Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-09-14

William Marwood, the famous English
cxcculioncr died at lIofucastle, Tuesday, |
aged 90. lie was born in q mlcehy, Eng. |
and n few miles from lloincistlc. From
his youth he was an ardent Ieailcr, and spmc'I
years ago was Wesleyan preacher. lie
was looked mp 10 by the lower cases as n
man OF lcarning they called him the &c ,un-
SELL lie started II small shoe shop in Horn
castle, Lincolnshire, England, adjoining the
churchyard. Ills ncghborlooa was known
as the "lIangman's Corner" lie was soon
placed in clligy in Nine Tussaud's wax cx-
hbition, owing to the noloricty he hal gain
cd. Ills appearance was quite at variance
with his profession. lie was in stature about
five feet eight inches always dressed well
and looked to be well-tO-dO tfadcsman. lie
had dark, restless eyes and n bcctlng brow,
high and expansive forehead. In his car
Ger hp hanged over 100 persons, among them
four women.
The first execution he assisted at was that
of one Mr.. Horny, who had killed his wife.
| One of his Jobs was the turning Cif' of four
men at once-four sailors at London for
murder on the high seas. lie had charge of
all the executions in Dublin of the men I'M
plicated in the Phoenix Park murders.
Marwood, in giving his opinion on hang
ing, claimed for his system superiority
over any other in the known world. lie as
serted that the executions which he perform
| cd were carried out as quickly us flash OF
| lightning, and altogether without pain to the
condemned. The culprit, he said, rarely us
much us raised finger; nor was there,
save in a very uncommon case, the least
Quivering of the body. He considered his
"system" to be vastly superior to the gull
l 1.tt tat ths4T
| vas cunsi erable motion Of the corpse alter
decapitati,n. BY his system we are told,
the neck is quickly dislocated, the spinal
cord is broken, ami the rope is so adjusted
around the neck that the fall tightens the
cord, the air pres are thus closed, the action
of the lungs ceases and apopleXy is pro-
duced, so that the victim is quite nsensiblc,
'and, in fact death S always instantaue'
Gus"
The hangmau in England gets no kind OF
sympathy from the community at large. The
Sunsons in France were hereditary heads
men. Generation after generation they pliet
their terrible calling, intcrmarryIng with TIT
families of provincial executioners, until al
last they formed a kind of guild, to whlcl
the prescription of age had impaired some
thing akin to responsibility. Similarly il
Germany and Holland the cxecuIioner's vo
cation was continued from father to son ant
! vocation it strictly was, since the cAecu
TONER'S heir was literally born sin the Grim
, son" if not 'in the purple" and found ii'
black patrimony in the axe, the visor and The
block buqueathcd to him by his sire L.
Italy, Spain and Russia execuioneis wer'
very often criminals who had been absolvc'
from condign punishment on the con
dltion that they should devote TIT
remainder of their lives 10 taking away II
cold blood the lives of the wretches doomed
by law to death. In England, however, Tho
hangmln has always been free agent, and
of his own free will adopted his horriable craft
The selection of their odious Office by The
hangmen of England has always been a mat
ter of deliberate choice, and, with the cx-
exception of the early eighteenth century,
Jack Ketcll-not by any means the Dennis
in Dickens "Birnaby Rudsc," who WIS SO
unfortunate as TO get himself hanged at ~
hurn for iojbery-most OF the London hang
men whose names have come down to our
times have exercised during long course OF
yours their grim functions, and hiye deed al
a ripe old age without in any way. man
ifesting their dislike OF a trade which the ma
joiity of mankind regard as utterly abhor
rent and detcstable.