The Sun. — 1847-03-30 (London, England)

CHESTERFIELD. OIONFESSION OF PLATTS. This criminal, since his conviction, has been placed in the condemned cell of the county gaol, under the custody of Mr. Sims, the governor. He was visited by the Rev. George Pickering, the chaplain of the prison, who urged on the convict the propriety of making a conkssion of his guilt. On Sunday he attended Divine service, and in the after part of the day he wrote to his mother, sister, and brother, previous to which he made an unreserved and full confession of the murder. He stated that he was present when it was committed, and that he was the principal party concerned, althsug,h he did not strike the blow by which the unfortunate man, George Collis, was stunned and rendered insensible. He next proceeded to implicate Morley as taking an active part, and divulged the name of a third person, which, as a matter of course, has not been suffered to transpire. The circumstances he narrated were as follows : Platts and Collis, the deceased, spent the Sunday afternoon with Morley, Collis was plied with drink and inveigled into Platt's shop in the shambles under pretence of settling the account, and he was then murdered. The object of Platts and Motley was plunder, for it was conjecture d that as Collis was about to marry Ellen Beresford in the West Bars, I:e had saved a sum of money for this purpose, which he carried about with him. This young woman gave testimony on the trial. After the perpetration of the murder the body was mutilated, and on Monday night was deposited in a sack by Morley and the convict, and carried across the market-place to the cesspool, where s ay it was accidentally discovcreu. Muir,g. the d Platts had proceeded to the house of Mr. Franks, the landlord of the Old Angel, and not many yards distant from the shambles, and told Mrs. Frank, at the time the corpse was lying in the shop, that he fully expected to meet Collis at the Angel, in order to settle their partnership accounts. This statement, made by Platts on Sunday, would make it appear that after the blow inflicted on the victim, he was strangled to prevent the moaning noise, and which noise, it may be remembered, was sworn to as having been heard by several persons on passing through the shambles on the Sunday evening of the murder, and which attracted the attention of the passers-by. The convict admitted that he then proceeded to rifle the dead body of his victim, and divested it of his shoes and part of the dress. Platts then went into lengthened details of the part he had sustained in the murder and the circumstances. After this confession the prisoner appeared more sociable in his manner, and conversed with the attendants. He was then, at his request, furnished with writing materials, and wrote the following letter to his mother:—  " Derby County Gaol, March 21, 1847. " My dear Mother, Sister, and Brothers,—With trembling, i rite these few lines to you—i hope you will not fret about your unfortunate son, for i hope we shall all meet in u better world than this ; i hope the Lord will forgive us all our sins ; i am shure he will if we due ask the Lord (jeus) jeues Criced our Savor dear mother ; i hope you will pray to the Lord to pardon your sins i am sure be will if you pray to heaven for pardon my dear sister remember what i say to you pray to heaven to pardon all your sins dont delay my dear Brother remember what i say dont delay pray to hevon to pardon all your sins; bles the Lord for it and i hope he will forgive me for i know we bay all to die therefore i will not lose no time i have praid nite and day to the Lord Jeseus our Savor to forgive me all my sins and to blot out all my old offences my dear mother pleas send word if you are coming to see me for I should like to see you all I am going to rite to my dear friend Mr. Hotham rite to me with speed pleas to show this letter to Mr. H. Ilotham and you will oblige your unfortunate son,  "