The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-28 00:00:00

Execution at Stafford.

Yesterday Richard Hale, aged 30, who was condemned
with his paramour Cicilia Baker, also aged 30, at the Staf-
ford Winter Assizes for the murder of Eliza Sillitoe, aged
between 5 and 6 years, at Coseley, in South Staffordshire,
was hanged in front of the Stafford county gaol; and with
him suffered Charles Brough, aged 24, a miner, who,
at the same assizes, was condemned for the murder of Geo.
Walker at Bignall-hill, North Staffordshire.
The spectators numbered about 6,000, many fewer than
at the last execution, when a young man named Brandrick
was executed for the murder of a tradesman at Bilaton.
Some of the crowd took up their places during the night,
but most of the people began to assemble at 6 o'clock ) es.
terday morning.
At hal-past seven the procession was formed at Hale's
cell, and moved to a room adjoining the hospital, into
which room Brcugh, who has been an invalid from the
time of his arrest, had just before been removed from the
sick ward. In the presence of Major Thorneycroft, the
High Sheriff of the county—Major Pafford, the governor
of the gaol— the Rev. Mr Vincent, the chaplain—the Rev.
Mr Eastman, the assistant-chaplain, and others, both men
were pinioned by the hangman, a shoemaker of Dudley,
named Smith, and the procession moved to the foot of the
gallows, the culprits repeating the usual Litany. Arrived
at the point named, the chaplain, addressing Hale, said,
" In a few moments you will have to stand in the presence
of Almighty God. I adjure you, I implore you, not to lie
with a lie upon your lips, but to tell the truth. Are you
guilty of the murder of Eliza Sillitoe ?"
Hale—l am quite innocent.
The Chaplain—When did you last see her alive ?
Hale—At half-past 12 on the previous night.
The Chaplain—And you say you are innocent ?
Hale--I am.
The Chaplain—So help you God ?
Hale—So help me God I
The Chaplain—May the Lord have mercy on your soul
Hale—Amen.

In reply to a further question put to him by another per-
son in the procession as to his ;guilt or innocence, Hale
said, " This is the place to test me. I am innocent." The
scaffold was then ascended, and Hale and Brough soon
ceased to exist on this earth.

On Saturday last Hale requested to be allowed to see the
woman Baker. The application was complied with, but the
interview did not last many minutes. Before it had termi-
nated Baker said that she was innocent, and she besought
Hale, if he were guilty, to confess it. Hale denied that
he was guilty. On Monday he was visited by his rela-
tives, who urged him to confess his guilt if he had com-
mitted the crime, Hale resolutely re-asserted his inno•
cence in this matter, and added the following im
precation, " I hope my soul may go and burn in hell if what
I say is not the truth 1" Ever since his conviction his chief
source of grief has seemed to be that he could not make the
people about him believe his protestations of innocence. To
Mr Vincent, the chaplain, by whom ho was interrogated at
the last, Hale had previously said, "It grieves me very
much to think you will not believe me innocent." He had
been very attentive to the religious instructions of the chap •
lain all through his confinement. Brough seemed unmoved
by his position,his only anxiety being to satisfy the craving
of his disease by frequent eating. The offence for which
Hale has suffered is fresh in the recollection of our readers.
With Cecilia Baker, ha was condemned for the murder of
his own child, named Eliza Sillitoe, the daughter before
marriage of the unhappy woman, whose melancholy death
through the neglect of Hale :s mentioned below.
On the 20th of July last Hale and Baker were seen by a
barber of Coseley with a child in a cornfield. A portion of
the wheat was trod down, and Hale and his paramour sat
down. She had the child, and, throwing her towards Hale,
turned her own face away. The child got away from her
father, but he fetched her back and threw her down. He
then knelt down himself, but whether or not on the child
the witness could not tell. Hale then drew a handkerchief
from his pocket; the child shrieked, her voice became
choked, and her cries seemed to die away. These facts were
not reads known until some time after the 2d August,when
a workman passing through the field with his dog, through
the sagacity of the animal, the child's decomposed body,
lying with a hat by her side, and her boots, with the socks
tucked into them, by her feet, in the standing corn,at a spot
up to which, but not beyond it, a pathway had been made
by the corn being trodden, Nine days after the murder Hale
and Baker were seen together at that part of the cornfield
where the body was lying. A quantity of blood was found
on the child's clothes, especially near the neck, and a hand..
kerchief, which had also been saturated with blood, and
then crushed together in the hand,was found some distance
away from the standing corn. This handkerchief was round
the child's neck when she was last seen alive,and the analyst
who examined the handkerchief for blood found a short cut
in one corr, er, and a portion of a single hair on the edge of
the cut. Hale was shown to have behaved cruelly
to the child ;. he said his love for it had left him, and that
if it were not for that (meaning the child) he could leave
this country.

It does not seem easy to account for the plan of murder
adopted by Hale and Baker. There is, however, room to
conclude that it was suggested to them in the fact that
some three or four years ago a brother of Hale was out with
a dog, and the animal discovered the decomposed body of a
child in the very field in which the witness Jones first saw
Hale and Baker leading the child they were then about to
murder. The child that Hale's brother found was never
identified ; indeed, little remained that could be identified,
the legs alone of the corpse remaining entire. And yet, if
Hale and Baker had desired that such a termination might
follow their offence, one might have expected them to re-
move the child's hat and boots. This difficulty, however.
was met by the learned Judge before whom the culprits
were tried, who, in sending the case to the jury, and in re-
marking upon this feature of the case, observed that such