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Michael Manning (murderer)
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{{Short description|Irish murderer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}} {{Use Irish English|date=May 2018}} {{Infobox murderer | name = Michael Manning | image = | caption = | alt = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1928|9|1}} | birth_place = [[Limerick]], [[Irish Free State]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1954|4|20|1928|9|1}} | death_place = [[Mountjoy Prison]], [[Dublin]], [[Republic of Ireland]] | cause = [[Execution by hanging]] | victims = Catherine Cooper, 65 | country = Ireland | date = 18 November 1953 | endyear = | apprehended = 19 November 1953 | conviction = [[Murder]] | sentence = [[Capital punishment|Death]] | spouse = }} '''Michael Manning''' (1 September 1928 - 20 April 1954) was an [[Republic of Ireland|Irish]] man who was convicted for rape and murder and executed in 1954. He was the 29th and last person to be [[Capital punishment in Ireland|executed in the Republic of Ireland]], as capital punishment was gradually abolished in the decades following Manning's execution. ==Murder and trial== Manning, a 25-year-old [[Carting business|carter]] from Johnsgate in [[Limerick]], was found guilty in February 1954 of the rape and murder of Catherine Cooper, a 65-year-old nurse who worked at Barringtons' Hospital in the city.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/ireland.html|title=Eire|website=www.capitalpunishmentuk.org}}</ref> Nurse Cooper's body was discovered on 18 November 1953 in the quarry under the New Castle, Dublin Road, [[Castletroy]], where she was found to have choked on grass stuffed into her mouth to keep her from screaming during the commission of the crime.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Sentenced to Death: Saved from the Gallows|last = Wallace|first = Colm|publisher = Somerville Press|year = 2016|isbn = 9780992736491|location = Bantry|pages = 97}}</ref> Manning expressed remorse for the crime, which he did not deny. By his own account, he was making his way home on foot after a day’s drinking in The Black Swan, [[Annacotty]] when he saw a woman he did not recognise, walking alone. "I suddenly lost my head and jumped on the woman and remember no more until the lights of a car shone on me." He took flight at this point but was arrested within hours, after his distinctive hat was found at the scene of the crime.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/sixty-years-since-dublin-s-last-hanging-1.1765531 | title=Sixty years since Dublin's last hanging | date=18 April 2014 | first=Ian | last=O'Donnell | newspaper=Irish Times | accessdate=11 May 2018 }}</ref> Although Manning made an impassioned plea for clemency in a letter<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/40-years-ago/145084/Final-pleas-of-Limerick-man-executed.html|title=Final pleas of Limerick man executed, 60 years ago|website=www.limerickleader.ie}}</ref> to the [[Minister for Justice (Ireland)|Minister for Justice]] [[Gerald Boland]], his request was denied, although it was supported by Nurse Cooper's family. The execution by [[hanging]] was duly carried out on 20 April 1954 in [[Mountjoy Prison]], [[Dublin]] by [[Albert Pierrepoint]], who had travelled from Britain where he was one of three Senior Executioners. [[Frank Prendergast]], subsequently [[Teachta Dála|TD]] for [[Limerick East (Dáil constituency)|Limerick East]] who knew Manning well, recalled later: "Friends of mine who worked with me, I was serving my time at the time, went up to visit him on the Sunday before he was hanged. And they went to [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Mass]] and Holy Communion together and they played a game of handball that day. He couldn't have been more normal."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rte.ie/news/features/referenda/death/tonyconnelly1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080403070534/http://www.rte.ie/news/features/referenda/death/tonyconnelly1.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 April 2008|title=RTÉ News Interactive :. Death Penalty Referendum|date=3 April 2008}}</ref> Manning left a wife who was pregnant at the time of the murder. His body was buried in an unmarked grave in a yard at Mountjoy Prison. ==Aftermath== The [[death penalty]] was abolished in 1964 for all but the murder of [[Garda Síochána|Gardaí]], diplomats and prison officers. It was abolished by statute for these remaining offences in 1990 and was finally expunged from the [[Constitution of Ireland]] by a [[Twenty-first Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland|referendum in 2001]]. ==Footnotes== <references/> == External links == *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080403070534/http://www.rte.ie/news/features/referenda/death/tonyconnelly1.html Capital punishment in Ireland since the foundation of the state] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Manning, Michael}} [[Category:1929 births]] [[Category:1954 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Irish criminals]] [[Category:Executed people from County Limerick]] [[Category:Irish people convicted of murder]] [[Category:Irish rapists]] [[Category:People convicted of murder by the Republic of Ireland]] [[Category:People executed by the Republic of Ireland by hanging]] [[Category:People executed for murder]]
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