The Sun. — 1829-03-25 (London, England)

THE EXECUTION.  LIMERICK, MARCU 21.—At three o'clock yesterday the sentence of the law was executed upon this unhappy man, who was convicted of one of the most foul and atrocious murders which the annals of crime record. Having married against the consent of his friends, and particularly his mother, from whom he occasionally received pecuniary ass sistance, to please them, and influenced by the mere hopes of some paltry gain, he wrought. up his mind to that state of heartless atrocity, in which he resolved upon and perpetrated the death of his wife, a young and beautiful creature, as represented by all the witnesses, to whom he had been united but five weeks, and whom he bad wooed for five years.— The deed, horrible as it is in itself, was accompanied by every circumstance of aggravation which could heighten it into demoniac wickedness. It is now ascertained that before they set out on their journey he made her furnish herself with a pair of scissors, which was to be the instrument of her own destruction. After he had knocked her down on the road with a blow of a stone, he -seized the scissors, and with it tore open the throat, almost from ear to ear. While in this state, the blood gushing out, it is supposed,ln order to account for the quantity of blood with which his clothes were steeped, that he took her up in his arms and carried her from the road into the fields, and laid her down between the two rocks where she was found. Not believing the work of destruction fully done, here again he inflicted innumerable wounds on her head with stones, and knocked out her teeth with the heel of his shoe. The guilt of even one human being in such a crime is almost too much for humanity to credit; but it is not the less true that the monster who first insinuated the commission of this revolting deed was the mother of this man. This has been admitted by her friends, and hinted at by the unfortunate man himself ; and the only cause was a deadly hatred, produced by his not having received a fortune with her. Up to the moment he ceased to exist, he remained the same hardened criminal which he appeared during the progress of the trial. A Catholic Clergyman has been incessantly with him, without being able to impress upon him the necessity of turning his attention to another world, and endeavouring to obtain forgiveness by sincere contrition. He remained impenetrable to the consolation of religion, and refused to make any disclosure, lest it should implii• ate home,would suffer he to said,ascend o enabledn him I he Scaffold with firmness, in front of which several thousand persons were assembled, the majority of whom were women. Not the least sympathy was manifested by the crowd, all being sensible of the jus;ic.- with which he suffered. The Priest haying asc,nded the scaffold with him, after some resistow, got him upon his knees by force; but he leaped tip, and refused spiritual comfort, even at that awf .1 moment. In an instant after he was no more. Life left him without a struggle. His body was immediately delivered over to the surgeons. This scene was followed by one not creditable to the country, and disgraceful to the police officers of the district. After the execution, the hangman, a miserable and ghastly wretch, was placed on a car, and, guarded by a body of police, was carried from the county to the city gaol, being from one extremity of the town to the other. Such an exhibition was indecent and disrespectful to the inhabitants, as well as imprudent, as it might possibly lead to outrage, such a person being an object of great hatred amongst the lower classes. Night would have answered the purpose much better.