Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1874-02-26
-
General News.


y. ii. Feb. 1.-THE sentence of death
imposed upon Franklin Il. Evans for the
murder OF Ceorgiana Lowering OF North
wood, y. H., was executed to-day in the
prison yard. For the past few DAYS he
was faithfully attended by two clergymen
the chaplain of the prison and the Rev. Mr..
! Church OF Providence, X. L., Chaplain
smith remaining with him last night dur
ing the entire time. and exerting himself
TO obtain As full Il confession from him AS
! possible. The unfortunate man strongly
/ protested that the confession he had made
10 the warden included all his criminal
acts, and that having made a clean breas,
| OF Il he was prepared to die, and would do
| so Ike man. This morning the prisoner
/ ate heavy breakfast, which he Appeared
/ To relish as we'll as usual, and in due time
the preparations for the execution were
| IN order, Sheriff Odlin of Exeter, assisted
/ by deputy sherffs James Z. Godfrey of
| Epp'ng and y. K. Tuck of East Kingston,
having the matter in charge. The gallows
used was the same on which Pike was
hanged in the same place November ., ls-
| SO. AT ten o'clock the gentleman who
had succeeded in procuring admission tick
| cts, large proportion Of whom were
newspaper men. were admitted to the pris-
on, and secured eligible locations for wiz
Messing the sad spectacle, and at eleven
O'Clock the doomed man was led to the
scafold In the prison hall, attended 5v the
sheriff and his deputies, the warden and
chaplain: AS he approached the gallows
look Of utter despair overspread his feat
ures. and his naturally repulsive face as
sumed an appearance of the most heart
rending CONSERVATION. The death war
rant was read by Sheriff Odlin, and at
precisely six minutes past eleven the drop
Tell, and the criminal died without strup-
gle. In nineteen minutes time he was
pronounced dead by the surgeons. and az
ter hanging for a few minutes more the
body was cut down and removed to the
hospital, where a post mortem examine
ton Will be made this evening, the victim
having sold his body to the hospital sur
geon for $50 After the autopsy the re-
mains Will be sent to the medical school
connected with Dartmouth College.
The confession of Evans unaualitiedly
admits the murder for which he has been
executed. He relates that criminal init
macy had existed for some time between
himself and his victim; that for the pur-
pose Of gettin. him completely in her pos
session she frequently threatened him with
exposure; and that, with the State prison
staring him in the face. he murdered her
TO prevent exposure of his crimes. This
he claims was the only motive that prompt
ed him to do the act, He further confess.
ed that in the autumn of 1850 he murdered
child in Derry, n. II. This child was
very sick at the time. and he kidnapDed
her convey ed her to the woods and Killed
her, as he asserts, SO as to have a body for
surgical purposes. as he was then Interest,"
ed In medical studies. Investigation re-
veals the fact that circumstances strongly
point to the correctness Of the confession
SO far as the Derry murder is concerned
the child having disappeared and never af-
ter being found. Evans further confessed
to two thefts, the first one in 1914. and tn
al attempt to defraud The Travellers In
snrance Company of Hartford out of An
insurance on his life. SO far as his con-
nection with other murders is concerned
OF which he has been suspected, he stoutlv
denied all knowledge. These were the
murder of the Joyce children In the Rms
sey woods, and the murder of child in
Pennington, Maine, named Mills. 1t has
been asceTtained that he was In the yicini-
" of the scene of the Bussey woods trao-
edy for some time prior to and after the
event. and while no circumstantiaI evi.
dence ever was adduced to connect him
with the Maine murder, yet he was sus,
pected from the similarity the case present.
ed to those committed by Evans. For
that murder man named Doyle was
tried. convicted and sentenced to imprison-
ment fYr life, but he has always protested
ms Innocence, and many believed the deed
was done by some other hand. . -"