The Sun. — 1860-09-24 (London, England)

DOUBLE MURDER AND EXECUTION OF THE MURDERER.  George Waines, a native of Sherborne, England, was executed at Melbourne, Australia, on the 16th of July. The murderer was 37 years old, and sailed from Liverpool for Australia in the Duke of Richmond in the year 1853. His victims, Robt. Hunt and his wife, Mary Hunt, resided at a farm near Caster ton, in October, 1858. The prisoner's house and farm were about 200 yards or 300 yards distant Hunt and his wife were last seen at their hut on Monday, the 4th October, 1858, and Mary Hunt again on the evening of that day. Neither were seen afterwards. It appeared that Hunt, by an agreement dated sth May, 1858, had agreed to sell his farm, consisting of 40 acres, to the prisoner, for the sum of £139 155., payable by a bill of exchange at six months, which was duly given, and would arrive at maturity on the sth November, 185‘l, and it was alleged that the double murder was committed for the money in question. The prisoner, who confessed his crime, gave the following account of the murder :—" It was not done for the money, I had no call to do it for that ; it was done for Mrs. Hunt calling my wife a —. After I had paid Hunt all that was due to him he asked me if I would let them have the hut to live in for a fortnight. I told him I could not, as I had got a married couple coming the next day, and they would want to live in it. With that Mrs. Hunt spoke to me, and said, That's the doings of that at the Wannon. She knows that I want to stop in the hut until you come from Portland.' When she said that I was just going to the wood heap with the axe in my hand, and struck her over the head and she fell. Hunt was at the wood heap at the time, and took up a lump of wood and ran at me to strike me, but I struck him instead ; and that is the way they came by their death, which I afterwards was very sorry for; but I could not call back what was done. I thought once of confessing it : but I afterwards turned afraid of it, thinking I might be blamed and executed for it, as though I had done it wilfully. The murderer then buried the bodies of his victims, and it was eight months before any of the remains were found. At length some bones were discovered in the river. The doctors declared they were the remains of a female, and the prisoner was brought to trial for the murder of the woman, the evidence against him being principally his own confessions to different persons. After his conviction he declared that the bones were not those of Mrs, Hunt. In an interview with his counsel he stated that " some eight months after the murder and burial of the remains, he at midnight disinterred the body of Mary Hunt, and subjected it to toe operation of an enormous wood fire, and reduced the bones to ashes. This occupied some hours, at the expiration of which time there was but a solitary bone remaining, which Waines pulverised between his finger and thumb. Having thus destroyed every trace of Mary, he proceeded to the grave of John Hunt, whom he disinterred With the intention of burning his body also, but his nerves failed him, and he carried the bones, together with some remnants of clothing which still clung to the flesh, to the river Glenelg, and cast them into a water hole. The night being moonlight he perceived that they rose to the surface. He then tied them up in a bag with some earth and stones, and again threw them into the river. This time they sank, and were never again seen by mortal eye save his own, until they were found by the detective."  Whether the bones were those of the wife or husband the prisoner was rightly condemned, and suffered the extreme penalty of the law. Precisely at ten o'cloek, the sheriff, with the usual formalities, demanded the body of the convicted man, and Waiues, who from an early hour in the morning had been engaged in religious exercises with the chaplain of the gaol, the Rev. Mr. Stoddart, came forth from his cell. As the executioner commenced to pinion his arms a few tears witnessed the intensity of his feelings at the situation in which by his