The Sun. — 1864-08-06 (London, England)

EXEGIIT.ION AT /1-YLES-131raY.  I Yesterday morning William John Stevens was executed iu trent of the Bucks County Gaol, at Aylesbury, /or the wilful murder of Annie Leeson at Buckingham. It will ho remembered that Stevens was payia his addresses to the deceased, that she repelled his advances, and that in a fit of jealousy he cut her throat with a razor, and then cut his own throat. The girl died a few minutes oftai-vends, but Stevens subsequently recovered. He had, how ever, to be constantly watched, as he had intimated that if the police officers would leave him alone for five minutes he would save them all further trouble. At his trial, Baron Bram • well directed the jury that as there were than five witnesses who testified to previous threats, and the prisoner's after confession of his intention, they could return no other verdict than that of wilful murder, which they accordingly did. The learned judge then, without comment, sentenced the prisoner to death. In the interval which elapsed between his sentence and Ms execution, Stevens has betrayed on the whole a rather sullen demeanour, speaking bat seldom, and then only in reply to questions from the gaol officials. At first he refused to listen to the exhortations of the chaplain, bat latterly he became more attentive to them. He did not make any writken confession, but he frequently referred to his crime in terms of the greatest apparent sorrow, and acknowledged the enormity of his offence and the justice of his sentence. On the day before his execution he said to his father and sister, at their parting interview, that he was quite prepared to die, and that he had never been so "happy" as he had been far the last day or so. This parting interview was a brief but deeply affecting one. His disconsolate mother, although in Aylesbury, did not see him, partly, we understand, at his own wish, that she might be spared the agony of a parting scene. The preparations for the execution were completed on Thursday evening. No barriers were placed on the road in front of the gaol to lessen the crush of the crowd ; but barricades were fixed in front of the union workhouse, which is directly opposite to the gaol, on the brow of the hill, and no one was admitted on the premises of the guardians except the reporters, though many earnest applications to that effect had been made to Mr George, the master. The scaffold was fixed on the fiat top of the large and lofty main archway of the gaol, between the governor's and chaplain's residences, which forms, as it were, wings to its front. The crowd, which began to assemble very early, was generally very orderly. Several were heard to say that they had walked overnight from Buckingham (the scene of the murder). It is calculated that from 6,000 to 7,000 persons were present. Shortly before the appointed hour, 8 o'clock, the under sheriff, Mr R. B. Baynes, arrived, and was received by Mr H. Shirreffs, governor of the gaol: the Rev. Mr Rawson, the chaplain, and by other prison officials, and as the time of execution rapidly approached, the under sheriff, governor, chaplain, and other authorities proceeded to the condemned cell, where the culprit was found perfectly resigned to his fate. The prisoner was pinioned, and the procession formed. A few hisses were raised in the crowd when Stevens came forward and stood beneath the drop. Of these, however, he took very little notice. Calcraft at once proceeded to his task. As Stevens was a slightly built man, there were a few muscular convulsions of the limbs, but in a moment or two these ceased. The body was cut down after the lapse of an hour and placed in a shell, and then buried within the precincts of the gaol, by the side of same place. Moses Hatto, the only criminal previously hanged at the