Penniless spy leap to his death
A spy who jumped to his death from a skyscraper, a postcard-maker, and a murderer, are among the personalities whose lives are told in the latest publication by Newtown Local History Group.
"Brief Lives" tells the story of a random selection of around 40 people from Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn who made their mark one way or another.
Newtown's Pryce Lewis was born in 1831 and emigrated to America in 1856 and worked as a spy for the Union side during the American Civil War. Captured, he was sentenced to be hanged, but the sentence was struck out as he was a British citizen.
Later, according to the booklet, he worked with a detective agency and then at a life assurance firm, but lost his job and, not being eligible for a pension as he was not an American citizen, he and his family lived on handouts. On December 6, 1911, he jumped from the top of the 365ft high Pulitzer Building, which was at the time the tallest skyscraper in New York.
William Tibbott, of Llanllwchaiarn, was the last person to be executed in Montgomeryshire. In 1830, he murdered his father by putting arsenic in his tea. Just before being hanged he confessed to having murdered his first wife in a similar manner.
At the execution a bystander shouted out: "That'll larn thee, Tibbott."
Among others featured is Morley Edward Park whose name lives on through Park postcards, many of which feature Newtown.
The book costs £10 and is available at the Robert Owen Museum, Little Deli, Simmering Cauldron, Fuze, and No 1 High Street.
