Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1889-08-17
HlpEous couNrEN ANcgs.
Masks of the Faces of Murderers
Taken Just After Exc oation.

Masks of the Faces of Murderers
Taken Just After Execution.
1t was the practice of the authori-
ties up to the time of the murder OF
Mr.. Briggs to take cast of the heads
and faces of criminals after execution,
says the London Sunday Times, Our
guide commenced his tour OF the prison
with an exhibition of cupboard full
OF these memorials. 1t was a ghastly
show of fearful eountenances, low
foreheads, large brutal mouths, full
necks, strong jaws and weak, broad
chins and narrow, and beneath them
all the mark of the rope which had
strangled them. Seen in this fashion
the criminal countenances were no
doubt considerably discounted. but not
so seriously as a caricturist of some OF
our public men would have us believe
How certain of the shining lights OF
the day might look, shorn OF their
hair, and in prison dress, offers a
temptation 10 any artist who is OPP
posed in politics to the man he Is
drawing, but he would have to give
rein to his bitterest imaginatio to
match the countenances in the war
denis cupboard at Newgate. / could
not help thinking that Franz Muller
was something like-but let us not be
personal.
This is the head of Martha Brown
ing, who murdered her mistress, you
viii remember. in Park lane-killing
her for the sake of some bank notes
which, when she got them, turned out
to be on the Bank of Elegance. This
(tapping the grim bust with curious
familiarity is Franz Muller, who muir
dered Mr.. Briggs, and, aftey denying
his guilt almost to the last, confessed
it in conversation with his Lutheran
priest. This is Greenaere. who cut
the body of his victim up in pieces and
hid them in various parts of the town. "
Greenacre's was tell-tale mask-a
low forehead of the worst form, and
thin, wide mouth, that had the
downward drag still and cruel. A
good thing for some of us that we do
not shavei Do you remember the
| mustache movement? 1t was probably
| started by some interested person who
did not care to go about with his
wicked mouth exposed to the general
gaze. Leech did same of his most
characteristic sketches in Punch dur
! ing that curious period. | was visit
ing at little provincial town in those
! days where the leading draper of tho
place had been booted and called
'Frenchy'' and pelted for coming back
after holiday with beard and mus
tache. And / remember as boy that
the records Of the Burke murders were
still used as DOGGY by nursemaids
whose charges would not keep close to
their apron-strings. The fear Of be
ing '.burked' was "a lively one for
many a long year after Burke was
hanged at Edinburg and Bishop and
Williams at Newgate.
! These are the heads Of Bishop ant
Williams, said our guide, pointing Il
a particularly ugly couple; they muir
dered a little Italian boy and Offered
the corpse at Kings College for twelve
guineas. they were bodysnatchers
And this is Mrs. Brownrigg, who use(
to take little girls as apprentices anC
then murder them; that was in 1888.
do you notice that some of thu
masks have open eyes?" asked the bar
rister.
Yes, and they remind me Of tn,
line in Poe: His eyes have all tn,
seeming of demons that is dream
inp'r