The Cotton Factory Times. — 1887-06-03 (Manchester, Greater Manchester, England)

MURDERER AT STRANGEWAYS. —The sentence of death passed on Walter Wood, an engine fitter, at the Manchester Assizes on the 9th inst., for the murder of his wife Emma Wood at Huntley Brook, near Bury, on the 17th February last, was carried into effect on Monday, in her Majesty's Prison. Strangeways. The executioner, James Perry, at three minutes to eight o'clock, was summoned to the cell. He at once adjusted the pinioning straps around Wood's chest and arms, the condemned man all the while repeating with marked fervour the responses to the chaplain's exhortations. A procession was then formed, and a move was made towards the scaffold, which lay about thirty yard distant, at the end of the corridor into which the small group of people emerged from the pinioning room. The chaplain led the way, reading the Service for the Burial of the Dead. Then came two warders, escirting the convict, behind whom walked Berry. The Governor of the gaol, Major Preston; the Acting Under Sheriff (Mr. Henry L. Wright, of Messrs, Wilson, Deacon, Weight, and Wilson); Chief Warder S. Denbow ; Dr. Braddon and Dr. Paton, the gaol surgeon and his assistant respectively; and other warders closed the file. Outside, in the prison yard. one or twt more officials, including Deputy Chief Warder Moores, were in waiting with half•a-dozen representatives of the press. At about a minute to eight o'clock these latter were made aware of the approaching tragedy by hearing the sound of Mr. Dreaper's voice and the slow footsteps of those accompanying the culprit. In a few seconds more the head of the melancholy procession appeared in view, and Wood, who was dressed in the same shabby suit of black which he wore at the trial, brightened a little by a white shirt front crossed by a neatly arranged black tie, took his stand at once beneath the black beam from which the rope, attached in many secure folds, was depending. The man bore himself with tolerable firmness, and his deep voice did not falter as he repeated, constantly, the responses, "Lord, have mercy upon me," "Christ have mercy upon me." After reaching the scaffold he looked neither to right nor left, but gazed intently upon the high wall which, at a distance of 20 feet, rose between him and the court in which he saw for the last time the gathering of his fellowmen. Berry quickly adjusted the fastening around his ankles, and drawing the white cap from his pocket, covered Wood's head, immediately after fixing the noose around his neck. Mr. Dreaper continued his prayer for the dying man, and from beneath tne cap came Wood's more indistinct reply, "Lord have mercy upon me; Lord receive me." Promptly at eight o'clock, and in less than a minute after the procession had reached the open air, the drop fell. Wood, who weighed eleven stones, and Was of medium height, was given a fall of 5 feet six inches, and this was sufficient to cause death instantaneously. The body swung hal round once or twice, but there was net the slightest muscular movement or quiver. At the same moment as the bolt was drawn a warder in an upper ;part of the adjoining block of buildings ran up the black flag, which conveyed to those outside the prison the intelligence that Walter Wood had ceased to exist. The body was lelt hanging for an hour, and was then takeu down, laid in a coffin, and placed in a room to await inspection by the jury who had been summoned to attend the euttomery i. onixY.