Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-01-26
from the Free Press.
THE GALLONS.
Execution of Henry Welcome.
THE FULL PARTICULARS.


Execution of Henry Welcome.
THE FULL PARTICULARS
The fourth and final scene in the TRACE
dy which opened with the murder OF Per.
ry Russell of Hinesburgh, on Saturday
night; Oct. 3, 1868, was presented within
the prison walls in this place to-day, in
the execution of Henry Welcome, the
murderer. Mr.. Russell, it will be recol.
lected, was peaceable and highly esteem.
ed citizen of his town, 70 years old-and
the murderer a wayward lad of but little
past seventeen years of age. The object
of the criminal was to secure large sum
of money, which be believed Mr.. Russell
was keeping in his house at the time the
deed was committed. The facts of the
crime, with all the circumstances attend
ing it, the very conclusive evidence at the
trial, the prompt conviction by the jury
and the sentence by Judge Barrett, in
Burlington, ON Monday, January 11th
1870, have already been detailed in the
columns of this paper and are doubtless
fresh in the minds of most of our readers
Hence the particulars of the execution oil
the death penalty will complete the pain
full record.
| Since Henry Welcomes solitary con.
finement in the States Prison he has been
uniformly we'll behaved and by this
means secured the interest and tender re-
gard of all with whom he has had to do
For the past three months he has sus
tanned intimate relations with the Chap
lain of the prison, Rev. Franklin Butler
I,,h Iae L~o
humble penitent. He was visited by his
mother and one sister FROM Hinesburgh
last week, who remained with him day
The visitation is spoken of as most affect.
ing. At its termination they babe him
good bye with great display of affection
and sorrow, and then upon reaching the
outer door of the prison, they begged to
go back to take yet another look, and ex-
change another last word with the object
of their tender love. Their request was
cheerfully granted, and four times this
course was gone through with before the
separation was final. Three months ago
Welcome made a full confession of his
guilt in presence of Sheriff Drew of Bur.
lington. This confession he made that
he might Tighten somewhat the burden
which was so heavily weighing upon his
own mind, he said, but requested that il
should not be made public for time. His
wish was acceded to and therefore the
particulars of the confession have only
been known by few, to whom he wished
it confdentially communicated. To-day
he requested the reporter for the Fret
Press d; Times to procure a copy of i,
from Sheriff Drew and give it to the pub
lie through the columns of this paper. II
is as follows:
STATEMENT OF FACTS ABOUT THE MUIR
DER OF MR.. PERRY RUSSELL.
I, Henry Welcome, now under sentence
of death for the murder of Mr. Perry Rus
sell of Hinesburgh, on the Sd day of DC.
tober, 1867, between the hours of eight
and nine o'clock in the evening, moved
by the fear of God and for my own relief,
and the benefit of others, do solemnly
make the following statement of facts con-
corning my connection with that crime.
The principal reason why have not here
tofore made this disclosure, is the connec.
ton of another person with me in the af-
fair, as will be seen in what follows:
Two years before the murder a man, a
Frenohman, whose name / do not now re-
member, who was employed by Mr.. Rus
sell about that time, told me about box
in Mr.. RS house, where Mr.. Russells
money was kept; and that he intended to
get the box, but he did not want to at
tempt it alone and in talking it over, we
agreed that he should tell me just where
the box was, and that 1 should get it, and
we would share equally in its contents.
We were to wait till a good chance
L Il l. L
at home but Mr.. and Mrs. Russell.
That fall, he went away, and tho fall
after that l went away. When / was in
Jail at Montpelier, he came to see me, and
be told me that then was our time, as no.
body worked for Mr. R, and he and his
wife were alone. We then agreed that
as soon as 1 got out of Jail we would I'M
dertake the job. [ was to meet him as
soon as L got out.
When left Montpelier went directly
home, and from there to Vergennes, where
found him on Friday, Oct. ID. We
took the cars on Saturday morning Oct.
Sd, and went together to Shelburn. was
to go to Mr.. Mr.. Russelps and he was to
go on to Burlington and meet me Sunday
evening at Winooski Falls bridge. l have
neither seen nor heard from him since. /
left the depot and went straight to Mr.
Fletoher's orchard at Shelburn Falls, aud
there found John Condor gathering ap-
Piles. | won't from the orchard across lots
and came out part way between Fletchers
orchard aud Buttolph's Corners. I kept
the road straight to Buttolph's Corners,
and there turned to the right and kept
the road south till / came within fifty
rods of Douglass Corner, and then went
across lots into the road again, and I then
kept straight to Benson place {; passed
Mrs. Sawyer and Miss Steele, who were
talking together at the gate; went across
lots from the Benson place to Elwood
Russelps meadow, stopped at the pump in
the meadow and drank Mr.. Davis stood
at the corner of his house calling his boys
who were in the field digging potatoes,
while | was at the pump.
l went back of the ledge through the
meadow until came to Mr.. Perry Rus
sells; saw Mr.. Perry Russell and Mr..
Mitchell digging potatoes; 1 did not see
Mr.. Russell until he halloed to me; paid
no attention to him; kept on and went to
the ledge back of his horse barn and staid
there till dark came down from the ledge
and went to the horse barn and cut the
hai htt5 anu WHIPS, anu lOuuu ntnRe
hanging at the door staple at the north
end of the horse barn. By this time, Mr.
and Mrs. Russell had gone to bed I went
to the kitchen door and raped; Mr. R.
asked who was there; I said nothing; II
raped again, and be asked again who's
there ?" and said 10 Bushee; he asked
what I wanted told him I wanted to
come in; he opened the door and I struck
him with the hinge; he put up his hand
and said 20 dear " when [ struck him
again and knocked him to the floor; II
struck him two or three times after he
fell saw Mrs. Russell leave the room and
go out of the south door; I then went
into the bedroom and got the box at the
foot of his bed in a little cupboard !; I took |
the box and ran from the house
across lots northwest, about three. |
quarters of a mile, and broke open
the box, and to my great aston
ishment found nothing in the box but old
papers / then went STRAIGHT IN Don o1ass' |