The Sun.
London, England, 1830-02-18 00:00:00

THE HADDINGTON MURDERS.

We have learned from undoubted authority the
mode in which Emend describes himself to have
committed the murders. Imaeining that a haber-
dasher of the Southside, called Mr. G., and Mrs.
Franks, had occasioned all the bickering. and heart-
burning betwixt him and his wife, he conceived the
most deadly resentment against both, particularly
against Mrs. Franks, whom he seems to have re-
garded as the chief enemy of his domestic peace.
Under the influence of this feeling, he began to me-
dite evil against his sister-in-law; and so fully pos-
sessed was he with this fell purpose, that some time
before the murder was committed, he says he would
have " taken his revenge had she (Mrs. Franks)
been a man." But "he bore _himself down," to
use his own language, and the mortal purpose passed
away. On the Sunday, however, after the quarrel
with Mrs. Emond, Ind his attempt to throw her
bodily into the well, when he came to reflect on his
conduct, he was stricken with remorse for his usage
of his wife, and he determined to be revenged on
the person whom, right or wrong, he believed to be
the principal, if not the sole cause of his domestic
disquietude. Accordingly, on the Sunday evening he
left his room by the window as described in the evi-
dence, and set out for Abbey, with a predetermined
purpose to murder Mrs. Franis. When he reached the
cottage he knocked at the garden-door, at the same
time announcing himself; and Mrs. Franks,knowing
his voice, after a short while admitted him. Then
Emend contrived' to lead her into conversation, and
having thus thrown her off her guard, he struck her
a violent blow with a bludgeon, which,however, had
not the effect of stunning or depriving her of her
senses; for, strong from terror and the love of life,
she ran out of the house and fled towards the gar-
den-door, pursued by Emond. • lie overtook her
near the pig-sty, seized hold of her, cut her throat
with his pen-knife, and then threw her into the pig-
sty. He next bethought himself that Magdalene
Franks was still alive, and might _bear witness
against him; so, having despatched her mother, he
instantly returned to the house and beat in the brains
of the daughter with some heavy instrument which
he calls a bludgeon, but which, from the nature of
the wounds inflicted, must have had sharp angles.
He had no sooner done so, however, than he was
struck with remorse, and in order to conceal from
his view the shattered head of his innocent victim,
he covered it up hastily with the carpet. And
having thus murdered Magdalene Franks, he took a
table-knife, daubed it with blood, stuck on it some
grey hairs, torn from the head of Mrs. Franks,
in order to create a believe that the murders had
been perpetrated by this instrument, and then threw
it carelessly down. The pen-knife with which he
cut the throat of Mr.. Franks was taken from him
by Mr. Lloyd, superintendent of police for the county
of Haddington ; and he has been heard to remark,
that " Lloyd little kens what the whittle did which
he carries in his pocket." He appears to have no
remorse whatever for the murder of Mrs. Franks,
whose life he seems to have conceived himself en-
titled to take, in order to satiate his vengeance; but
whenever the name of Magdalene is mentioned, or
the idea of her shoots across his mind, he is imme-
diately seized with the most dreadful fits of despair,
and exclaims—" The innocent blood calls for ven-
geance 1" The miserable wretch has not yet ex-
plained in what way he left the premises after the
murders were committed ; but it is manifest that the
breaking of the panes in the two windows of the
lumber-room, the upsetting of the flower-pots, and
the overturning of various other articles, must have
been done for the same reason that he dabbled the
table-knife with clotted blood and hair—namely, to
create an erroneous impression as to the real mode
in which the murders were committed. It was his
intention to have been back to Berwick before day-
light; but the precautions which he judged neces-
sary for his safety delayed him too long. Never, in
short, was a great crime perpetrated with mere des•
perate barbarity, or with a greater degree of caution
and foresight in the view of preventing a disclosure.
—Glasgow Herald.