The Press. — London, England, 1856-12-27 00:00:00

- . • •■..A4l4."o•,ameiya i mi THE investigation as to the frauds and robbelies c ommitted by Manini and Paul, the officers of the guardians of the City Union, and who have dis appeared leaving an immense amount of money un accounted for, is proceeding vigorously. It is be lieved that the defalcations exceed 50,0001. Mr. Rowsell, clerk to the guardians of the several parishes, has been suspended fro m hi s o ffi ce, al though it is not imputed to him that he was at all cognisant of the fraudulent transactions which have taken place. rim PRISONERS PIERCE, BURGESS, AND TESTER, charged with the great gold robbery of 1855, were, on Wednesday, fully committed to take their trial at the next sessions of the Central Criminal Court. THE GAROTTERS RTC becoming more bold. Last Sunday evening, between eight and nine o'clock, a young lady was returning home from church. Her way lay along Oxford-street, and she took the quiet south side, apprehending no danger in such a crowded thoroughfare. Just as she was passing Laurie and Marner's coach manufactory a man, whom she had noticed for some time dodging alongside of her, suddenly seized her by the arms, and pinned them behind her back. At the same moment another fellow rushed forward, apparently to assist in rifling her. The lady's terror was so great that she could not call out; but, fortunately, at this instant a police man turned into Oxford street from one of the small streets, and the vagabonds immediately ran across the road, where they mingled with the crowd and disappeared. The young lady was taken home in a cab, half-dead with terror and agitation. MR.CIIARLES HENDRICH, the young gentleman, aged eighteen, charged last week before the Brighton bench with stabbing a girl of the town, was tried on Tuesday for the offence at the Lewes Assizes. Mr. Baron Bramwell, severely lecturing the prisoner for the disgraceful offence, sentenced him to be im prisoned and kept to hard labour for a year. THE LENGTHENED PROCEEDINGS in the case of the Eccleston-street cowkeeper, terminated on Tuesday. Mr. Paynter suspends his judgment for twenty one days in order to be enabled to visit other cow yards in London. A VERDICT OF WILFUL MURDER has been returned by a coroner's jury at Leeds against one "James Riley," an Irish labourer, for causing the death, in a street row, of John Burns. The Irishman Riley is at present at large. A similar verdict has been returned at Birkenhead against a dock labourer, Thomas Smith, for the murder of a policeman. Smith is arrested and committed for trial. AN IMPORTANT DECISION affecting card sharpers as to whether " cards are instruments of gaming in the meaning of the statute," has been settled in the affirmative by Mr. Justice Coleridge, in the case of an appeal riy a card sharper, one Michael Grant, lately sentenced by Mr. Norton for three months' imprison ment. A MURDER has been committed at Wivetiscombe, near Taunton, Somerset. A farmer's servant, one Thomas Aplin, was sent to Wivetiscombe market on Tnesftay to make several purchases for his master. Wh►le in the village he changed a 51. note, and showed his money to, and treated, several acquaint• ances. By night time Aplin was drunk, and. started for home with a companion named Nation in the cart. About eleven o'clock that night the cart and horse were found by the roadside, and Aplin lying half out of it with his throat frightfully cut. He was quite dead and had been robbed. Nation, on Wednesday was arrested, and in his pocket was found a clasp knife stained with blood, and four sovereigns. The footprints in the road fitted exactly to his bootmarks. A coroner's inquest was convened for Friday. A MR. THomes lloofiEN, clerk io the service of Messrs. Field, Son, and Wood, the stockbrokers of Warnford-court, Throgmorton-street, City, and not a clerk in the registration department of the Great Northern Railway, as previously stated, was brought up before Mr. Tyrwhitt, at Clerkenwell, on Saturday, on the charge of being concerned with Leopold Repath, formerly the chief registrar and transferer of stock to the above railway, in the forgery of a signature to 1,0001. 4i per Cent. Consolidated Pre ference Stock of the Great Northern Railway. After the mere statement of the facts, the prisoner was let out on bail. EXECUTION OF THREE ITALIANS .IT WINCHESTER. GUISEPPE LAOAVA, Matteo Peetrisi, and Giovanni Barbaalo, convicted of piracy and murder on board the British barque Globe in the black Sea, in July last, were hanged on Tuesday in front of Winchester Gaol. The conduct of the prisoners since their condemnation had been becoming the awful position in which they were placed. Immediately after sen tence had been pronounoed, and while under an impression that their lives would be forfeited within few hours, they were fearfully excited, end de. ~~ DECEMBER 27, 1856. ~llrii. THE PRESS. elated loudly that justi!.e had not been done to them. But the interval which elapsed was so far improved by the rev. chaplain to the prison, Mr. Foster Rogers, and the Roman Catholic clergyman appointed to attend the culprits, that before the wretched crimi nals suffered they not only confessed their guilt, but admitted the justice of the sentence by Which their lives had become forfeited. Guiseppe Lagava was the first to break silence on the subject of his crimes. About two o'clock on Monday lie had been engaged in prayer with Signor Salvatore Ferretti, an Italian Protestant gentleman, who, with Mr. Rogers, the excellent chaplain of the gaol, had completed an impressive penitential prayer in the Italian language, and was about to leave the cell, when Lagava suddenly seized him by the wrist, and after an apparently painful inward struggle with his feelings exclaimed, with the most tragic gesticu lations, " Sono colpevole ! Sono colpevole ! Sono colpevole !" (I am guilty ! I am guilty ! I am guilty!) Before Signor Ferretti could question the unhappy man he added, " Ho sul' anima cinqua omicidii !" (I have five murders on my soul.) Signor Ferretti now asked Lagava what he wished him to understand by the last observation, upon which the wretched man exclaimed in Italian, "I am the chief sinner, and upon my head will rest the murder of the two sailois for whom we are condemned, as well as of my two poor companions, whom I dragged into it by the hair of their heads (strascinati per i capelli). I am guilty, and deserve death. lam guilty, and deserve death." An intimation of the fact of this confession, exone rating the two other convicts, was at once conveyed to Sir George Grey, as a ground for staying the execution. Sir George Grey replied as follows : Whitehall, Dec. 22. Sir,—l am directed by Secretary Sir George Grey to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date, re• porting that Giuseppe Lagava has confessed that he is guilty of the crime for which he has been sentenced to death, and has stated that his fellow convicts were drawn into it by him.—l am, sir, your obedient servant, H. WI Rev. F. Rngers, Chaplain to the County Gaol, Winchester. Matteo Peetrisi, on learning that all hope of a respite Was at an end, became greatly excited, and, dropping on his knees, in the most impassioned manner implored that his life might be saved, adding that he would willingly be a slave for the remainder of his existence. Failing to receive any encourage ment he gradually became more tranquil, and lis tened with attention to the exhortations of Mr. Rogers, interpreted to him by Signor Ferretti; for, although a professed Roman Catholic, this culprit refused to receive spiritual consolation during the last few days of his life from any other than the Pro testant chaplain. About seven o'clock in the evening the wretched man partook of the Holy Communion, and shortly before midnight he made the following confession to Signor Ferretti, in the presence of the chaplain : I am not guilty of having conspired beforehand to plunder the ship Globe. I do not know how the fight began. I only know I was struck and defended myself. I acknowledge it was by my hand the wounds were given of which the sailor died in hospital at Therapia, but I did not do it for plunder. I know I deserve to die, not for piracy, hut for worse things I did on the Globe. I am a bad man. I have a bad heart. I deserve to die. And, after a short pause, he added am a murderer. Two years ago I killed three persons at Trieste—one a woman with whom I cohabited, and two gendarmes who were sent to arrest me. I also attempted to commit a murder in Constantinople, but the person I attacked escaped by jumping into the water and swimming away. Giovanno Barbeelo, who was only eighteen years of age, suffered greatly on learning he must die. For some days he refused to see the Catholic priest, and was regularly attended by Mr. Rogers, but on finding that no hope existed of a reprieve he returned to the ministrations of Mr. Stone, the missionary ap pointed by the Roman Catholio authorities, who attended him to the end. The execution presented some painful features. During the act of pinioning Lagava and Barbeelo repeated aloud the " Kyrie Eleison," and other prayers. At one period Lagava directed the attention of Peetrisi to the priest, but the latter replied, " The priest did not die for me; Christ died for me." Pee trisi was the first to be led on the scaffold. As soon as Calcraft had placed him under the fatal beam the most painful excitement was occasioned among the crowd assembled in front of the gaol by the culprits exclaiming in a loud shrill voice, which resounded across across the valley overlooked by the prison, 64 Gesb Cristo, piglia l'anima mia !" and other phrases of a similar character, which were believed to be priell Qt (*inn and Mtestationg of timooeuee, 1235 Lagava was brought up next, and no sooner had he been placed near his fellow-culprit than his voice was raised in protestations to the Virgin Mary and all the saints of the calendar. Terrible as was the scene up to this point, it was infinitely more painful when Barbaalo appeared on the drop. This wretched youth was greatly excited, and could not be induced to submit himself quietly to the executioner. He appealed to the priests, and these rev. men, in their anxiety to give the dying men consolation, placed themselves in positions which obliged Calcraft to call upon them to remove, or it would be impossible for him to perform his office. This was done in a tone loud enough to be heard by the crowd below, from whom a murmur of " Shame " arose, probably as much from the length of time already occupied in affixing the nooses and splicing the ropes round the cross-beam—a clumsy operation which with the im proved example of the metropolitan prison of Newgate open to them is a disgrace to all the country justices who tolerate it—as from any other cause. At length, after thirteen minutes had elapsed from the period of Peetrisi appearing on the scaffold, during the whole of' which time the culprits were exclaiming in Italian at the top of their voices, and in tones which created the most painful excitement among all who heard them, the drop fell, and in a few moments the bodies of the wretched men were hanging lifeless. There were very few spectators present, probably at no period more than a thousand, and as soon as the drop fell most of them dispersed. THE MURDERER REDANIES appears to be quite unconcerned as to his fate. As a proof of the sin gular character of the man, we may mention that he has given what he calls a little " memento" to the turnkey appointed to watch over him, and which consists in a pencil drawing of the murder. It is done on a sheet of common note paper, and is divided into two " scenes," representing respectively the minder of each girl. On the one side is seen the figure of a woman lying on the ground under a tree, with blood issuing from two wounds on her bosom ; while above is the representation of an angel, who is supposed to be carrying away the soul of the girl to heaven. The rising sun is de picted in the background, and, as the murder was committed shortly before five o'clock, this is probably a faithful representation of the facts. There is an inscription underneath of "Farewell, my dear Maryia —Dedea Redanies." On the other half of the sheet of note•paper is the representation of the death of Caroline, the murderer's sweetheart, and here the girl is drawn as leaning upon a soldier—(himself) — who has his left arm round her waist, and his right hand in 'hers, " bidding her an eternal farewell," as the prisoner himself expressed it. Blood is issuing from the wounds in the bosom ; on the ground is seen the knife covered with blood; while above is the tree and angel, as in the other case. There is also the Inscription, " Death of Caroline Back from Dedea Redanies, of August 3, 1856 ;" and " Fare well, mi dear Caroline." Both drawings are ex• trentely well done, considering the unfavorable nature of the materials at the prisoner's command; while there is quite a pre•Raphaelite minuteness of detail. Of the prisoner himself, since his convic tion, there is little to report. Previous to his trial he would frequently revert to the subject of his crime and the consequences he ant'cipated ; and once, when showing a ring he made of his own hair, he exclaimed, "Of no use, no use. Me will hang in September." THE CONVICT JACKSON, found guilty of the murder of his two children at Chester, was hanged in front of the city gaol on Saturday last. THE NEAPOLITAN CALCRAFT ris not expert at his trade. The execution of the aspirant after Mr. Walter Savage Landor's 51. note, Melano, was accompanied with a great deal of unnecessary bar barity. A letter from Naples gives the following account of the affair : The scaffold was erected in the midst of the Piazza Cavakatoje, which was lined with detachments of troops from every corps in the garrison ; and outside as well as upon the houses a vast crowd had assembled. Whilst he was being taken round in a car, he continually prayed, kissed the crucifix, and exclaimed, " Viva la Religione I" "Viva la Liberia " Viva la Patria !" as he did even whilst mounting to the scaffold. The particulars of the execution are as disgusting as can well be conceived. A ladder rested against the crossbeam, up which the crimi. nal was compelled to mount. It took full five minutes or more to adjust the rope; as soon as this was done the body was turned off the ladder, and the executioner mounted on the man's shoulders, worked up and down, as if on horseback, and beat the head from aide to side with his fists, whilst he looked around upon the officials as though seeking for approbation. As soon as the execution was over the troops defiled under the scaffold and returned to their respective barracks. In the barracks where the prisoner had been lodged, immediately on the return of the troops, everything belonging to him was burnt, as 4 the ashes mattered to the winds.