolefully that the prisoner was to be removed from that place to the Prison of Ayr, and that, on the 29th day of May, 1908, between the hours of eight and ten o"clock in the morning, he be hanged by the neck till he be dead.

THE Chronicle reported, "There was a moment of intense stillness in the Court, and then in a clear and ringing voice the prisoner said 'Thank you, my Lord.' "He immediately turned and skipped lightly down the stair which led to the cells." Bone may have been dead set on facing his 'higher power' but society was less keen. Many local people would have have heard he met to his death on the scaffold but the authorities were often not as keen. In the three weeks between court and doom day, there were moves to have the sentence commuted to life in prison. Meanwehile, the gallows were built in an Ayr joiners yard and prepared for transportation to the prison, where Bone waited patiently for his end to come.

Finally, on the eve of his hanging, the Secretary of State declared that Bone would not face the hangman. The news sparked some debate in the pages of the Chronicle, in which an editorial criticised the decision while a Cumnock clergyman defended it. He was the last prisoner at Ayr jail to sit under sentence of death.

Four years after his trial, now recognised as seriously deranged, Bone hanged himself in Perth Prison, using a bed sheet tied to a peg in the wall.

It seemes those higher powers were still calling to him....