The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-08-11 00:00:00

LETTERS OF THE MURDERER

There had been numerous applications fqr the office,
among which were two or three ourious specimens of
orthograpy. One of them was as follows
"To the High Shereff York Castle York City
Dear Sir Seeing in The Paper you advertise for a
Hangman i Will Engage With you My age is 22 years
Height sft 8 inches Weight 13st 6lbs Agent to the
Ensurance Company London It is From several Friends
In Leeds that i Hang the Convict Laying at York Castle
Mr Dove answer Will oblidge."

A second application was from a returned convict who
asked for the appointment on the ground that he "wanted
to earn an honest living." .4. third applicant vas a person
who asked for the office three years ago and received it ;
but the night before the execution, when he was sent for,
he was not prepared to fulfil his engagement, intimating
that his friends had dissuaded him from performing such
an office. His application in the present instance was
consequently rejected, though we are told he gave
assurances that he had now fully made up his mind to
discharge the duty, if appointed. Since his application
was refused this person has written a letter contra-
dicting a rumour that he had been appointed to
execute the convict, and informing the party to
whom he addressed his communication that "the
man who had got it must go on with his work I "
The account which Mr." Wright gives of the convict is
very interesting, and, in a certain sense, satisfactory.
Mr. Wright had been indefatigable in his attendance on
Dove, and, in conjunction with his other spiritual
advisers, succeeded in making a most favourable impres-
sion on him. Dove may now be said to have died in a
truly penitent state. He regretted his crime, not merely
on account of the consequences in which it has involved
him, but because of the actual guilt of his conduct. He
freely opened his mind, and confessed to Mr. Wright that
he poisoned his wife; but he did not state the motive
which actuated him to the horrible deed. In being asked
whether he was induced to kill his wife because he
wanted to marry Mrs, Whitham, he declared solemnly
that he was not actuated by any such motive. It appears
clear that Dove was led to poison his wife by hearing of
the murder of Cook, by Palmer, with strychnine ; but it
seems to have been impossible to discoveer the reason why
pDroevveiowusislyhedtotocogoplct,sde
ridoafthh, h his wife,
which reason must,
existed in his mind.
Dove fully understood on Friday that he was to die next
day, and he was resigned to his fate. He expressed his sense
of the justice of his sentence, and stated that he felt he
deserved to die. He also said he had no feeling of resent-
ment against the judge who tried him, the jury who found
him guilty, or the witnesses who gave evidence against
him. All Dove's feelings had now become centred on his
own awful condition. He' spent the whole of his time
during the day in prayer, in conversation on religious
subjects, or in apparently devout meditation. Mr. Wright
left Dove last Friday (Friday week), and returned to
Manchester. On Tuesday morning, Mr, Wright received
the following letter

IYorkleastle, Condemned Cell, Aug. 4, 1856.
Mr. Wright—Dear sir, I take this opportunity of writ-
ing to you. You told me that at any time that I wrote to
you, and requested you to come, you would. Dear sir, I
shall:be very glad to see you on Wednesday or Thursday