The Sun. — 1861-12-18 (London, England)

HARE, THR NOTORIOUS MURDERER -HOW AND WHERE HE DIED. ♦  The Canadian correspondent of the Feotsman gives the following narrative of William Hare, who was associated with Burke in the series of cold-blooded murders perpetrated in the West Port of Edinburgh in the year 1828 : About twelve or fourteen years ago, one of the most popular and best known men in Upper Canada (from whose lips I have the following story) was travelling in the stage in the township of Ekfrid, in the county of Middlesex, :C.W. In the vehicle with him were two persons residing in the neighbourhood. On entering into conversation with the one sitting next him, he discovered that he was the doctor of the district, and that he had graduated in Edinburgh. Being himself a native of your city, the conversation naturally turned on Edinburgh affairs, and the doctor having informed me that he had studied under Dr. Knox, whose name acquired an unenviable reputation in connection with Burke and Hare, the circumstances connected with the trial of these criminals were recalled and talked over. The doctor then said he presumed he was not aware that it was supposed that Hare was buried in the township, and on my informant having expressed considerable surprise and interest, heproceeded to relate the circumstances connected with his death. Several years before a man named Hare arrived with his wife in the district, and settled on a cleating removed a considerable distance fron., any of hivieighbours. Here he lived inoffensively for some years, and it was observed that as the settlements increased be removed further into the forest. Among the settlers who arrived from the old country, there was, a Scotchman, who brought with him a copy of a pamphlet containing an account of the trial of Burke. In this pamphlet there was a portrait of Hare, and also a minute description of his appearance and height. It was handed about from one farmer to another, and in the long cold nights of the Canadian winter, its contents were perused with much interest, not unmixed with horror. By and bye, some one began to imagine that he fancied he saw a striking resemblance to the portrait in their neighbour Hare, Another thought the description corresponded exactly with his appearance, and others, believing that his shy and retiring life must be the consequence of some great crimes, began to view him with suspicion. Soon suspicion became changed into a confirmed belief that their solitary neighbour was none other than the notorious Hare, and it was not long till he came to be shunned by the settlers, who regarded him with ill-concealed awe and aversion. The cause of the odium with which he was regarded was soon communicated to Hare, who, on learning it, went to the owner of the pamphlet and asked permission to read it. It was at once given him. He took it with him to his lonely clearing, and began to read it. Before ho finished it, however, he was seized with violent paroxysms of mental agony, and with fearful convulsions, He sent for a priest, but before his arrival he expired in dreadful torments. As Hare had pretended to be a Protestant, the neighbours considered the circumstance of his sending for a priest to be a confirmation of their suspicions. On his death some of them went to the house, and, having measured the body and compared the marks on it with the description giver? in the account of the trial, they found that they corresponded with it in every particular.