The Sun. — 1869-01-06 (London, England)

FLOGGING GAROTTERS.  Three men, who had been convicted at the Leeds gaol delivery of garotte robberies, received twenty-five lashes each with the cat-o'nine-tails in the central hall of the borough gaol, Leeds, on Tuesday afternoon. A new triangle, much stronger than the one hitherto in use, was employed, and the prisoners were secured to it so firmly that the struggles of two of them scarcely availed to cause the least vibration of the solid timbers. The punishment was inflicted by two of the gaolers. There were present the governor, the surgeon and his assistant, the town clerk of Leeds, three of the borough prosecutors, several representatives of the press, and one or two private persons, besides about a dozen of the more refractory among the ordinary prisoners, who by way of warning were made close spectators of the scene. The oldest delinquent was brought out first to the triangle. He had had no previous notice that the time had arrived, which for more than a fortnight he must have been gloomily anticipating. His name was John Edwards, aged 36, who, along with Solomon Robinson, aged 19, had been convicted of seizing David Naylor by the throat in a passage off East-street, Leeds, and robbing him of six shillings. Besides flogging, each was sentenced by Mr. Justice Brett to seven years' penal servitude. He stripped to the waist coolly, and with no outward sign of dread. Having been bound band and foot, the first and second stripes alighted close to the neck, and after receiving the second, Edwards, with wonderful coolness, exclaimed, "Don't flog me on the head." The stripes afterwards fell right between the shoulders and the middle of the back. The fourth elicited a scream of " Oh !" and dreadful groans and howling proceeded from the wretched man until he had received seventeen of the whole twenty-five lashes. At the end of twelve strokes a second goaler handled the cat. For the last half dozen lashes he was perfectly quiet, and when loosed from his bonds be walked firmly back to his cell. Joseph Robinson was the next delinquent brought to the whipping-post. He was full of fear from the first. He had been one of two men who, at Bradford, had roughly used David Popplewell, and robbed him of a silver watch. He was sentenced by Mr. Justice Brett to ten years' penal servitude, as well as this whipping, having before been convicted of a burglary and several minor offences. His cries of pain were soon loud and frequent. Not only did he groan deeply, but he exclaimed despairingly, " Stop off," " Murder," " Pull me off," and more frequently than anything else his plea for mercy was, " I'll never do it again." He showed throughout more feeling than either of his fellow-garotters. When he was unloosed he fell into the arms of the attendants, and crawled back to his cell. The next prisoner was, from the callous way in which he received his punishment, quite a contrast to the other two. It was Solomon Robinson, the accomplice of Edwards, the first man who was subjected to this punishment. It was expected of him that he would be hardened where others had writhed and screamed through unutterable torture, and he did not disappoint that expectation. He went to the fearful ordeal with evident determination to put on an appearance of bravado. Though the youngest of the victims, he was infinitely the most self-possessed. He never uttered a sound from his lips from the descent of the first stroke to the last. When liberated from the triangle he went away with considerable buoyancy. At his trial, when he heard the sentence of seven years' penal servitude, he shouted out, " You'd better put seven to it, and that'll make fourteen, and I hope the cat will kill you."