The Sun. — 1845-10-02 (London, England)

EXECUTION AT GENOA. Went to the mole, wishing to see what preparations had been made for the execution, but was refused admittance at the gates. I Jinn took a boat awl. went on board the Emulous, an English schooner, lying near the mole, and at a short distance from the gtilows. About noon the two criinnals arrived on foot, escorted by a procession of officers of Justice, ~oaks, and others, with a banner, crucifix, &c. The gallows was very low, and had no drop nor z'oige, but-astrtmg.wide ls.ddor was placed against lhe cross-beam. The executioner was a tall, powerful man, very well anti neatly dressed, with his hair n:cely arranged, appearing somewhat like a respectable servant in half livery. Be mounted the ladder first, ai:d one of the criminals, apparently without any compulsion, followed behind hiss, dressed in shabby, dirty clothes, with so asp or other covering for his h.md (Sr face. Ilis arms wer.3 closely pinioned to his side. When the executioner had attached the halter, previously placed round the criminal's neck, to the hook, with a sudden thrust, ke pushed him off the ladder, arid supporting himself by the beam he stood on the neck and shoulders of his victim, jumping, stamping, and bending the head sideways as much as possible, whila one or two assistants below pulled forcibly at his legs. . The wretched man appeared to be quite dead in less than hale a minute. The execution of the second criminal, wlo was treated in the same manner, was a still more Lorrid spectacle, for he was dragged up ;he ladder, st 4 by step, by main force, by the execmiontr and his men ; and his terror must have belt inereasud, if possible, by seeing the ghastly corpse of his corn-onion dangling above. him, In another minute he was himself a corpse hanging by his side. A handsome well-fed priest then mounted the ladder, and made a short address to the spectators, exhorting theta (as I was informed, for I was at toe great a•distance to hear his words) to take warning by the fate of the criminals. Not more than 200 or 300 persons were admitted on the mole. The greater part of the spectators were in boats, or in the vessels in the harbour, and among them all I could not see more than about, twenty women, who were chiefly quite of the lower orders. The assembly behaved quietly, but showed great indifference, and even levity. The bodies of the criminals remained on the gallows till half-past five in the alternoon. and the spot was visited by thousands. mole being open to the public as usual. They were natives of Savona. They had been notoriously bail characters, and one of them had been a thief from the age of five years, at which time he was in the habit of cutting off the leaden weights from the fishermen's nets when they were spread out to dry on the shore. The crime for which they suffered was a murder of the worst description. They had gone to the house of a priest in Genoa, and finding from the servant that her master was out, and would not return for some time, they murdered her by strangling her with their own hands; after which they had brutally disfigured the body. They had then plundered the house of some plate and other articles of value. They both made a confession of their guilt. This method of executing crimitlats, though really quite as humane as that adopted ir..-eugland,and perhaps more so, appears very barbarous and uncivilised, and the spectacle is rendered infinitely more horrid by the face being exposed. Tice rolling eyes, the protruded tongue, the features, purple and distorted in the death agony of strangulation, and with that hideous expression upon them becoming gradually fixed and rigid, form a spectacle, the horrors of which can neither be described by those who have witnessed it, nor conceived by those who have not. But the advocates for capital punishments and public executions say that the example is useful in deterring others from committing crime. If so, the Genoese are more rational than the English, because, without increasing the sufferings of the criminal, they make that example as effective and horrible as possible. And the. address of the priest, standing on the ladder by the side of the scarcely lifeless bodies, and speaking to an assembler,r every individual of which, however. depraved, a short time at least, be in a serious mood, must,miglt.be d impressive made, if well managed, a veryemnanaEn ye Witness.) part of this dreadful ceremony.--(From .