The Tamworth Examiner and Working Men's Journal. — 1875-04-03 (Tamworth, Staffordshire, England)

EXECUTION OF THE PURFLEET MURDERER. The execution of Richard Coate', aged 21, a private in the Royal Artillery, for the shocking murder of a girl named Alice Roughen, barely six years of age, the daughter of a private in the same regiment, took place on Monday morning within the Essex county gaol at Splingfield, near Chelmsford. The prisoner acted as schoolmaster at the barracks, and the unhappy child was one of his scholars. The character ot the crime was so atrocious, and created such a universal feeling of disgust and horror, that it appears that no efforts whatever have been made by any section of the community, by memorial or otherwise, to obtain a commutation of the capital punishment. The prisoner seems to have behaved very well since his conviction, and to have paid the greatest attention to the exhortations of the Rev. Mr. Hamilton, the chaplain of the prison, and be attended regularly at chapel. His mind seemed to have been greatly relieved after he made the confession. He has only been visited 4,y his father and mother. In conversations he had with the warders who had charge of him, he has stated that drink led him to the commission of the crime, and he on more than one oceasion said that for the last, two years he has felt that his heart was so hardened that he could do almost anything. The chaplain was constantly in attendance upon him, and thought that the prisoner was rally sorry for the crime he had committed. It appears to be very doubtfnl, however, whether he would ever have made a confession but for his mother having entreated him to do so, and her first letter to that effect did not seem to have any impression. She appears to have written him a second letter, earnestly entreating him to admit his crime if he were guilty, and this made the desired impression. Mr. Gepp, the acting under sheriff, accompanied by some of his officers, arrived at the prison a few minutes before eight o'clock, and soon after the prisoner was pinioned. He did not say a word while this operation was being performed, but appeared to be listening attentively to the ministrations of the chaplain. He walked to the place of eyeention with a firm step, and did not display the slightest trepidation : in fact, be carried out the intention he expressed after his trial—namely, to die like a soldier, or rather with the mirage a soldier should have to face his death. His executioner was Marwood, from Leicester. and, as usual, he gave the culprit a very long fall, nearly five feet, the effect being that when the platform was dropped, nothing but the head ot the culprit was visible, and his feet hearly touched the ground. Notwithstanding this condition of things. the culprit appeared to struggle for several seconds before life was extinct. At the moment of execution a black flag was hoisted, and the body, after hanging one hour, was cut down. In the course of the day an inquest was held upon it; but the proceedings were, of course, entirely formal. Although nothing connected with the execution could be seen from the outside, a good many persons of respectable appearence assembled dutside the entrance to the prison. No one was present at the execution but the representatives of the press, the officials of the sheriff, and the prison authorities.  rrince or rngiana, me nem to toe twin inrones 91 England and India who should fail in any of these respects will greatly disappoint the people. They may put up with a Governor-General who gives audiences in his shirt sleeves as an eccentricity in one whom they knew to be not deficient in the attributes and resources of power; but the Prince of Wales will be in their eyes a being as far superior to the Governor-General as that sublime personage is to the ordinary magistrate and collector. He cannot afford to dispense in his publie appearances with any point of ceremony, to omit any circumstance of grandeur