The Unsolved Mystery of Michael O’Conor: The Truth Behind an Innocent Man’s Execution

In 1887, a condemned man named Michael O’Conor was executed for a crime he claimed he did not commit. His final moments, captured in an emotional photograph taken two days before his execution, were witnessed by his 10-year-old son, Daniel. What would have been a routine case of a man sentenced to death for a violent crime became, over the next 133 years, a shocking story of judicial corruption, wrongful conviction, and the pursuit of justice through generations. In 2019, modern technology uncovered a startling truth that had been hidden in plain sight—proof that Michael O’Conor was innocent.

The Man Who Would Not Be Forgotten

Michael O’Conor’s life was far from the stereotypical criminal life that the court and police had portrayed. Born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1849, Michael’s early life was marked by hardship, like so many other Irish immigrants who sought refuge in England during the Great Famine. He arrived in London at the age of six, where his family settled in the working-class district of Whitechapel. His father worked as a dock laborer, while his mother took in washing. Michael, industrious from a young age, trained as a carpenter, eventually starting his own small business.

At 30, Michael married Ellen Murphy, a seamstress, and they had two children: Daniel, born in 1877, and Mary, born in 1880. They weren’t wealthy, but they were respectable. Michael was a hard worker, paying his rent on time, attending mass every Sunday, and making sure his children had food, clothing, and an education. But everything changed on the evening of January 15, 1887.

The Crime

On that fateful evening, a wealthy landowner, Lord Edmund Hartley, was attacked in his carriage near Spittlefields. The assailant smashed the carriage window, struck Lord Hartley across the face, and stole a leather case containing £60 in cash and documents. Hartley was badly injured, suffering a broken cheekbone, and later told the police that his assailant was an Irishman with a carpenter’s hands.

The following day, Michael O’Conor was arrested. The case against him seemed compelling: He was Irish, a carpenter, and had been in the vicinity delivering furniture around the time of the attack. In a lineup, Lord Hartley identified O’Conor as the man who attacked him. Michael’s defense was simple: he had not committed the crime. He had been at Mrs. Thompson’s house that evening, delivering furniture, and had returned home before the crime had even occurred. His wife and neighbors could not provide a concrete alibi, though, and his only defense was his word.

The trial lasted only three days, with the prosecution’s case straightforward: Hartley had positively identified O’Conor, and as an Irishman with a motive to steal, he was the perfect suspect. Michael’s appointed lawyer, Thomas Gray, failed to challenge the prosecution’s flimsy case effectively. The jury took only 40 minutes to deliberate before returning a guilty verdict, and Michael O’Conor was sentenced to death by hanging.

The Final Photograph

Two days before his execution, Michael O’Conor was allowed one last meeting with his son. The prison regulations permitted a brief photograph to be taken. Arthur Blackwell, the prison photographer, captured a moment in time—an image of Michael O’Conor sitting beside his son Daniel, their hands clasped in a final gesture of love and connection. For 63 years, Daniel kept that photograph, his only memento of a father he believed was wrongfully convicted.

What no one knew at the time was that the photograph, taken on March 18, 1887, held a crucial piece of evidence that would not be uncovered until more than a century later.

A Long-Overdue Investigation

In 1932, during the height of the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) began a comprehensive reorganization of the Ogulthorp County Archives in rural Georgia. The young researcher, Aar Vance, was tasked with cataloging documents related to the liquidation of estate assets from plantation families. It was in a box labeled Thurman Estate 1790-1918 that Vance discovered something extraordinary: an old photograph of Michael O’Conor and his son, Daniel, taken in 1887.

At first, Vance thought the photograph was just another item in a large collection of mundane documents. But as she began cross-referencing the contents of the box with the historical records, she uncovered startling inconsistencies that could not be ignored. In the decades following Michael’s execution, it became clear that his conviction was based on lies, and his death was the result of a corrupt legal system.

The Evidence in the Photograph

In 2019, Dr. James Fletcher, a conservator at the Museum of Criminal Justice, began restoring historical prison photographs for digitization. Upon examining the photograph of Michael O’Conor and his son, he magnified it by 2,000% to clean up the image. That’s when he saw something that changed everything.

On Michael’s right wrist, hidden beneath the slight upward shift of his sleeve, was a mark—an unmistakable impression from a shackle or manacle. Dr. Fletcher quickly recognized that the mark was unlike the typical shackles used in New Gate Prison. This was a police transport shackle, and it had been recently placed on Michael’s wrist, not during his initial arrest, but at a much later time.

The Police Timeline Does Not Add Up

Dr. Fletcher’s discovery was a game-changer. It suggested that Michael O’Conor had been arrested much earlier than the official records had indicated. The police reports stated that he was arrested at his workshop on January 16, 1887, but the mark on his wrist showed that he had been shackled on January 15, the day of the attack.

This discrepancy opened the door to the realization that Michael’s alibi had been destroyed by the police, who had intentionally falsified the timeline of his arrest. Michael had been grabbed off the street hours after the attack, his alibi ruined by the police’s actions.

The Cover-Up

Dr. Patricia Moore, a forensic historian, spent months investigating the police records and documents from the Metropolitan Police archives. She uncovered a desk sergeant’s log from White Chapel Station, dated January 15, 1887, which noted the arrival of an “Irish carpenter” for questioning. That entry was quickly crossed out, but it was clear that Michael had been arrested on the night of the attack, not the following morning as previously claimed.

In a letter from Chief Inspector Charles Whitmore, written on January 17, 1887, it was revealed that Whitmore had ordered the falsification of the arrest time to eliminate any possibility of Michael proving his innocence. Whitmore had believed that Michael O’Conor was guilty, simply because of his Irish background, and was willing to manipulate the system to ensure a conviction.

The Fight for Justice

Daniel O’Conor spent the next 63 years of his life trying to clear his father’s name. He became a journalist and, in 1905, published The Innocent Hanged: 10 Cases of Wrongful Execution, in which his father’s case was number three. Despite the overwhelming evidence of his father’s innocence, the British government denied Daniel’s request for a posthumous pardon, citing the strength of Lord Hartley’s testimony.

But in 2019, the world finally learned the truth. Dr. Moore published her findings in the Journal of Criminal Justice History in October 2019, revealing that Michael O’Conor had been wrongfully convicted due to falsified evidence and police corruption. The article was picked up by major news outlets, and within weeks, Michael’s case became a national conversation about wrongful convictions and police misconduct.

A Posthumous Pardon

In March 2020, exactly 133 years after Michael O’Conor’s execution, the British government issued a formal posthumous pardon, officially acknowledging the grave miscarriage of justice that had occurred. Michael O’Conor was now recognized as an innocent man, wrongly convicted and executed for a crime he did not commit.

At a memorial service held at the site of the former New Gate Prison, now the Old Bailey, Michael O’Conor’s name was finally cleared, and his story was told with the dignity it had been denied for so many years. His son, Daniel, who had spent his entire life fighting for his father’s honor, had succeeded in keeping the evidence alive, ensuring that the truth would eventually come to light.

Conclusion

The story of Michael O’Conor is a reminder that justice delayed is justice denied. It also highlights the power of memory and the importance of preserving truth, no matter how long it takes. While Michael’s name was cleared after decades of struggle, the fact remains that he was wrongly executed, and his life was cut short by a system that chose to ignore the truth.

The photograph of Michael and Daniel O’Conor, taken just days before his execution, remains a symbol of the injustice faced by countless individuals who were wrongfully convicted throughout history. It also serves as a testament to the resilience of those who fight for the truth, no matter how long it takes.