The Forest of Dean Examiner : — 1875-04-02 (Blakeney, Gloucestershire, England)

EXECUTION OF THE PURFLEET MURDERER.  The execution of Richard Coates, aged 21, a private in the Royal Artillery, for the shocking murder of s girl named Alice Roughen, barely six years of age, the daughter of a private in the same regiment, took place on Monday morning within the Essex county gaol at Sptingfield, near Chelmsford. The prisoner act, d as schoolmaster at the barracks, and the unhappy child was one of his scholars. The character of the crime was so atrocious, and created soot a universal feeling of disgust and horror, rh.t i appears that no efforts whatever have been made by any section of the community, by memorial or otherwise, to obtain a commutation of the capital punish. ment. . .  The pri • soner seems to have behaved very well since his conviction, and to have paid the greatest attention to the exhortations of the Rev. Mr. Hamilton, the chaplain of the prison, and be attended regularly at chapel. His mind seemed to have been greatly relieved after he made the confession. He has only been visited by his father and mother. In conversations he had with the warders who had charge of him, he has state.that drink led him to the commission of the crime, and boon more than one occasion said that for the last two years he has felt that his heart was so hardened that he could do almost anything. The chaplain was constantly in attendance upon him, and thought that. the prisoner was r ally sorry for the crime he had committed. It appears to be very doubtful, however, whether he would ever have made a confession but for his mother having entreated him to do no, and her first letter to that effect did not seem to have any impression. She appears to have written him a second letter, earnestly entreating him to admit his crime if he were guilty, and this made the desired impression. Mr. Gepp, the acting under sheriff, accompanied by Borne, of his officers, arrived at the prison a few minutes before eight o'clock, and soon after the prisoner was pinioned. He did not Bay a ward while this operation was being performed, but appeared to be listening attentively to the ministra. tons of the chaplain. He walked to the place of execution with a firm step, and did not display the slightest trepidation in fact, he carried out the intention he expressed after his trial—namely, to die like a soldier, or rather with the courage a soldier should have to face his death. Hie executioner was WI arwood, from Leicester. and, as usual, he gave the culprit a very long fall, nearly five feet, the effect being that when the platform was dropped, nothing but the head of the culprit was visible, and his feet r early touched the ground. Notwithstanding this condition of things. the culprit appeared to struggle for several seeonds before life was extinct. . . .  ...„ At the moment of execution a black flag wee hoisted, and the body, after hanging one hour, was cut down In the course of the day an inquest Was held upon it; but the proceedings were, of course, entirely formal. Although nothing connected with the execution scold be seen from the outside, a good many persons of respectable appearance assembled outside the entrance to the prison. No one was present at the execution but the representatives of the press, the officials of the sheriff, and the prison authorities.