The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-31
EIGHT SPIES SHOT IN
 TOWER OF LONDON All of Them Have Gone to
 Death Unflinchingly METHODICAL SYSTEM
Prisoner Is Seated in Chair to Prevent His Falling and Precautions Taken to Avoid Blood Which Might
 Unnerve the Executioners

London, October 2.-(Special )-In England, since the war began. eight persons charged with espionage have death by shooting The most recent case was only last week, when a man and woman of German origin were found guilty of attempting to commu- nicate to persons abroad information regarding the British fleet with the intention of assisting the enemy. The ina1e prisoner was sentenced to be shot, and the female one, who was con sidered by the court to have been act ing under the influence of the man, 10 be kept in penal servitude for 10 years. This Is the first occasion on which woman spy has been sentenced to penal servitude since the war be- gan. Previously seven spies have been sentenced to death, Lody, Muller, Rosenthal and four men unnamed The spy Kuepferle hanged himself in Erik ton prison during his trial, and his companion, Ham, was sentenced to seven years penal servitude.
 Reduced to System
 When a spy has been condemned to be shot, he is handed over at once to the iAihldIy duluOTllleS ana the sentence is carried out at the Tower of London, that historic place of many tragic hap penings. An acquaintance of the writ CTS who is a member of the artists rifles, the regiment that is quartered at the Tower, tells me that the shoot ing of spies has been reduced to an absolute system From his descrip- tion of the ceremony. the chief object of those who have elaborated it appears to have been fO avoid unnqrVinp the prisoner. though the thing is done as humanely as possible, but his execu- tioners.
 When the fateful moment for the ex- ecutlon of a spy arrives, the doomed man is brought out and seated in a chair to which he is pinioned securely This is to prevent his falling after he has been shot, a sight that was found too much for the nerves of some of the men composing the firing squads Then the prisoner Is blindfolded and both his ears and his nostrils are stuffed with cotton wool. He is permitted to smoke a cigar right up to the end, when it is taken away from him and he is told to open his mouth, when that, too, is stuffed with cotton wool.
 All Rifles Loaded
 Meanwhile the firing squad have taken their places. This numbers six PiShCu iiidi ,dhu there are ~ more men in readiness outside in case any of the first number should flinch. Contrary to what has been the common custom in such cases all six of the rifles are loaded with. ball car tridges. At the last moment an ordi- nary target. printed on paper, is pinned exactly over the prisoners heart and my acauaintance, who saw one of these targets after an execu- ton, declared that it contained just one hole directly in the center of the bulls eye. Naturally, death Is instan- taneous
 derstand to stand guard over a con- demned man on the night before his execution and also with a view to cheering him in his last hours, and ir at least one of such cases, the story goes. the parts were exactly re- versed; the prisoner, a man of 60, hay ing devoted himself to "bucking up" his guard who was considerably upset. All the spies have died unflinchingly and many have testified. spontaneously, to the fairness of their trial The man who went fartherest in this re- spect was Gustaf Ahlers, who is said to have left a complete confession of how he helped to plan the Scarbor- ough bombardment and gave other Information of the utmost value to the British admiralty. This partly, as re- taliation for the action of the German government which he served faithful ly and which later. disowned him.