Knoxville Whig and chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1875-1882, 1875-08-18


thetop by n third of the same material.
The wagon containing the the prison
err was driven under the cross beam
at fifteen minutes past eleven.
REMARKS BY THE MINISTER.
At Berry's request the Rev. Mr..
Harden, Of the Second Presbyterian
Church, of Rogersville, made few
very appropriate remarks, and offered
up fervent prayer in the prisoners
behalf.
HE MADE NO SPEECH,
But spent about fifteen minutes in
bidding farewell TO his kindred and
acquaintance. assuring all that he
was fully prepared, willing and even
anxious to leave the wicked, unfriend-
ly world, and hoped that all would
meet him in that heavenly rest.
THE MURDERED wIFE's BROTHER.
Among the persons with whom he
shook hands was his murdered wife's
brother, who seemed deeply affected.
Berry manifested great deal of
feeling, and the tears rolled freely
down his thin cheeks while cOnvers-
ing with his friends, but as soon as he
WAS through talking with them his
tears ceased to flow, and without as
the wagon seat with as happy "a coun-
tenance as we ever saw and while the
Sheriff was adjusting the moose around
his neck he rolled his large blue eyes
up in the Sherifl7s face, and said,
" How do you feel about this ?" To
which the Sheriff replied, VERY bad
Y, Nick"
THE KNOT TIED.
The fatal knot was tied, the black
cap drawn on aud all things made
ready when the doomed man quietly
signified his willingness to the Sheriff
to die, the whip cracked, the horses
moved forward, and at precisely min
utes to II his body was dangling in the
air.
HIS LAST AUDIBLE WORDS
were O. now bid this world farewell
and hope to meet you in that better
world above where parting is not
known
He struggled very little but seemed a
long time in dying, in fact the physi-
clans did not pronounce him dead UNI
I'll minutes past II. The body re-
manned hanging in all 81 minutes,
when it was taken down and delivered
to friends who had promised the un-
bury il along side of his murdered
wife.
Nearly everybody was of the opin.
ion that he would acknowledge his
guilt under the gallows, but in this
they were disappointed, aud we heard
number say, after seeing that he had
held out to the last, that he was not
guilty, that he may have been inno-
cent after all, but be this as it may,
the proof was all against him, and a
very large majority believe that he
undoubtedly perpetrated the crime for
which he was sentenced to die.
OPINIONS OF THE PUBLIC.
Many believed that the reason why
Berry did not confess was through
pure malice towards his father, broth
er and the others whom he implicated
as above stated, as the murderers of
his wife, while others thought that he
had told so many falsehoods about the
affair that he really believed he was
then telling the truth.
Take 1t all in all this is one of the
most extraordinary cases in many re-
spects which ever came to our notice.
While we are a strong believer in
capital punishment, for certain high
ing our opinion as to his guilt or in
nocence, we do think the proof should
be most positive from witnesses o. un-
doubted varacity, before any should be
condemned to death, for il is better
that many guilty should go unpunish-
ed than one innocent man die such an
! ignominiaus death.
Berry appeared 10 10 a quiet, deli
cate, inufiouslve kind o., a man, with
no trace Of the brutal u vicious what
ever 10 he found in his composition,
but from what his neighbors tell us, il
wou' seem he was only human in
| in For it is claimed. some time
Def : numbering his wife, whom he
had sworn 10 protect, that he killed his
own son, ana then declared he was
kicked to death by mule; and more
than all, if possible, il is said he became
so depraved and lost to every humane
sense, that he regularly ,co-habited
with his own daughter.