The Potteries Examiner : — 1875-08-14 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

EXECUTION OF THE LOUTH MURDERER.  On Monday morning Peter Blanshard, convicted at the Lincolnshire midsummer assizes of the wilful mur. der of Louisa Hodgson, his sweetheart, at Louth, was executed within the precincts of the Castle, at Lincoln. The circumstances connected with the crime for which Blowhard was hanged were most distressing. On the afternoon of the 7th March, a }Toting man named Campion was walking to chapel with the deceased, and they passed the ptisoner's house. He came out, and the deceased stopped fora moment to speak to hhn. She had kept company with hint for four years. but her parents had an objection to the prisoner, partly on the ground ' of his health, and partly because, as the father said, he was cruel. Campion called her to " come on," and the prisoner said, " If you call her to come on while I am here, I will give you a thrashing." Campion and the deceased went into the chapel, but the prisoner did not. He met her at this door after the service, and walked home With her. He and deceased were heard talking loudly is the sitting room by the father and mother. Then a scream was heard, and the parents going into the passage saw the deceased, who cried out, "Oh, he has stabbed me to the heart." The unfortunate girl died in three minutes. The prisoner went to the house of a neighbour, and asked for some whisky. He then said, " I've done it ; I've stabbed the misms." He afterwards said to the police, when he heard she Nat dead, "I'm glad of it." He also said, " That is what I call love, when a man will die for a woman.- It appeared that the prisoner was subject to epileptic fits, and the defence set up at the trial was that he was in. sane at the time of committing the offence. The prisoner was found guilty, and recommended to mercy on the ground of his mind being weakened front bodily affliction. After the trial every exertion was made by the friends of the prisoner to obtain a comututation of his sentence, but the Home Secretary regretted that he was unable to discover any sufficient grounds to justify him in advising her Majesty to interfere with the due course of the law. The prisoner retired to rest on Sunday evening about tm o'clock, warders. of course, as before, remaining with him during the night. He slept , well. and awoke about six o'clock on Monday morning. The chaplain at once entered the cell, and spent some time in conversatein and devotion. Blanshard was perfectly calm, and resigned to his fate. Blowhard submitted quietly to the pinion, and prayed almost unceasingly with the ministers in attendance. The sad procession was then formed. First come the Governor and the saeriff's deputy ; next came the convict and a warder marching on each side, the prison surgeon, two or three warders and bailiffs closed in the procession. and besides the representatives of the press none others were present. The procession moved slowly along, the 1 chaplain reading the Burial Service of the Church of England. On tuning a corner, the procession come in view of the gallows. When the convict's eye caught sight of the apparatus he shuddered perceptibly. lie ascended the steps, however, quietly, and was conducted under the fatal beam. The executioner pinioned Isis legs, drew the cap over his face, and proceeded with ! the trismost coolness to put the noose round the criminals neck. The chaplain, diming this time. had Mai tinned reading the Burial Service. To one passage the , prisoner muttered something audibly, and instantly afterwards the drop fell. The culprit struggled little, and seemed to die easily. There was no screen or hoarding round the ,eallows, and, as the soectators stood but a few yards away, the entire execution was 'visible to all. Marwood. ef Herreretle, was the ere-Iwatioarr.