James Yates was hanged outside Adelaide Gaol on 5 September 1850 for the murder of a shepherd at Skillagolee Creek. Around 800 spectators gathered in the rain before dawn to witness the execution, the gibbet erected within yards of the gaol’s front door, the coffin placed directly beneath the drop.
Yates ascended the ladder with a firm step, but his hollow eyes, ashen cheeks, and wasted frame betrayed the torment of his final weeks. On the drop he kicked off his boots with restless fury, then knelt reluctantly to prayer. Yates spoke no address to the crowd. His only words, repeated until the drop fell, were: ‘Lord have mercy on me, Christ have mercy on me, Lord, Jesus, have mercy on me.’
The hangman placed the noose under the wrong ear, but the drop was sufficient to break the neck, and death came quickly.
