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The two chief miscreants who had escaped justice once for the murder of Mr Deighton were Robert Thomas (Tommis) and Matthew Normanton (Normington).
They were both arrested in the Spring of 1774, together with others involved at various levels of crime. Thomas confessed that Normanton, Clayton and himself had been approached by a Mr Spencer to kill Mr Deighton for reward. He also said Normanton had fired the fatal shot.
Thomas and Normanton were both charged with robbing Mr Deighton - Highway Robbery - and on 6 August 1774 Robert Thomas was hung at York and his body was transported in irons to hang on the gibbet on Beacon Hill above Halifax. His hand fixed so as to point towards the scene of his crime as the flesh rotted from his bones over the 8 years his remains hung there.
His partner Matthew Normanton was sentenced in his absence, and later caught as he hid in the briars below what is now Spa Laithe cottage in Cragg Vale. He was hanged on 15 April 1775 and set in chains on Beacon Hill, close to friend Thomas.
Thomas Spencer was executed on Beacon Hill in 1783, for inciting a grain riot, and his body displayed at Mytholmroyd before final burial.
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