The Northern Guardian. — 1896-05-16 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

THE STORY OF A GREAT CRIME THE PHCENIX PARK MURDERS. One of the most dramatic things in the May magazines is the concluding portion of " The Memories of Kilmainham Prison," wffich Mr Tighe Hopkins has contributed to the Windsor Magazine. Mr Hopkins recounts the story of the Phosnix Park tragedy, and embodies in his account a good many details which are not generally known concerning the murderers of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr Burke, their parts in the crime, and the means by which their guilt was brought home to them. He says :—" The murder had been carefully and most minutely planned, and the Pheeiaix Park had been selected as the scene. The Under Secretary has his official residence in the park, a little more than a mile from the main entrance. It is opposite to the Chief Secretary's lodge, and not far from the Viceregal lodge. The Invincibles were to wait in the I park for Mr Burke, who usually walked or took a hackney car to his house on leaving his office in the castle. Eleven of them in all! were under orders for the park, but the actual business of the assassination was in the hands of the four whom Kavanagh was to drive on his outside car. Since midday they had been heartening themselves with whisky, and were all more or less drunk at the hour of starting. All the car party were armed with knives. Following the car was I the cab driven by Fitzharris (` Skin the Goat '), in which were Dan Curley, M. Fagan and Joe ' Hanlon, each furnished with a loaded revolver. Carey and James Smith, who completed the band, were already on the scene. Smith's presence was necessary for a singular reason. He, and he alone of the party, Wall able to identify Mr Burke. These men, it is to be remarked, had nothing in the nature of a private wrong to avenge. Not a man amangst them had ever in his lifetime suffered, directly or indirectly, the very smallest injustice at the hands of Mr Burke. To one and all of them he was a name and nothing more. Smith excepted, they were ignorant even of his. appearance. At about five minutes past seven a roan was seen to alight from an outside car just within the park gates. ' 'Tits Burke,' Smith said to Carey. Which of them?' asked Carey, fur the one which had quitted the car had stopped to apt ak to another man on the footpath. Him that's afther gettin' down,' said Smith. The man in gray.' !kir Burke, recognising Lord Frederick Cavendish, who was going on foot to his new home in the park, had dismissed his Car, and the two men set out to walk together. Carey signalled Kavanagh with his handkerchief, and as the car came up gave the word to Brady, the Hercules of the party, who it was well understood was to do the deed alone. " ' Mind the man in gray,' said Carey. None of them knew Lord Frederick Cavendish. Carey and Smith advanced to meet Mr Burke and Lord Frederick, Brady walking on the inside of the path opposite to Mr Burke. At the instant of meeting Brady stooped as if to tie his shoe ; then, rising suddenly, gripped Mr Burke by the waist, swung him round, and dealt him one terrific How in the back. The herculean Brady did his work well and quickly, for Lord Frederick was in the death throes now. His death he owed to the firm blue blood in him. It was not intended to kill him, but he had turned instantly to defend his companion (with an umbrella), and Brady, Burke being down, grappled with Lord Frederick and struck him deep in the breast under the left clavicle. One blow apiece sufficed Through an opening in the trees Lord Spencer, standing with his secretary in a window of toe Vicere4al Lodge, had watched the scuffle on the path and sent the secretary to inquire what, it was. Kavanagh, waiting quietly with the car turned in the direction in which the fight was to be, kept flicking his little brown mare with the whip to heat her for the start. The four sprang on the car, Kavanagh let out the reins, and the mare went away at the gallop."