The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-06-20 00:00:00

TRIAL and EXECUTION of O'FARRELL.

The trial of O'Farrell, for the attempted assassination of
the Duke of Edinburgh. commenced on Monday, the 30th
March, and occupied two days. No attempt was made to
dispute the facts of the case. and the defence set up by his
counsel was that of insanity. The evidence which they
adduced, however, while showing that the prisoner had at
former periods of his life suffered from temporary aberration
—attributed to severe drinking—failed to prove that he was
not in his senses at the time of committing the act.
The rebutting evidence submitted by the Crown showed
that the crime must have been planned with care and de-
liberation, and that the prisoner while almut it had not
shows any signs of Insanity. None of the evidence tended
to inculpate any other party, or to show that the crime was
Instigated by any organisation. The jury found the prisoner
Guilty." and lie was sentenced to death.
. . . . .

An address from the prisoners relatives was presented to
his Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, praying
that Ida sentence might lie respited, and the case referred to
the decision of the Queen, His Excellency, on the advice of
the Executive Council, declined to accede to the petition,
and the execution of the prisoner was fixed for Tuesday, the
21st April
. • . .

Irmh the time of hia conviction the prisoner maintained
a quiet and reserved demeanour. A few days before his
execution he WM visited by his sister, and .laity received the
ministrations of a Catholic clergyman. On Tuesday, April 21,
at nine o'clock, the extreme penalty of the law was carried
into effect in Darlinghurst gaol. The doomed man passed
the night in his usual manner, and did not appear to suffer
from by nervous excitability at his approaching fate. Ile
was attended at an early hour by a minister of the religious
persuasion to which he belonged. Precisely at nine o'clock
the sheriff demanded his body. and °Tram!l appeared at the
cell door in obedience to the summons. He submitted to the
process of pinioning without a murmur, and walked uncon-
cernedly to the foot of the scaffold. Here lie knelt with the
priest, and for a few moments was engaged In religious
devotion. He then mounted the ladder with a flrrn step,
and before taking his place under the drop looked up, appa-
rently at the rope and the fatal beam overhead. He then took
his place directly wider it, and looked up again in a very corn-
Posed manner, but whether vacantly looking up at the dread
engine of death, or making a last appeal to Heaven for
merry, ran only he conjectured. He, however, appeared
thoroughly resigned to his fate. The cap was then adjuated
over his face, he shook hands with the priest, the drop
fell, and the last act .4 the Clontarf tragedy was over. A
Angle contraction of the leg was the only visdble sign of
suffering, and death appeared to be instantaneous. After
hanging the prescribed time, the holy was taken down, and,
not being claimed by his friends, was buried at Haslein's
Creek. Bet .re his execution O'Farrell sent a letter to Mr.
Parkes, the Colonial Secretary, with an injunction that it
Should not be opened till after his death. On the evening of
the day of execution Mr. Parkes was questioned in the
Legislative Aeguably trig' raped I. It. letter, but dediaed

to make public the (contents. On the following day the
letter was again asked for and refused, whereupon a
niember of the house rose, and read the following copy of
the letter, declining at the same time to state how he ob-
tained it
•• Being now about to appear lief ore my Creator, I feel it my
duty to give expression to my heartfelt sorrow at the grevious
crime I have committed. From the very bottom of my
heart do I grieve for what I have done. I have hitherto
said that I was one of many who were proposed to do the
deed had I not done it. I had not the slightest foundation
for such a statement. I was never connected with any man.
, or any body of men, who bad for their object the taking of
the life of the Duke of Edinburgh, neither was I in any other
than in an indirect manlier connected with any organisa-
tion in Ireland or elsewhere, which is known by the name
of the Fenian organisation. I wish, moreover, distinctly to
assert that there was not a single human being in existence
who had the slightest idea of the object I had in view when
I meditated 011, and through the merciful providence of (bid
failed it,, carrying into effect the death if the Duke of
Edinburgh. I have written to the printers of two Irish
periodicals an address to the people of Irehind. So certain
was I of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh that I stated
therein that whier, I believed would be the fact; and I
think I have more than implied that I was but one of an
organisation to carry the same into effect. I need but say
that the truth of the latter portion rests upon a slighter
foundation than the former ; in fact, that, milers from mere
hearsay, I had no foundation for stating that there was a
Fenian organisation in New South Wales. From continually
thinking anti talking of what I may still be allowed to call
the wrongs of Ireland: I became excited, and filled with
enthusiasm on the subject, awl it was when under the in-
iluence of those feelings that I attempted to perpetrate
the deed for which I am now called upon to suffer.—
11. J. O'Farrell."