The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-21 00:00:00

CONDEMNED IRISH CONVICTS.

The extreme sentence of the law will be carried
into effect on Burke in front of Clonmel Gaol, at
12 o'clock on Monday next. It is stated (says the
Freeman's Journal) that he has become very peni-
tent, and gives earnest attention to the spiritual
ministrations of the clergymen, the Rev. Messrs.
W alshe and Phelan, by whom he has been con-
stantly visited since the result of the memorial
which was presented to the Lord Lieutenant on his
behalf had become known. The Sisters of Charity
have also visited him, at his especial request, and
have given him great consolation by infusing into
his mind a sense of his position, and of the truths
which is essential he should hear, but as yet the
convict has made no open admission of his guilt.
It is now quite certain if he had spared the life of
her who loved him with such intense affection—
who doted upon him for every little act of kindness
—even for the potion which caused her agonising
death—that he would come in fora considerable
share of the large legacy of £7,000, with £5OO a
year, which has been bequeathed to Mrs. Burke's
family by the death of her nephew, a man named
Farrell, who died in Sydney early last May. But
the scene is woefully changed with the convict
Richard Burke, and the light which should have
gilded, but for his own desperate cruelty, many
years of peace and conjugal felicity flings only a
ghastly glare on the felon's tomb.
A letter has been received in Cork, stating that
Walsh since his sentence, has been induced to make
revelations so important regarding the parties
guilty of concocting the murder of Mr. Fitzgerald,
that there is no shade of doubt left as to their being
reached. In consequence of this behaviour on the
part of Walsh, and in consideration of his youth,
and of the knowledge that he was led into his fear-
ful and desperate crime by older and cooler heads
than his own, it is stated that the executive govern-
ment feel some hesitation about carrying out the
sentence of the law against him. The writer of the
letter is, we are informed, connected with the Go-
vernment. We give these statements as we have
heard them; but do not guarantee their authenti-
city. At the same time we must observe that the

contents of the letter, as communicated to us, are
exceedingly circumstantial, containing many par-
ticulars that at present it would be premature to
publish.

THE LATE MURDER 4 IN LIMERICK AND

21P_PB.R.A.R Y.

A correspondent of Saunders' News, writing
from Cork, August 18, says—Numerous stories
have had currency from time to time in regard to
the murders of the late Mr. Francis Fitzgerald, of
the Hill, near Kilmallock, and the reasons which
induced the convict James Walsh to surrender to
the constabulary at Eton police-station, but these
stories have subsequently been contradicted, while
the true circumstances have not, up to the present
moment, appeared in the newspapers. To publish
them at this moment cannot affect the ends of jus-
tice, so far as the actual murderers are concerned,
as one of them has expiated his crime upon the
scaffold; and the time fixed on for the execution of
the other is this day fortnight. it is stated, on the
authority of a gentleman who resides close to where
the deed of blood was perpetrated, that Beckham
and Walsh were not the parties originally hired to
assassinate Mr. Fitzgerald. Another was engaged
for that purpose, whose name it would at present ;
be imprudent to disclose, as his evidence will most
likely be availed of at he next Limerick Assizes,
when accessories before the fact will stand at the
criminal bar to plead to an indictment for capital
felony. This hireling was to receive £3 if he
slew the victim, and was supplied with a pistol
and ammunition to do the deed. For two days
he hovered about the grounds of The Hill, and
at last espied Mr. Fitzgerald coming from his
house, he dogged him for some distance. Hav-
ing stealthily closed upon him, he was about to
jump a ditch and present the deadly weapon
at his breast, when the pistol fell from
his hand into a ditch flowing with water.
Having recovered the dripping weapon his purpose
was for the time foiled, and upon retiring, he looked
upon the circumstance as an ill omen to himself,
and he determined not to again attempt it. He
feared, however, returning to his employers, who
would denounce him as a coward, and proceeded in
search of Walsh, who he thought he might induce
to commit the murder. The three then went to
the employers, and the wages determined on were
£3 to Beckham, who was to fire at the doomed
gentleman, and £2 to Walsh, who was to aid him
in resisting any attempt at capture. Beckham hav-
ing faulted the pistol held by Walsh, another was
purchased in Limerick, as deposed to at the trials
of the two murderers. The bloody mission was
fatally accomplished, of which the public are fully
informed, while the escape of the widowed Mrs.
Fitzgerald was the most providential perhaps on
record. NV hen the two assassins perceived the hus-
band and wife coming towards them they resolved
to murder both. Beckham's victim was to be Mr.
Fitzgerald, and Walsh was to send his bullet
through the heart of his partner. But her life was
preserved by an accident. Beckham fired at the
victim, but the shot did not bring him to the ground,
which led Walsh to believe it had not taken effect,
and he discharged his bullet into the back of the
previously mortally wounded gentleman. Thus her
life was saved. The circumstances of the arrest of
Beckham are well known, but those which led to the
surrender of Walsh have been heretofore matter of
surmise. It now appears that while Walsh was
evading capture he was accompanied by the man
who originally instigated him to be the assassin.
While in the mountains of Kilmallock they slept
and watched alternately. This they continued to
do from the 16th of May, the day of murder, until
the 23d of June, when Walsh walked into the police
station. For some days previous to his surrender
the two outlaws became suspicious of each other,
as they dreaded to leave their fastness in the moun-
tain, and hourly anticipated capture. A watchful-
ness of the movements of each other became as in-
tense a feeling as a watchfulness of the visits of the
authorities. On the 23d of June Walsh appeared
to be fast asleep, when his companion stole away
and proceeded towards the police barrack. Walsh
was quick on his legs and dogged him along.
Within a couple of miles of the station the guilty
associate met a policeman and asked him was Sergeant
Eager at the barrack. He replied that he was not,
but would be there in the evening. He then left
the policeman and was immediately enoountered by
Walsh, who impeached him selling for blood-
money, bat he said he should never get a half-pnny
for hanging him; and Walsh followed the polite-
man to the barracks, into which he entered and
surrendered, stating his reasons for doing so._ but
which were not allowed to bo givainiton in flight -ns
trial of the criminal.—Sce of the police, and the
testimony he supplies will, it is expected, bring
other parties—and the more guilty parties, if there
be any distinction between the instigation and the
perpetration of murder—to justice.
It is believed in the country that Hayes, the
determined slayer of Mr. John Waller Braddell,
is still in the mountains, on the borders
of Tipperary and Limerick, and that he is
accompanied by a fellow of desperate character,
ever known to be a willing assassin. They have
been frequently met in the mountains by people
with whom they are acquainted, and do not appear
to dread arrest. They are always sufficiently in-
formed of the movements of the police to avoid
surprise; as the constabulary move through the
mountains in large bodies, heavily accoutred, and
search the cabins as they pass along. This sys-
tem certainly appears the most complete for de-
feating success, as it gives ample time to the pur-
sued to elude capture. It has been said that
Hayes had left the country for America, but he is
perfectly sensible of the fact that once he quits the
extensive and well-sheltered mountains of Tippe-
rary, he would expose himself to arrest, from which
he feels safe while in the neighbourhood of a people
ever ready to harbour the murderer.