Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1868-09-11 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

EXECUTION OF THE NORTON FOLGATE MURDERER.  Alexander Arthur --lidac-k-a3T,-a-l;d only nineteen years old, was executed on Tuesday morning, within the walls ot the gaol of Newgate, for the murder of his mistress, Emma Gressmit.b. The execution took place, in accordance with the amended state of the law, in one of the yards of the prison, the old drop and scaffold be ag made use of for the purpose. The gall,ws was erected in one corner of the yard, and barriere were constructed, in front of which were placed about a dozen policemen. The only other persona present were the Sheriff, Clader Sheriffs, the Ordinary, the Governor of the prison, and the surgeon. These were the officials who were present, and the only strangers were the reptesentatives of the press and the son of Mr Justice Lush, before whom the prisoner was tried. The offence of which the prisoner was convicted was a very aggravated one. He had evidently nourished a feeling of anger against his mistress, and upou the day of the auhappy °cent rence took place she rebuked him for something or other, and he attacked her with a heavy rolling. pin, used by her in her business of au eating-hou,e keeper, and inflicted a number of desperate wouilds upon her head, which caused her death very shortly afterwards. Accordiog to the statement of the Rev. F. Jones, the ordinary of the gaol, the culprit was undoubtedly sincerely penitent for his crime. He repeatedly expressed his sorrow at having deprived the heehaw' of the deceased of o wife and his children of a mother, and Add that he coosidered the act was worse in him, because he had himself been deprived of a mother when very young, and knew the extent of the loss. He frequently alluded to this matter spontaneously, and there are good grounds for believing that he deeply and sincerely regretted the mime he had committed. He paid great attention to the religious exhortations of the worthy ordinary, and appeared to be very much impressed with the text, "Whose cometh to we, I will in no wise cast oat." At his earnest request, and after deliberation, the Rev. Mr Jones administered the Holy Sacrament to the culprit on Sunday afternoon, and his conduct was most becoming on the occasino. He was visited on Saturday afternoon by his father and two sisters, and they remained with him for nearly an hour. The interview was, of course, of a mo.t distressing and painful character. In the course of the conversation the prisoner acknowledged the justice of his sentence, and expressed himself to be quite prepared to die. The only persons upon the scaffold were the culprit, the ordinary, and Calcraft, the executioner. The unhappy youth prayed in a most fervent manner during the whole of the period of the preparations for the execution, and his last words, uttered in a most impressive manner, were, "Oh, Lord God, have mercy upon me," and the sentence was hardly out of his mouth before the drop fell, and after a few convulsive struggles he ceased to exiat. Notwithstanding the fact that it was fully known that the execution would be conducted within the walls of the prison, and that nothing connected with the proceedings would be visible outside, at the time appointed for the carrying out of the sentence a number of persons, principally men and boys, cumbering altogether perhaps a couple of hundred, assembled outside the prison, and gazed with apparent interest at the exterior of the gaol. At the moment the drop fell a black flag was hoisted iu the front of the gaol, and this was the only indication to the persons assembled outside that the awful ceremony was concluded.  A